Tendo City

Has anyone read Mark Z. Danielewski's debut novel?

It's been out for years, but I only recently picked it up, after hearing some trusted people give it rave reviews. So far, I totally agree with them. I'm about 300 pages in (out of around 700), and so far I have to consider it one of the most thoroughly engrossing novels I've ever read, and I have the feeling that by the time I finish, it may well be one of my all-time favorites.

The book is a multi-layered narrative about a man named Johnny Truant, who finds a manuscript written by a blind man named Zampano. The manuscript is an analysis of a documentary made by a photographer named Will Navidson, who purchases a house in rural Virginia, hoping the change of scenery will improve his family life. Instead, after returning from a vacation, he finds that the house has a room that wasn't there earlier, and when he explores the new room, he finds that it leads to a spiral staircase, which leads to a labyrinth that at times seems immeasurably large, and at others impossibly small. The writing style involves you as you read, using many neat tricks to make you feel the story in a different way. The narrative shifts back and forth between Zampano's narrative of The Navidson Record, and Truant's slide into insanity as he begins to uncover the mysteries contained within the narrative about the house and its impossible secrets.

So far, I'm completely gripped. I haven't enjoyed a book this much in a very long time.

This is an amazing book.

I've heard good things about it. I'd be up for reading it.

Why did you font color the word "house"? What is this, Zelda? House is an important clue?

I think he searched for "house" and linked to that instead of the normal thread link. When you search in the forums in highlights the search term within the thread.

Except the link there doesns't show the highlight tag, and Weltall did it too in his opening post here (in fact that's what I was referring to).

Okay!

Don't tell them that, Ryan! Be criptic and say that the book holds all the answers!

Lemme guess, the book does things like color text oddly at certain parts, maybe switching fonts, and maybe including one really big word on one page, or maybe if they are REALLY willing to have cost, they do thigns like have a massive front cover and a microscopic back cover and pages cut into random shapes throughout the book?

More like this actually:

So it is crazy go nuts. Just as I predicted! You owe me... something.

Did that get typed the old fasioned steel letter on page way? I would imagine that could take a while... I think modern day printers are probably best equipped to do a job like that.