Liminal emotions | Teen Ink

Liminal emotions

January 17, 2024
By Owan BRONZE, Hartland, Wisconsin
Owan BRONZE, Hartland, Wisconsin
2 articles 0 photos 0 comments

The most recent book I've read is The House of Leaves. This book is one of the most unique things I've read. A basic summary would be that our main character one night gets a call from a friend that his Neighbor Zampanó died and is giving away his stuff. From the wreck of an apartment he gets a Zampanó journal which contains highly detailed reviews of the documentary, the Navidson record, which never existed . Much like the documentary about a home that endlessly grows in size and becomes a maze, so does the narrator's life. The author utilizes many different styles of writing to change the perspectives from Zampanó the pretentious critic to our narrator a druggie and club goer. The further you go into this book the further you get into the labyrinth of the documentary learning about people who never existed and their story of lost love and family. The use of real sources but fake quotes adds this real aspect as if you are in the shoes of the narrator spiraling down alongside them. This book can be decisive as the author Danielewski really leans into this pretentious style for Zampanó, going as far to write about complex acoustic and quantum physics equations to explain this ever growing house which took me out of the book a couple of times. I feel he really nails the stylistic choices to almost turn the book itself into a labyrinth Like using   

                                                   

                           big spaces


                 to convey the depth of the house and even Twisting words into a spiral to convey the feeling of getting lost yourself within the house.

But besides the various ways he plays with space, shape, and direction of the words he also manages to tell two compelling stories within the book. One of David and rekindling the love of his marriage and also making amends with his brother. Danielewski is good at using the environment to exaggerate these emotions using the cold and lifeless walls to describe David's marriage and it really makes you feel bad for his wife. He also tells the story of the narrator, a down on his luck guy who gets lost in trying to finish Zampanós work and goes on a downward spiral and meets the same fate as the author before. You end up just feeling pity for the narrator as he uses drugs to avoid his mental issues and that this book is tearing him apart but he has nothing left but the book. It makes for some really impactful chapters when he doesn’t change. This is all to relay that David Navidson is the narrator, not the same people but although they live completely different lives this house brings out the same loneliness and unwillingness to change and they don’t get out until it's too late. This book is a strong recommendation from me with its compelling characters and metaphors to the book itself being like a labyrinth it really sucks you into this whole story. 


The author's comments:

Check out the book it's cool.


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