House Of Leaves

Mark Danielewski’s 2000 debut novel, House of Leaves, is an experimental text that contains multiple layers of narration. It is a type of frame story: the top frame, or layer, follows the life of Johnny Truant after he finds Zampanò’s manuscript The Navidson Record, with this manuscript acting as House of Leaves’ second layer. Zampanò’s manuscript analyzes the third layer of House of Leaves: a documentary of the same name filmed by Will Navidson. The documentary follows the actions of the Navidson family in their house on Ash Tree Lane.

Johnny Truant is a tattoo shop employee living in Hollywood who frequently drinks, uses drugs, and has sex with women. He and his friend, Lude, discover The Navidson Record in the room of a recently deceased man named Zampanò. Johnny takes the manuscript home and begins reading it, becoming more and more obsessed with it as time goes on. He starts compiling a series of footnotes to Zampanò’s text, in which the actions of his own life unfold. He experiences a series of episodes in which he breaks with reality; he thinks events occur then immediately finds out they did not occur, so much so that the reader is often unsure of what is happening in the reality of the novel.