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A review by n8hanson
House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski
3.0
An intriguing premise and structure that nearly suffocates under the author's intellectual braggadocio. Admirable experimentation, execrable self-discipline. Much of the time, too clever for its own good, and too in love with itself to know when to stop.
At its best, a literary matryoshka doll of unreliable narrators and references, where prose, plot, and ergodic structure evoke semiotic mystery and psychological terror.
At its worst, postmodernist 'horror' by an overeducated beatnik who read too much Hunter S. Thompson. The kind of guy you least want to get cornered by late in a party, who's okay in small doses but right now is too drunk to check his narcissism while he talks at you.
At its best, a literary matryoshka doll of unreliable narrators and references, where prose, plot, and ergodic structure evoke semiotic mystery and psychological terror.
At its worst, postmodernist 'horror' by an overeducated beatnik who read too much Hunter S. Thompson. The kind of guy you least want to get cornered by late in a party, who's okay in small doses but right now is too drunk to check his narcissism while he talks at you.