the book is called House of Leaves

[Guest guest]

has anyone read this book? It is supposed to be disturbing because

you really can't tell what is going on, maybe someday I'll get up

the nerve.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_of_Leaves

" It contains copious footnotes, many of which contain footnotes

themselves, and some of which reference books that do not exist.[1]

Some pages contain only a few words or lines of text, arranged in

strange ways to mirror the events in the story, often creating

(paradoxically) both an agoraphobic and a claustrophobic effect. The

novel is also distinctive for its multiple narrators, who interact

with each other throughout the story in disorienting and elaborate

ways. "

" Upon returning from a trip to Seattle, the Navidson family

discovers a change in their home. A closet-like space shut behind an

undecorated door appears inexplicably where previously there was

only a blank wall. A second door appears at the end of the closet,

leading to the children's room. As Navidson investigates this

phenomenon, he finds that the internal measurements of the house are

somehow larger than external measurements. Initially there is less

than an inch of difference, but as time passes the interior of the

house is found to be seemingly expanding, while maintaining the same

exterior proportions. A third change asserts itself: a dark, cold

hallway in their living room wall that, according to the laws of

physics, should extend out into their yard, but doesn't. Navidson

films this strange place, looping around the house to show where the

space should be and clearly is not. The fictional filming of this

anomaly comes to be referred to as " The Five and a Half Minute

Hallway " . This hallway leads to a maze-like complex, starting with a

large room (the " Anteroom " ), which in turn leads to a truly enormous

space (the " Great Hall " ), a room primarily distinguished by an

enormous spiral staircase which appears, when viewed from the

landing, to spiral down without end. There is also a multitude of

corridors and rooms leading off from each passage. All of these

rooms and hallways are completely unlit and featureless, consisting

of smooth ash-grey walls, floors, and ceilings. The only sound

disturbing the perfect silence of the hallways is a periodic low

growl, the source of which is never fully explained, although an

academic source " quoted " in the book hypothesizes that the growl is

created by the frequent re-shaping of the house.

There is some discrepancy as to where " The Five and a Half Minute

Hallway " appears. It is quoted by different characters at different

times to have been located in each of the cardinal directions. This

first happens when Zampanò writes that the hallway is in the western

wall (House of Leaves 57), directly contradicting an earlier page

where the hallway is mentioned to be in the northern wall (House of

Leaves 4). ny's footnotes point out the contradiction.

Navidson, along with his brother Tom and some colleagues, feel

compelled to explore, photograph, and videotape the house's

seemingly endless series of passages, eventually driving various

characters to insanity, murder and death. Ultimately, Will releases

what has been recorded and edited as The Navidson Record. "

I don't know if it was the authors intent but it sounds so much to

me like childhood and memory, having all these memories that you

clearly recall, of terrible and painful things, and then being told

they don't exist. Sometimes I am not sure how aware these authors

are of what they are portraying (like in Kafka...the Metamorphosis

is the perfect description of the scapegoated child's emotional

experience, but does he realize it?) but this review seems to me to

be as if the physical house itself takes on all the lies and denial

of a dysfunctional family and the memories that no one wants to

claime.