I read House of Leaves this past summer and loved every minute of it. I bring it up now because as I thought more about "Sleep No More," I see some similarities. House of Leaves asks more questions than it answers, deviates from linear story telling and requires the full attention of the reader, much like "Sleep No More." Both works force the audience to notice everything in order to find answers and piece the story together. I enjoyed both "Sleep No More" and House of Leaves because I got as much out of the experience as I put into it.
House of Leaves is a story within a story where sanity quickly flies out the window and Danielewski seeks to make reading the novel experiential. He creates a house in which a mysterious door appears, leading to a dark hallway that exceeds the proportions of the house in which it exists. As the inhabits of this house explore the hallway, it shrinks and expands in ways that the narrator speculates reflects the explorer's pyschological fears. The becomes experiential not only because Danielewski weaves a mesmerizing narrative, but as the hallways change, so does the formatting on the page. While this may sound like a gimmick, it is completely absorbing and exhilarating. I spent quick a few mornings on a packed train furiously turning my book this way and that, trying to keep up with the action as it unfolded. Like "Sleep No More," House of Leaves demands an active audience - one that will probe and stay the course as the narrative seemingly falls apart. The stories that each tell have no resemblance to each other, but they both represent forms of art that push our boundaries and expectations of what theatre or a novel should be.
- KER
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