How many stories are there in the book? Do you feel like they interweave into one or two plots?

I would say about three, four if you count letters from Johnny Truant's mother. I would say one out of three or four have a happy ending...the other two main characters are probably still lost in that expanding/contracting room. Also I find it surprising that he would not quote Stephen King, "sometimes you could get lost in there." whenever Stephen King talks about writing stories. I mean a house of leaves could mean a book with leaves meaning pages. Brillant authors, very brillant, both Mark and Stephen.

Patrick Kilgallon wrote:


Very clever Patrick! Something like a house of cards.

I'm picking up my copy tomorrow. Looking forward to a great discussion.
I am so glad your volunteered to be the discussion leader Krysondra, I was going to nominate you and break out the bouncing smiley faces, but you beat me to it.

I think there's only one story, but like the configuration of the novel it is constantly changing. Watch how the authors of each narrative and the characters within them take on similar characteristics. And yet they remain separate entities traversing the nothingness inside the changing house. Are they the same? Or are they different?

Any way you look at it, the interweaving of plots is inevitable. Just the layout of each page forces the reader to create a single story out of the provided material.

Well, it's been a couple years since I last read this book. I may have a different opinion after reading it again. We'll see.

That's an interesting point of view, jamfiction. Let's see who else agrees with you as the reading continues. I personally think that there are several stories woven together, but I could be wrong. We'll see.

I’ve only read up to and including Chapter V (mostly.) So, my view may be clouded. However, it seems to me that up to this point there are three story-plot lines in play. There is the back story (Navidson), the present story (Zampano) and the tangential story (Johnny Truant). Truant’s story has yet to converge, but I fully expect that it will at some point. There may also be other stories presented later, but I am not currently aware of them.

Also, in respect to Danielewski’s apparent unwillingness to quote Stephen King, I think we have a case of that natural and human thing in which we tolerate a love/hate relationship to authors we enjoy and respect. In seeming not to want to give Stephen King any press, he’s done quite the opposite. He’s tantalized our imaginations and our curiosity concerning himself and King and drawn on the sorts of things we expect from him (possibly as a diversion.) Sometimes it is in what isn’t said that we find meaning.

Odd Greg -

Why do you feel that Stephen King has (by not having been) been drawn into the book?

I would think that I’d have an answer to that question on the tip of my tongue. Oddly, I do not. Probably because I have my doubts that the tiny mention of King (by reference) has anything further to do with the book - other than by tangent (and even that in the extreme.)



The above review does bring Stephen King into relation with House of Leaves, but is entirely meta information.

Mind you, it’s a little tantalizing to imagine - in keeping with the notion that everything in the end may only exist in Truant’s mind - that perhaps Danielewski is a figment of Stephen King’s mind. Somehow, the idea of a novel extended further into the real world in that manner is deliciously mind-blowing.

However, my honest reply to your question is that I don’t know why I think that. It was a thought experiment - possibly without foundation.