Room by Emma Donoghue
ROOM is narrated by a five-year-old called Jack, who lives in a single room with his Ma and has never been outside. An international bestseller as soon as it was published in August 2010, ROOM has been shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize and won the Hughes & Hughes Irish Novel of the Year and the Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize (for best Canadian novel). It has also been a finalist for International Author of the Year (Galaxy National Book Awards) and the Governor General’s Award. The American Library Association have given it an Alex Award (for an adult book with special appeal to readers 12-18). ROOM was Amazon.ca and Indigo’s Best Book of 2010, the listeners’ choice on Liveline (Ireland), and fiction winner of the Goodreads Choice Awards.
Jack and Ma live in a locked room that measures eleven foot by eleven. When he turns five, he starts to ask questions, and his mother reveals to him that there is a world outside. Told entirely in Jack’s voice, ROOM is no horror story or tearjerker, but a celebration of resilience and the love between parent and child.
Have you read it yet? We would love to hear what you think!
I enjoyed Room but I had some reservations. I did feel that the boy may have suffered more anxiety being away from his mum?? He seemed to cope quite well without her when he was with the Grandmother (who he had never even heard about until a few days before his escape) and I think perhaps in reality he would have found this separation immensely difficult?? Also, I was surprised that the facility they were taken to allowed the Grandmother to take him out, and that there was not a more specific, phased introduction to the real world, starting with going out with his mum perhaps? Not that I know about these things at all. What did everyone else think?
ReplyDeleteIf you only do one thing on the basis of reading this blog, I would urge you not to write off Room on the basis of its stomach-churning subject matter – dig deep as, unlikely as it sounds, this novel will prove to be an ultimately uplifting read and one worth the emotional turmoil experienced en route.
ReplyDeleteSPOILERS AHOY! Told through the eyes of recently turned five-year-old Jack, the repulsive reality of Room gradually reveals itself as we introduced to a world no bigger than a 12-ft by 12-ft converted, sound-proofed garage, ruled by Old Nick who, despite being responsible for snatching Ma when she was a 19-year-old student, treats any request for day-to-day necessities as an outrageous imposition, yet sees it as his right to ‘make the bed creak’ with his captive, while Jack stays hidden, quietly counting the seconds in the wardrobe and trying to block out the raspy breathing.
Yet, viewed through the innocence and wonder of a child, we witness the lengths to which Ma will go to give Jack a sense of normality and shield him from the awful actuality of their existence. They do daily phys ed exercises, cathartic screaming sessions towards the skylight and enjoy the adventures of Dora The Explorer.
Just when you think the tension cannot be sustained, Jack, after being coached by Ma, embarks on a daring escape which proves successful and the second part of the novel deals with the reintegration of the pair into a media-savvy society hungry for the inside scoop on their incarceration. We also see Jack experience his first cold, negotiate stairs and stop breast-feeding, while Ma struggles to adapt to the changes in her family, especially the divorce of her parents and the unexpected acquisition of a step-father.
Despite inevitable comparisons with the Josef Fritzl case – and the unnerving realisation that this wasn’t unique to Austria and that there will be more similar sinister discoveries made in the years to come in different countries – this novel shines a light on how the human spirit can overcome even the darkest dilution of the soul and come out fighting for all its worth.
I don't think the screaming sessions are purely cathartic, surely it's an attempt to attract help, in the same way as Ma's nightly blinking of the lamp at the window - which would explain why they only do it during the week, when Old Nick is believed to be at work?
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