I am a huge fan of Mark Z. Danielewski, he is a writer from NYC most known for the novel House of Leaves, he has also written The Fifty Year Sword, Only Revolutions, and Part 1 of The Familiar which is to be a 27 part novel about a girl who finds a cat. Anyway aside from being a good writer MZD is most notably know for his unusual page layouts. While this might seem pretentious and unnecessary I believe that it adds an extra layer to his novels. The layouts are not randomly thrown together they are carefully constructed to follow and enhance what is occurring in the novel.
House of Leaves: The layout falls apart in tune with the characters life
Only Revolutions: The same story is told by two people on the same page
The Fifty Year Sword: Personally havent read it. Yet.
The Familiar: Just bought part one, currently reading it.
I find MZD's style to be completely engrossing and his layouts add another layer of narrative to his work. Anybody know any authors who do anything similar?
I've never heard of this author, or this method being used before. Thanks for the exposure! I imagine something like this wouldn't translate too well on my Kindle either, so it's probably worthwhile buying it in print.
I really enjoyed House of Leaves, probably one of my favorite reading experiences ever. However, I do think he continued with the style of bizarre formatting solely due to its success in House of Leaves. And while that's not necessarily a bad thing, it does become gimmicky in my opinion. For example, the same story told on the same page by 2 different people? Neat concept I suppose, but largely inconvenient just as far as reading goes. With House of Leaves there was a purpose behind the formatting. Our narrator was going insane and the house itself was physically changing along w the formatting too. For Danielweski's other work, I find it hard to believe the formatting has a legitimate reason to be included if not for the fact that it is MZD's "style." Sacrificing a lot for style
Thats a super valid argument and I definitely agree that he continued it because of it's success. I still enjoy it though. I like the experimentation and am willing to go on his wild ride. Have you read Only Revolutions? Because the narrative is very different from a conventional novel and reads more as poetic stream of conscious novel.
I'm sure it's fun to read his other works! I haven't read anything else by him, although my friend read Only Revolutions and gave it a lukewarm review which made me not pick it up :/ What's your usual taste in books? I'm more or less a fan of post-modernism and 19th century lit, when the novel became the swaggiest thing in the written world. And poetry, looots of poetry
If your a fan a poetry I recommend Only Revolutions. It's written like a beat poem. If nothing else its an interesting application of poetry to a novel. Unfortunately I havent read much since I entered college, Used to be a heavy reader in High School. I read a lot of Vonnegut. Looking to get back into it.
ah really? College is when I took my reading up a notch! Although I'm also an English major so that may be why..... I'll look into Only Revolutions, I do like me some beat poetry :)
fair enough, my schoolwork is reading and writing, but that's why I picked it. Then again architecture is probably a bit more practical/marketable outta college lol
Just knock down a building or two, then they'll need you for sure! but for real that sucks, sorry to hear it
Awesome post. I've been wanting to read house of leaves, is it any good?