House Of Leaves

Zampanò is an elderly blind man who is the author of The Navidson Record. He dies at the beginning of the novel and leaves a room that is completely sealed off from the outside world. Johnny and Lude find his extensive manuscript in a trunk, which is an analysis of the documentary film The Navidson Record. Johnny describes him as a “graphomaniac” (xxii).

Before his death, Zampanò walks the perimeter of the courtyard every morning and evening. Since he is blind, he hires various attractive women to come read to him, always seeking, “out the company of the opposite sex” (xxii). Zampanò apparently spends the rest of his time in his room, working on the manuscript. Johnny notes, “He is compelled, day and day, week after week, month after month, to continue building the very thing responsible for his incarceration” (337). 

Lude is Johnny’s friend who first brings Johnny into Zampanò’s apartment. He is a hair stylist and spends his time drinking, taking drugs, and having sex with women. Lude does not share Johnny’s more intellectual interests: “He’s the kind of guy who thinks sublime is something you choke on after a shot of tequila” (19). Lude dies in a motorcycle accident while under the influence.  

Thumper is a stripper who hangs out at Johnny’s tattoo shop. Johnny develops an obsessive crush on her, and notes, “Everything about her shimmered” (105). She listens to Johnny’s stories and encourages him to get out of the house. She has a 3-year old child, and we never learn her real name.  

Pelafina is Johnny’s “crazy Shakespearean mother” (21). The novel suggests that she tries to strangle Johnny and is then sent away to a psychiatric hospital. Her story line is explored in The Whalestoe Letters in the Appendices. Her life “failed her, humiliated her with impulses beyond her command” (380). She takes her own life when Johnny is 19.  

Will is a Pulitzer prize-winning photojournalist in his early forties. He is the supposed creator of the film, The Navidson Record. Will and his family move into the house on Ash Tree Lane in an attempt to mend their relationships with one another. Over the years, Will has “spent the last decade perfecting a career in distance” (17). He is often away from home for prolonged periods of time because of work. Though he hopes to improve his relationship with his partner, Karen, tension and strain increase after he discovers the hallway and begins investigating.

After Holloway and Tom’s death, Karen goes back to New York, but Will stays in Virginia. He returns to the house and is trapped in the hallway until Karen rescues him. He loses an eye and a hand as a result of frostbite. 

Karen is Will’s 37-year-old partner. She is a former model from New York who is now a full-time mother. Zampanò describes her as a woman “who worries about leaving the city, growing old, keeping trim, and staying happy” (11). She develops “crippling claustrophobia” and cannot go near the hallway (57). Karen hopes to mend her relationship with Will, but it grows strained when he enters the hallway.

Karen returns to New York while Will stays in the house. She reignites an affair with an actor named Fowler. After several months, she returns to the house on Ash Tree Lane and discovers Will’s tapes from his exploration. She enters the hallway and rescues him. The two move to Vermont and get married. 

Tom is Will’s twin brother. He is “an affable, overweight giant of a man who has an innate ability to amuse” (31). He is a house builder and enjoys smoking pot and drinking alcohol. When Will calls him, the two have not spoken in eight years. He goes into the hallway on the first rescue mission and helps rescue Jed, Wax, and Billy. When the entire house begins to turn on the family, Tom rescues Daisy. However, the house creates a vertical shaft in the kitchen and takes Tom. He is presumed dead at the end of the novel. 

Billy is an engineer and a friend of Will’s who comes to the house to investigate. Zampanò notes, “He is a gruff man, frequently caustic and more like a drill sergeant than a tenured professor” (37). Billy is a paraplegic who is confined to a wheelchair. He accompanies Tom and Will on a rescue mission and survives. He continues to help Will investigate and analyze samples from the house after the family moves out.  

Holloway is a professional hunter and explorer, a friend of Billy Reston. Zampanò notes, “Even without weapons, Holloway would still be an intimidating man” (80). While investigating the hallway, Holloway becomes obsessed with finding the source of the growl. He breaks from reality and ends up shooting Wax and Jed, killing the latter. He disappears into the hallway and is considered dead.  

Wax is an employee of Holloway’s who goes on the hallway expedition. He is 26, and “[i]f there is such a thing as a climbing prodigy, Wax is it” (81). He shares a kiss with Karen before going on the rescue mission. During the mission, Holloway shoots Wax in the armpit, but he survives.  

Chad is Will and Karen’s 8-year-old son. He and his sister spend more and more time outside the house as the issues increase. He returns to New York with his mother and sister.