House Of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski

 

This is a postmodern novel unlike most novels I've read and I suspect, most readers have encountered.  It is a layered work.  At the heart lies a house free of time and space limitations, where one might start down a short staircase and have it lengthen until it takes eight days to get to the bottom.  A hallway may extend until it takes days to travel.  The owners of the house and his friends go on expeditions to try to ascertain what is happening and the story of their explorations makes up the Navison Record, which is in turn, written by a blind man named Zampano.

A man studying to be a tattoo artist tells the story of finding Zampano's text.  His name is Johnny Truant and he tells the story, mostly in footnotes, and mixed with his fight with drugs, sex with various people he meets, and other self-destructive acts.  The text is full of references to scholarly works and is thrown on the page, sometimes upside down or diagonal, maybe one sentence in a page followed by pages of close-written text.  It is a challenge to read and a many layered story that makes the novel one that the reader feels a sense of accomplishment in finishing.  As unlikely as it may seem for such a surprising novel, it is Danielewski's debut novel.  This book is recommended for literary fiction readers.