RANTS AND RAMBLES

• • DISCLAIMER: When I review books, weaknesses and inconsistencies tend to dominate my discussion; therefore, I will emphasize that any particular rant (and, yes, they can be long-winded) does not have special bearing on my unified opinion of the book. For this, please refer to my overall star rating. Additionally, this review is my personal opinion, intended to help like-minded readers navigate the plethora of available options. Use it as a tool but do not assign undue importance to it (i.e. feel free to disagree with me).
  • This book has a joke about monks which I found to be pretty funny. It is sandwiched between two other jokes and it feels like the author thought these gags were hilarious and wanted to share them with the world, so he included them. With very little/no impact on the story, their inclusion seems gratuitous. It should be instructive that one of the most memorable things about the book is a joke with no bearing on the plot.
  • Perhaps the worst part about this book is the pretentiousness. Due to the construction of the narrative, there are often invented “quotes” from fictional and sometimes non-fictional people pontificating about the mental, moral, and philosophical aspects of the story. This feels like Danielewski wanted to speculate about odd dreams and their underlying meanings but could not find any weird enough to suit his fancy, so he invented one. Yes, this is clearly just my interpretation; however, providing praise for or analysis of one’s own book in the text of said book is about the most self-entitled, egotistical, and meta form of pretention I can imagine.
  • Much can be said, and probably has been said, about the odd formatting and textual layout decisions of this book. I went in with an open mind. After all, maybe they would function well in the context of the story. At the very least, there is nothing wrong with experimenting. The main problem with the odd layout is that all instances either add nothing to or even detract from the novel. Many “footnotes” destroy the emersion and exist solely as a vehicle for Danielewski’s second plot line. The only thing these notes have in common with actual footnotes is that they are located at the bottom of the page. When they don’t go on for multiple pages, that is. The footnotes which do not fall into this trap add only marginal value to sell the world the book is set in. As to the main text of the book, some blocks of words have no bearing on the story at all. Others are organized to elicit specific feelings. For example, the words in one section are organized like a ladder while the character is climbing a ladder. Or as an arch for a wide-open cavern. Or to make the reader feel the ceiling or walls closing in. Some pages have sideways or upside-down text. Others contain only a single sentence or word. None of this has the intended effect. Indeed, having to periodically rotate the book or otherwise fight the formatting to read the text only made me realize one thing very clearly: this is a book. It obliterated any chance of suspense or immersion.
  • MINOR SPOILERS: The setting and world of the book have a lot of potential. For example, the basic core element of the story is pretty frightening on its face: a malevolent house which lures in people to maim or kill. The non-Euclidean nature of the house is also scary, making way for expanding and contracting corridors, rooms, and stairwells, halls sloping in both directions, and shifting walls in an ever-changing labyrinth, theoretically impossible to solve. The idea of a monster stalking from the shadows should be terrifying. The house intensifying core traits of anger, violence, cowardice, etc., while not original, is interesting and scary. Perhaps most of all, the idea of a space in which things which are not thought about quickly disintegrate and disappear is terrifying and unique. Yet, the detached nature of the narrative, the bizarre style which constantly reminds the reader that this is a book, and unhelpful interjections breaking the tension and suspension of disbelief absolutely butcher any horror potential the story has.