"My father was an avant-garde filmmaker, very much an intellectual. "I’ve been writing my whole life," Danielewski says, on the phone from his home in California. Usually the appearance of a first novel is the public culmination of a long, silent apprenticeship. Straightforward this book isn’t, but it is amusing, challenging, and terrifying. Danielewski’s," with the title page following: " House of Leaves, by Zampano, with Introduction and Notes by Johnny Truant." And the whole thing is a commentary on a homemade film documentary by a man named Navidson. The author’s name doesn’t even appear on the title page it’s opposite it, reading "Mark Z. For one thing, he invents several layers of narrators.
Like Joyce and Proust, Danielewski isn’t rejecting narration as much as customizing and turbo-charging it. As it should be in such a nightmarish fantasy, what appears to be a barrier is actually a gateway.
While these narrative games are all good fun, House of Leaves adds up to more than playfulness. The book ends with an alphabetical index to, apparently, every major word in the entire text. Toward the back there is a collection of quotations, including a passage from Homer in five different languages. One page consists of three measures of music. Remarks by various narrators and commentators appear in different typefaces there are hundreds of sly footnotes on some pages the text runs sideways or at an angle and occasionally there’s only a word or two on a page. At first glance, it seems to reject most precepts of narrative structure. It’s difficult to imagine a more original and distinctive novel than his House of Leaves. That's a lot of Stephen King! In past years, we've resisted giving authors more than one slot on the list (though we made an exception for Nora Roberts during the 2015 romance poll - and she's basically the Stephen King of romance.) In the end, we decided that since so much classic horror is in short story format, we would allow authors one novel and one short story if necessary.With so many competitors out there, an aspiring novelist needs a strong talent or an original slant to rise above the hoard. I'd be hiding under the bed shuddering without their help.Īnd a word about Stephen King: Out of almost 7,000 nominations you sent in, 1,023 of them were for the modern master of horror. Readers did nominate them, but the judges felt uncomfortable debating the inclusion of their own work - so it's up to me to tell you to find and read their excellent books! I personally, as a gigantic horror wuss, owe a debt of gratitude to this year's judges, particularly Hendrix, for their help writing summaries for all the list entries. One thing you won't see on the list is any work from this year's judges, Stephen Graham Jones, Ruthanna Emrys, Tananarive Due and Grady Hendrix. 100 Best Books Happy Ever After: 100 Swoon-Worthy Romances
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