Victoria Gornopolskaya

"This great blue world of ours seems a house of leaves moments before the wind."

To be honest when I first began reading this book I was skeptical and unsure of whether I liked it or not. After finishing the book along with the appendices, I absolutely loved it. The ending nearly brought tears to my eyes. I was so sure Navidson was a dead man, but there he was, safe in Karen's arms. Karen found him somehow, and saved him; her love saved him. The house dissolved around the two of them as she held him. Navy was in terrible shape at the end but he survived and he and Karen grew old together with the children in a house full of photos rather than darkness. After reading Pelafina's letters I understood the book. I realized she is perhaps one of the most important people throughout the entire novel. I believe Pelafina may have been a schizo who created all of the characters and Johnny Truant never existed. None of these characters ever existed except for Pelafina. Pelafina may have been the mother in the story about the baby with holes in its brain, the baby being Johnny. After sitting there for days and watching her child die, she must have gone crazy as anyone would and had been forced to stay at the Whalestoe Institute. The moment where she supposedly tried to choke Johnny or wipe tears from his face resembles the moment where the mother had to give up her child and pull the chord. In her encoded letter she tells of how the people there rape her and she is full of shattered hope. She is writing to her only son, the only person she has in the world, though he is dead. I also came to think that this book may be written by Pelafina. Her font is the same font that the editors use. She constantly tells Johnny to follow his mind and believe in it. This is very relevant to the hallway that somewhat works the way the human mind works. Mental state is another large theme in this book, providing more implications that Pelafina wrote it. I think this is very clever and a great way to close the story and make sense of it. I also loved the quotes and poems at the end of the book. One of my favorites is this one:
I took my morning walk, I took my evening walk, I ate something, I thought about something, I wrote something, I napped and dreamt something too, and with all that something, I still have nothing because so much of sum' things had always been and always will be you.
I miss you.
Questions:
Did Pelafina write the entire novel and create all these characters?
Do the character's names say something significant about each of them?
My dear Zampano, who did you lose?