House of Leaves

I had heard good things about House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski, but was unsure about giving it a try, since I'm not really into horror and it's so expensive! But lots of reviews said it wasn't really scary, and my birthday was coming up, so I requested the colour hardback edition as a present and dived in while on holiday last week.

And wow - what a book!

I didn't love everything about it, but I did find it very compelling and very impressive.

There are five layers of storytelling. The main narrative is presented as a thesis analysing a documentary film (so that's two). Then there are three sets of footnotes - one by the author of the thesis, one which creates a lengthy secondary narrative by someone reading the thesis, and one by editors supposedly putting the whole thing together into one book.

The main narrative where Zampano describes and analyses the documentary was definitely my favourite part. The way it gradually reveals the story of the family interacting with the catacombs they find under their house is masterful and gripping. And I loved all the commentary, especially the chapter about the scientific and mythological origins of 'echo'.

The secondary narrative made up of the footnotes by Johnny Truant was less appealing. I enjoyed the aspects about his interactions with the text and how it affected him, but the endless detailed descriptions of his drug use and sexual conquests got wearing over time. His presentation of and attitude towards women was consistently appalling, and it was disappointing when this started to bleed into the main narrative a bit towards the end.

But overall, I was engrossed and fascinated - and the textural formatting of the book itself added a lot to the experience. It did get in my head, and it did freak me out a bit in places, but not in a bad way. And the final conclusion was pleasingly meta.

Definitely a curiosity, definitely an impressive literary feat. Not for everyone, but I came out very much on the plus side.

Herself

Last week, my brother encouraged me to watch Herself with him, and I'm very glad he did.

It tells the painful story of Sandra, who escapes her abusive husband and embarks on a project to build a house for herself and her two children.

It's about the importance of community, of asking for help, of working towards a better life, and of being honest about your struggles.

It's a difficult watch at times but well worth it, since the performances are amazing (always good to see Harriet Walter), the emotional rollercoaster is cathartic, and the messages are important.

I'm still not entirely sure how I feel about the ending, but this is not a world of neat bows, and perhaps that's the way it should be for this story to work.