IdleRich
IdleRich
Anyone read this? What do you reckon? (Although if you do say anything don't give the end away 'cause I started it on Friday and I'm only about half way through.)
For those who don't know it's a peculiar (you might say experimental) book that purports to be a compendium of notes by a narrator called Johnny Truant compiled by some unknown editors after he disappeared.
This Johnny Truant describes finding a manuscript in the house of a dead man and he himself reproduces that manuscript which makes up the bulk of the book. The manuscript itself is presented as a critical treatise on a film called The Navidson Record (which according to JT he has not been able to track down despite extensive research and he has therefore concluded does not exist).
The narrative proceeds as though you are reading the manuscript which has many footnotes supplied either by its author, by JT or by the editors. These footnotes in turn link to other footnotes or appendices and at times the text is written upside down, backwards or in little boxes. This is what I mean by the book being peculiar.
From the start the book has a slightly creepy air as JT alludes to terrible things that have happened to him after finding the manuscript. The author of that manuscript also appears to be scared by something at times and may have come to a sticky end. The film that is crtiqued and which appears to be the main source of this fear is about a family who move into a new house, they go away for a weekend and when they return they discover a mysterious doorway has appeared between their bedroom and their children's room. To investigate this they buy plans of the house and while taking measurements they discover that the house is bigger inside than out. Later on another doorway appears leading to a corridor and a mysterious space. The family get some experts and explore the space.
Something seems to be very wrong about it and there are constant allusions to something bad that seems to have happened and leaked out into the life of the man who wrote the critique and then into the life of Johnny Truant as he reads that critique (JT is slowly getting weirder and weirder, becoming obsessed by the book, forgetting to go to work and finally being scared of going outside) the implication is that ultimately this will happen to you (the reader).
Anyway, it's great stuff so far but I would be interested to know what anyone else thinks
More info here
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_of_leaves
For those who don't know it's a peculiar (you might say experimental) book that purports to be a compendium of notes by a narrator called Johnny Truant compiled by some unknown editors after he disappeared.
This Johnny Truant describes finding a manuscript in the house of a dead man and he himself reproduces that manuscript which makes up the bulk of the book. The manuscript itself is presented as a critical treatise on a film called The Navidson Record (which according to JT he has not been able to track down despite extensive research and he has therefore concluded does not exist).
The narrative proceeds as though you are reading the manuscript which has many footnotes supplied either by its author, by JT or by the editors. These footnotes in turn link to other footnotes or appendices and at times the text is written upside down, backwards or in little boxes. This is what I mean by the book being peculiar.
From the start the book has a slightly creepy air as JT alludes to terrible things that have happened to him after finding the manuscript. The author of that manuscript also appears to be scared by something at times and may have come to a sticky end. The film that is crtiqued and which appears to be the main source of this fear is about a family who move into a new house, they go away for a weekend and when they return they discover a mysterious doorway has appeared between their bedroom and their children's room. To investigate this they buy plans of the house and while taking measurements they discover that the house is bigger inside than out. Later on another doorway appears leading to a corridor and a mysterious space. The family get some experts and explore the space.
Something seems to be very wrong about it and there are constant allusions to something bad that seems to have happened and leaked out into the life of the man who wrote the critique and then into the life of Johnny Truant as he reads that critique (JT is slowly getting weirder and weirder, becoming obsessed by the book, forgetting to go to work and finally being scared of going outside) the implication is that ultimately this will happen to you (the reader).
Anyway, it's great stuff so far but I would be interested to know what anyone else thinks
More info here
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_of_leaves
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