I first saw House of Leaves at a Waldenbooks a year or so ago, and was interested in all the typographical oddites in the book–there were pages that were typed upside down, letters scattered all over the pages, boxes of text inside the text, and footnotes that go on for pages. I was interested, but not enough to buy it. Then, last fall, when I went to a meeting of a book group with Russet Vixen, she told me more about the book and I got even more interested. But at the same time, I was half afraid to try and read it because Vixen told me that she got to the point where she could only read it during broad daylight. I normally don’t read scary books because I don’t like being scared–but Vixen sold the psychological side of it so well that I wanted to at least take a whack at reading the book.
So, here I am, three chapters in and it’s like The Blair Witch Project crossed with The Amityville Horror, and written by Laurence Sterne. That’s the only way I can describe it. The actual content of the book is divided in two parts. The first part is apparently a piece on nonfiction about a series of documentaries about a very disturbing house. The second part is interlaced with the first at consisted of lengthy annotations by the man who found the nonfiction part. It’s not distracting (most of the time), but at times the book seems like its a race between the two parts to see who wigs out first.
While I am hooked enough that I want to continue, I am worried that I will freak me out to the point that I have to start reading light comedy to get back to normal like I did while I read The Stand.
We’ll see what happens.