''The Whalestoe Letters'' (2000), by the American fiction author

Mark Z. Danielewski Mark Z. Danielewski (; born March 5, 1966) is an American fiction author. He is most widely known for his debut novel ''House of Leaves'' (2000), which won the New York Public Library's Young Lions Fiction Award. His second novel, '' Only Revolu ...

, is an

epistolary Epistolary means "in the form of a letter or letters", and may refer to: * Epistolary ( la, epistolarium), a Christian liturgical book containing set readings for church services from the New Testament Epistles * Epistolary novel * Epistolary poem ...

novella A novella is a narrative prose fiction whose length is shorter than most novels, but longer than most short stories. The English word ''novella'' derives from the Italian ''novella'' meaning a short story related to true (or apparently so) facts ...

which more fully develops the literary correspondence between Pelafina H. Lièvre and her son Johnny from 1982–1989, characters first introduced in Danielewski's prior work ''

House of Leaves ''House of Leaves'' is the debut novel by American author Mark Z. Danielewski, published in March 2000 by Pantheon Books. A bestseller, it has been translated into a number of languages, and is followed by a companion piece, '' The Whalestoe Let ...

''. The letters are included in the second edition of ''House of Leaves'', in Appendix II, under the name ''E – The Three Attic Whalestoe Institute Letters'', although the companion piece includes eleven additional letters not found in ''House of Leaves''.

Plot introduction

Pelafina writes these letters to Johnny from ''The Three Attic Whalestoe Institute'', a mental institution where she has been residing for a number of years. While a number of these letters appear in ''House of Leaves'', ''The Whalestoe Letters'' introduces a number of new letters which serve to more fully develop Pelafina's character as well as her relationship with Johnny.

External links

Pantheon Books catalog page

Powells Books review
2000 American novels American novellas Novels by Mark Z. Danielewski Postmodern novels Epistolary novels Pantheon Books books {{2000s-epistolary-novel-stub