How to Prepare for Mark Z. Danielewski’s The Familiar Vol. 1

Now he has returned with The Familiar, Volume 1: One Rainy Day in May, the first of a projected twenty-seven volume series. If reading 27 lengthy, esoteric books by the guy who color-coded words in his first novel sounds daunting, you can be forgiven. If, however, the prospect of a series this big, from this author, gets your pulse racing, then you are Our People, and you’ll need this: A Guide to Surviving The Familiar.
Expect typesetting kung fu
This is a Danielewski project, so one thing is absolutely certain: there will be typographical experimentation. Each character is given a distinct font, and the events described often cause the text to arrange itself into shapes and patterns; early on, for example, when the rain starts, the text turns into stinging sheets of water, with dialogue punctuating the deluge like small dry spots, shelters from the storm. While many of the pages and spreads are absolutely gorgeous, pay attention: these are not mere tricks and fun shapes. The typography in a Danielewski book comments on, or somehow transforms, the words you just read.
Think of the book as three-dimensional
One of the tricks of reading any of Danielewski’s works is to consider them not as flat, linear storylines, but as three-dimensional models of an invented reality. Footnotes and other portions of the text will move you backwards over pages you’ve already traversed. You’ll be forced to turn the page this way and that to read the text—or to understand it properly.
Don’t assume mistakes are mistakes
Know one thing: there are no mistakes. If you find a typo, a misspelling, or a temporal anomaly, assume it is on purpose, as the author has been known to use apparent errors as hints of larger mysteries. After all, this is the guy who wrote an index in House of Leaves that fails to include many words and characters who appear in the book—but feature words and names that don’t. Note those apparent mistakes very. carefully.
There is always a larger mystery
Like most of Danielewski’s works, this one begins with a fairly straightforward story: a young girl being driven by her father to get a pet dog. As the bottom falls out and the story sprawls to include dozens of other characters, places, and events, be patient. Not only will it take the entire first volume to see the patterns the author is putting together, there are 26 more books to come. The larger mysteries will take a long time to come together for you.
Volume 2 might be totally different
Finally, for all its gorgeous typographical trickery, The Familiar, Volume 1 looks, well, familiar—like an ultra-modern spin on a picture book. This may very well be Danielewski easing us into an ambitious project; we shouldn’t assume the remaining volumes will stick to the same dimensions and rules, or even the same tricks. Be prepared for anything, because when someone like Danielewski gets ambitious, only one thing is certain: you cannot predict what he has planned.
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