Recently, I've been reading a book called "House of Leaves". It's a rather strange book that seems to challenge you. Basically, it's about reading a book that contains information written by one character, another set of information from another character reading the same book, and the editors who compiled and organized these materials.
So, there are three narrators in total. First, you read an introduction written by a person named Johnny Traunt. He talks about how he and his friend Lude found a record left behind by an old man named Zampano when he died. This record is called "The Navidson Record". In the book, it is a film that shook the entire literary circle when it was released, and this book is a detailed analysis of that film.
However, as Johnny continues to read, he discovers that the film doesn't actually exist, and many of the references in it are also nonexistent. Zampano himself is blind, which makes his meticulous analysis of the film extremely eerie. Johnny's own mental state deteriorates as he studies and investigates this book.
So, the whole book is divided into two main parts. The first part is "The Navidson Record" and the second part is additional content. These include related information about Zampano and Johnny Traunt.
It's definitely a very interesting narrative technique. You get to understand a story by reading an academic paper. However, while reading the paper, Traunt himself adds diary-like content in the footnotes, and as he goes on, his writing becomes more stream-of-consciousness and difficult to understand. The book itself also includes foreign languages, blank spaces, deleted content, and content that you have to turn the book around to read. In addition, the footnotes often correspond to the later additional materials, so the experience of reading this book is anything but linear. Most of the time, your brain is bombarded with obscure writing from several different stories.
"The Navidson Record" itself tells the story of Will Navidson and his wife Karen moving into a new house. However, they soon discover that the dimensions inside the house are larger than the dimensions outside. So, they invite people to come and see what's going on. Then, strange things start happening.
Actually, the story of "House of Leaves" itself is not as outrageous as one might imagine, but the experience of reading this book is definitely not easy. It's like saying that "Ulysses" is a story that takes place in one day, which sounds very simple, but when you read it, you feel immense pressure.
I'll talk more once I finish reading it. For now, I'll leave it at that. I should be able to finish it in a few days when I have some free time.