3rd August 2006, 10:04 PM
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.
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.
YOU CANNOT HIDE FOREVER
WE STAND AT THE DOOR
WE STAND AT THE DOOR