House Of Leaves

Zampanò analyzes the concept of the echo throughout history, beginning with Greek mythology. He uses work from sources such as Ovid, John Hollander, and Hanson Edwin Rose to portray the echo as a sort of uncanny repetition that can nonetheless be comforting.

In The Navidson Report, Billy and Will keep investigating but cannot find an explanation for the “goddamn spatial rape” (55). In July, they notice a “dark doorless hallway which has appeared out of nowhere” (57). When Karen looks down the hallway, she experiences claustrophobia, a disorder that has never come up until now. Chad and Daisy make a game of playing in the hallway, their voices echoing through the house.

Once the hallway appears, Karen and Will stop having sex. Karen is adamant they will not enter the hallway. She turns to Feng Shui to change the energy of the house.

Two old friends visit the Navidsons, and Zampanò includes blanks where these friends’ names should be. Will shows them both the hallway, and they disappear down it. Later that night, Will explores the hallway for the first time. Initially, it appears to be only seven feet long, but then branches out and continues to grow. New doors, archways, and rooms appear, and “[o]nly now do we begin to see how big Navidson’s house really is” (64). Will has difficulty finding his way back since the hallway keeps shifting, but eventually returns to the living room.

In his footnotes, Zampanò starts doing his own translations. He includes a two-page list of names as footnotes, which, according to Alison Adrian Burns, were almost entirely selected at random.

In his footnotes, Johnny reports that he almost gags and smells the same “something awful” he noticed in the tattoo shop (42). He thinks he vomits then realizes he hasn’t.

Johnny is struck by Zampanò’s phrase, “Echolocation comes down to the crude assessment of simple sound modulations, whether in the dull reply of a tapping cane or the low, eerie flutter in one single word—perhaps your word—flung down empty hallways long past midnight” (48). Johnny feels this phrase is personal to Zampanò’s as well as his own experience, which causes him to sink into a series of reflections when he is out with Lude, seeming to center on his own trauma and experiences centered on violence and loss, though the text does not specify their exact nature.

Johnny reflects on his obsession with a woman he calls Thumper, a stripper who hangs out at the tattoo shop. He fixates on his attraction to her and notes that Thumper “still drives [him] nuts” (52).

One morning, Johnny goes to work and enters the storeroom for supplies. He tastes a familiar metallic taste and thinks he sees the beast again: “I’ve seen the eyes […] They have no whites” (71). He leaves the storeroom, falls down the stairs, and comes away with a gash on the back of his neck. He doubts whether any of this has actually happened.

The Editors comment on Johnny’s footnotes. They try to determine where he has heard the verse on Page 45 but cannot. They also suggest the reader can turn to the Appendix to interpret Johnny’s words better, or else interpret on their own. 

At the end of The Navidson Record, the family dog, Hillary, is grown and the tabby cat, Mallory, has disappeared.

The animals enter the hallway a week after its appearance and then end up outside almost immediately after. Zampanò considers it strange that no one further investigated this: “Who knows what might have been discovered if [they] had” (75).

That day, Johnny hands Thumper a section of his footnotes that he wrote about her, and she reads it aloud in the shop. She laughs, and afterward gives Johnny her pager number. He pages her at 3:22 am and drinks and writes while he waits for her to respond. Zampanò loved animals, and Johnny recalls the way he used to walk in the courtyard with the cats, all of which disappeared after his death. Now, “[s]omething else has taken their place. Something I am unable to see. Waiting” (79). 

This chapter describes Explorations # 1-3 into the hallway. Reston invites his friend Holloway Roberts, a professional hunter and explorer. Holloway brings his two employees, John Leeder and Kirby “Wax” Hook, to go along with him to explore the hallway.

In Exploration 1, Holloway, Jed, and Wax venture into the hallway with two miles of fishing line anchoring them to the doorway. They discover a 200-foot ceiling and “an even larger entrance […] opening into an even greater void” (84).

The next day, during Exploration 2, they venture back in and discover what they call the Great Hall, Anteroom, and a giant spiral staircase. They also hear a growl.

Exploration 3 lasts 20 hours, seven of which are spent walking down the staircase. The group still cannot reach the bottom. The staircase’s diameter shifts from 200 to 500 feet.

Wax and Karen kiss in the kitchen, which Will later sees on tape.

Johnny’s first footnotes respond to a Rilke quote, which he is unable to translate. In order to do so, he enlists the help of Lude’s German friend, Kyrie. The two meet for a drink, take a drive in her car up Mulholland Drive, and have sex in a secluded spot. Kyrie drops Johnny off without having translated the quote.

Johnny’s second footnote comments on Chad’s refusal to talk about where he got his black eye. Johnny wants to tell the story of his own chipped tooth. After the death of his father, Johnny moves around foster homes and ends up with “control freak” Raymond, who forbids him from misbehaving (92). In response, Johnny gets into a series of fights at school and ends up getting expelled. Raymond drives Johnny to the hospital to treat his injuries but stops along the way. There, Johnny says he loses half his tooth, “and a lot more too I guess,” though he does not make clear what and how exactly he loses the tooth (93).  

Exploration 4 is underway when this chapter begins. Billy and Will attend to the radios and video monitors in the living room while Holloway, John, and Wax are in the hallway. They lose radio contact with them eventually. The expedition is only supposed to last five days, but it stretches to eight. On the morning of the eighth day, Will decides to go in with Tom to try to rescue the other men. The family can hear a faint knocking: three quick knocks, three slow knocks, and three more quick knocks, which represents SOS.

Johnny’s first footnote comments on Zampanò’s use of the word “fuck,” which is uncharacteristic of Zampanò (99). Johnny reveals that he has paged Thumper again but has not heard back. He receives a message from Ashley, whom he does not know. He is also late to work and put on probation.

In response to the word “so,” Johnny recounts how he was approved to go to Alaska to work at a canning factory when he lies about his age and says he is older than he actually is. He goes out on a fishing boat, and, during a storm, the boat sinks, and one man dies. He tells the story at work and goes out to get Thai food with Thumper after. They discuss their respective sexual encounters, and Johnny begins telling her about Zampanò and the manuscript. Thumper listens and tells Johnny he will be okay and just needs to get out of the house.