To five-year-old Jack, Room is the entire world. It is where he was born and grew up; it's where he lives with his Ma as they learn and read and eat and sleep and play. At night, his Ma shuts him safely in the wardrobe, where he is meant to be asleep when Old Nick visits. Room is home to Jack, but to Ma, it is the prison where Old Nick has held her captive for seven years....moreTo five-year-old Jack, Room is the entire world. It is where he was born and grew up; it's where he lives with his Ma as they learn and read and eat and sleep and play. At night, his Ma shuts him safely in the wardrobe, where he is meant to be asleep when Old Nick visits. Room is home to Jack, but to Ma, it is the prison where Old Nick has held her captive for seven years. Through determination, ingenuity, and fierce motherly love, Ma has created a life for Jack. But she knows it's not enough...not for her or for him. She devises a bold escape plan, one that relies on her young son's bravery and a lot of luck. What she does not realize is just how unprepared she is for the plan to actually work. Told entirely in the language of the energetic, pragmatic five-year-old Jack, ROOM is a celebration of resilience and the limitless bond between parent and child, a brilliantly executed novel about what it means to journey from one world to another.(less)
Audio CD, Unabridged, 0 pages
Published
May 18th 2011
by Hachette Audio
(first published September 13th 2010)
I was all ready to hate this book. Doesn't it sound obnoxious? An adult novel about harrowing things, but narrated by a 5-year-old? Mere gimmickry, right, a showy writing experiment, likely to win praise from the easily impressed.
But I don't think I am that easily impressed, and damn, this book is kind of a stunner. Because yes, if not handled exactly right, a book narrated by a child probably would be obnoxious. I haven't read Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close yet, and I might or mi...moreI was all ready to hate this book. Doesn't it sound obnoxious? An adult novel about harrowing things, but narrated by a 5-year-old? Mere gimmickry, right, a showy writing experiment, likely to win praise from the easily impressed.
But I don't think I am that easily impressed, and damn, this book is kind of a stunner. Because yes, if not handled exactly right, a book narrated by a child probably would be obnoxious. I haven't read Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close yet, and I might or might not like it, but I already know that it is written in the voice of a precocious 9-year-old, and precocious kids usually are pretty annoying.
But Jack, the narrator of Room, is not really precocious, and Emma Donoghue has managed to capture a realistic child's voice without turning out a book that's overly simplistic or too calculated. And I really don't know how she did it.
As you begin reading this story of a boy who has spent his entire life locked in one small room, the son of the unfortunate Ma (who is never named, because she's Ma), who was kidnapped and has been kept in the room for the last seven years, it does seem too cute: all the objects in Room are proper nouns with genders, like Floor and Bed and Duvet and Wardrobe, which kind of makes sense because to Jack, they are the only onlys of those things in the world, because the whole world is Room (he has a TV, which he thinks shows make-believe things that live on planets inside the TV). But I kept reading, and there's really remarkable depth to the story even though such a limited narrative scope.
What really grabbed me is the way the book perfectly captures the malleability of a kid's mind, the way they take what they know and use it as a filter to interpret the stuff they encounter that they don't understand. I once read something by Stephen King that posited that all children are more or less clinically insane until about age seven, when those parts of their brain firm up and they stop coming up with ideas like, "oh it got dark because a giant monster ate the sun." And of course, Emma Donoghue knows that we are not 5-year-olds, and she somehow manages to weave in all these staggeringly sad truths about the world, and growing up, and our relationships with our parents, and how fleeting time and relationships can be, all into the voice of this little boy who doesn't even realize what he's saying, but it doesn't feel crammed in, or like a cheat (the Magical Negro 5-Year-Old).
I didn't say anything about the plot because I think it really helps to not know much beyond the premise going in (and it's one of those books I would really like to have read knowing absolutely nothing at all, but such is life). And yes, it's more of a heart book than a head book, but I don't think it is bad that sometimes books try to engage us in different ways. And certainly there's room, with this premise, for a different kind of book, almost a social satire, but that's not what we have here, and it's still quite an experience.
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This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.I am always reluctant to read books about kidnappings and captivity. The y can get too emotionally manipulative. Too often such books become almost unbearably violent (memories of Living Dead Girl and Tender Morsels still make my skin crawl) or unrealistically light and a tad misguided (I am in a minority in my assessment of Stolen: A letter to my captor, but I do think the setup of this book is far from reality). But Room gets and portrays such an experience just right IMO. I guess this is why ...moreI am always reluctant to read books about kidnappings and captivity. The y can get too emotionally manipulative. Too often such books become almost unbearably violent (memories of Living Dead Girl and Tender Morsels still make my skin crawl) or unrealistically light and a tad misguided (I am in a minority in my assessment of Stolen: A letter to my captor, but I do think the setup of this book is far from reality). But Room gets and portrays such an experience just right IMO. I guess this is why it snagged a Booker nomination.
Of course, the personal story of a 19-year old girl kidnapped and held captive for 7 years in a confined space of 11 by 11 ft, is horrifying. But it is told from a POV of her 5-year old son Jack who is sheltered to the extreme, even from the captor, and whose childhood had been practically idyllic. Jack's life in Room is full of adventure, games, play, and studying, and, most importantly, great times with his loving Ma. He doesn't comprehend the horror his Ma has to live through, he doesn't know why he has to sit in the closet and count while Old Nick comes over to "jump on Bed," he doesn't understand why his Ma would ever want to leave their Room. But we do.
Jack's perspective is definitely the most unique aspect of the novel. The topic of kidnappings is in vogue right now in literature (And no wonder, just google the words "kidnapping" and "captivity." These are the kind of atrocities that come up:
so it is pretty hard to create a work of fiction that will distinguish itself among others on the subject. But Jack's "voice," with his unawareness of the outside world, inability to understand that this world is not limited to 11x11 sq. ft, space, and lack of social interaction with anyone but his mother, is a wonder and the strongest point of this book.
Another important issue Room touches upon is what happens after the escape. The escape is only the beginning of the journey to recovery, if such a recovery is at all possible.
Room is undoubtedly a hard book to read, and yet it is at the same time a hopeful story, a story about unwavering love between a child and a mother, and about new beginnings.
As for the Room's chances of winning Booker, they are pretty slim IMO. I don't think it well qualifies as literary fiction. Good popular fiction - yes. The subject matter is just too commercial and worn out to create any significant literary impact.
This an interesting essay by Emma Donoghue about the research she did for the novel
Jesus Christ on a popsicle stick, i can't believe i have to read this! argh. my wonderful colleague Michael (hopefully not a GR member) loaned this to me; clearly he knows that i am a "reader". but just as clearly he also does not get that i like my books to have at least an edge of un-reality to them. you know, fantasy. horror. science fiction. historical fiction. and if not that, then just something, anything that moves them away from mainstream depictions of the modern real world. n...moreJesus Christ on a popsicle stick, i can't believe i have to read this! argh. my wonderful colleague Michael (hopefully not a GR member) loaned this to me; clearly he knows that i am a "reader". but just as clearly he also does not get that i like my books to have at least an edge of un-reality to them. you know, fantasy. horror. science fiction. historical fiction. and if not that, then just something, anything that moves them away from mainstream depictions of the modern real world. now Room looks like a snapshot of life right from the news. or right from my place of work! good grief, i deal with depressing enough stuff already goddamnit! reading the back cover description was like reading the label of a bottle of poison - i do not want to drink this. but fine, i respect you Michael and so i will read this one. just don't get mad if it takes me two months to get through this fucking thing.
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it took me over two weeks to finish the first half. i finished the second half during an afternoon and part of an evening. an amazing novel and a very emotional experience. i think i'll save writing a review for a little bit and let it sink in for a while.
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it's hard for me to define exactly why the first half of the novel was so hard to get through. at first i convinced myself that the child's perspective was just too "hearbreakingly poignant", and i am not the kind of person who is enthusiastic about reading works of heartbreaking poignance. but that is patently false; i love those kinds of books although i would never admit it openly. well, i'd say it in a GR review, but i would never say that out loud, if that makes sense. perhaps i'm a hypocrite that way. so then i convinced myself that there was just something wrong with the narrator's voice, something off, he just seemed - at different points - to be either too precocious or too simple for a child his age. i compared him a lot to my nephews, and it didn't gel - his thought process did not parallel their thought process. but then i thought about this kid's situation, the extreme sort of home-schooling he received, the protective wall that his amazing mom built for him, the way he interpreted the world...and it made sense, a whole lot of sense. his voice turned out to be a very real one for me, at least based upon my understanding of his young life.
and so i realized that the reason i was avoiding coming back to Room's first half was more basic, more simple. it made me want to cry, all the time. perhaps i'm too soft, maybe i just have too thin a skin. it's not like i have any illusions about kids - they are not saints to me, nor are they just tiny adults. i'm comfortable around children and i prefer them to many adults i've met, but i don't idealize them either. however i do have a big natural urge to protect them. i'm not sure where that comes from; i don't think it's based on genetics or upbringing. and so it was just really hard to return again and again to a novel that had as its central situation the kind of thing that i try actively to never contemplate. as in, i'll turn the channel or put down the paper if i come across a story like this one. to be honest, each time i read a few lines of the first half, my eyes would well up a little, that shortness of breath thing happened - and often in public, on the bus, at a coffeeshop, reading at a lunch spot. the private world of this novel became a public experience to me. i avoided this book at first because i do not like to appear weak - to the world around me, or to myself.
i told the guy who loaned me the book about my issues and was given some advice: just stick with it, it will open up and it will be beautiful. and so i did. and the book did. it was good advice.
the first half of the book was beautiful as well. wonderfully written. but thank God, the second half really did open up. it was like taking a breath of wonderful, clean air, somewhere in nature, away from the city. the humor remained but it was transformed into something wry, something that was still poignant but with a sheen of sardonic humor that i appreciated (and, truth be told, perhaps had a level of distance to it that i rather lazily connected to as well). the anger i felt in the first half towards Old Nick was inchoate - the kind of blind rage that i feel towards anyone who'd harm a child. the anger i felt in the second half was of a kind that is more comfortable, more familiar - towards the media, towards pop psychology, towards various institutions and the like. the second half had lessons to be learned - lessons about perception and isolation and materialism and the family bond and the bond between mother & son, protector & protected. the simple fact of "lessons to be learned" made the second half so much easier to read, it made the narrative positively propulsive in my desire to learn what was going to happen next. the horribly (and needfully) static nature of the book's first half was replaced by an emotional dynamism that really grabbed me. again, this is not a critique of the first half, which i think was perfectly written. instead, it is a critique of my own ability to deal with challenging, terrifying situations involving kids - since i couldn't do anything to stop or even hurt Old Nick, i wanted only to look away. and so the second half turned out to be more of a familiar road, with familiar pleasures. the first half of the book was horribly unique and my mind balked. the second half eased me back into a world i could deal with, respond to, and not shut down. at the end of the second half, the end of the novel itself, i read those last few sentences over and again, closed the book, and cried. such a relief. it's funny to think of all the tears i had saved up.(less)
Based on, or ‘inspired by’ shocking cases like that of Josef Fritzl, Room is the story of a boy, Jack, born and raised with his captive mother in a 12 foot square room. Narrated by the boy himself, it’s a child’s eye view of a small world housing a great deal of imagination, pain and love.
Packed with the emotional punch and occasional humour that comes with having a child narrator, comparisons will inevitably be drawn to John Boyne’s The Boy with the Striped Pyjamas. In my opinion, ...moreBased on, or ‘inspired by’ shocking cases like that of Josef Fritzl, Room is the story of a boy, Jack, born and raised with his captive mother in a 12 foot square room. Narrated by the boy himself, it’s a child’s eye view of a small world housing a great deal of imagination, pain and love.
Packed with the emotional punch and occasional humour that comes with having a child narrator, comparisons will inevitably be drawn to John Boyne’s The Boy with the Striped Pyjamas. In my opinion, Room surpasses that book because the protagonist feels more real; Donoghue accomplishes the job of not only getting inside the head of a child, as Boyne very cleverly, but more cloyingly did, but she also has a protagonist who’s only experience of the world is a television with four fuzzy channels and his mother’s stories, which adds a whole new, tougher and more horrific, dimension.
In describing the lives of these two captives in this tiny room, Donoghue exercise as much, if not more, imagination than creators of entire universes, like Tolkien. The tiny attention to detail paid to their room and Jack’s description of it, makes it an all too real and terrible place.
It’s not really a plot-driven book, although I found my heart racing on several occasions, desperate to find out what happens to this dear, naive little boy. It is definitely a book that is difficult to write about with revealing spoiling for those who are yet to enjoy it. At its core I guess it’s about the indomitable human spirit, but there is a palpable sadness and desperation that makes gripping but painful reading. There is more violence contained in a muttered line about cork floorboards than a dozen Bret Easton Ellis novels put together, a true testament to Donoghue’s skill at creating empathy for Jack and his mother.
Room definitely deserves its place on the Booker Prize short-list but it is far from perfect. The focus on the two central characters leaves others in the novel feeling like broadly painted caricatures. There are also some clever post-modern allusions to the cult of celebrity, which provide neat satire, but these are tangled with occasional moments, largely towards the end of the novel, where Jack’s voice feels a just a little too much like the author’s commentary on modern life, rather than simply Jack’s view of the world.
I very much agree with the Audrey Niffenegger quote on the sleeve: “When it’s over you look up: the world looks the same but you are somehow different and that feeling lingers for days”. Several times since finishing the book I’ve wondered about the scale of my own world and what lies beyond it – having never seen them, are the Pyramids only TV?
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Wow. A book hasn't swallowed me whole like that in a long time. This one will be haunting be for awhile. I wish I could tell you what it's about, but I wish I hadn't read the back cover 30 pages or so into and changed my own perception. It's best to figure it out along with the story.
I will say that it's about a 5-year-old boy who has never left the room where he lives. His whole world is Room and Bed and Rug. It's a little jarring to read from his point of view and I was worried I was...moreWow. A book hasn't swallowed me whole like that in a long time. This one will be haunting be for awhile. I wish I could tell you what it's about, but I wish I hadn't read the back cover 30 pages or so into and changed my own perception. It's best to figure it out along with the story.
I will say that it's about a 5-year-old boy who has never left the room where he lives. His whole world is Room and Bed and Rug. It's a little jarring to read from his point of view and I was worried I wasn't going to be able to get into his story, but once I became accustomed to his voice, I couldn't put his story down. And his story wouldn't have the power it does without his perspective. We think about these type of stories from other perspectives, but never from his. Never from the child who is comfortable in his world that we know is all wrong. The child that never wants to leave his strange circumstances when we understand why he should.
Most of the time his naivete was right one, but there were occasions where Donoghue used his voice to explain something that I didn't buy into him understanding. I wish she would have trusted her reader more to see the discord of reality and his perception instead of using Jack to interpret his mother's emotions or the sequence of events. I loved the juxtaposition of reality and his interpretation and would have liked more of them. There were also some plot twists (view spoiler)[ such as the Great Escape that I thought was too much for Jack to handle as smoothly as he did when he should have been shocked and overwhelmed as well as sometimes his acclimation to Outside (hide spoiler)] that didn't ring entirely true, but I so believed Jack that in the end it didn't matter. There is one point where the plot takes a turn in a different direction from Jack's perception (view spoiler)[where Old Nick runs away but you think he's going back to kill Ma (hide spoiler)] but Jack's reality is so real, you don't even consider other options. That's when I knew I'd follow Jack anywhere.
Maybe it's the unusual perspective or the strong voice. Maybe it's that I know what it's like for a child to change your world. Maybe it's that right now I feel trapped in my own room with my own baby. Maybe it's that Jack's relationship with his mother is so different from own experience and I was both shocked and saddened by their bond. Or maybe it's that Donoghue made me think about the world in a way I never have before. But whatever it is, this book grabbed my attention and wouldn't let it go. I related to Jack's story when I couldn't possibly know what his life is like. It's difficult to make the humdrum of ordinary life day in and day out inside an 11x11 room exciting, but Donoghue manages to keep my intense attention.
Some of the things Jack made me think about were the autonomy of parents and children and how the line is different for a child than it is for parents. It's what sometimes causes conflict, things like that moment when as a parent you have to discipline where your child thinks of you as a friend. How we put our lives on hold for our children, but there is this whole other self that will eventually wake from slumber. What a parent should share with a child and what we should keep secret. How education is a good thing, but also a little magic in the world is good too. How children are smart enough to understand honest answers, but sometimes not mature enough for complete answers. How children think of their families and circumstances as normal no matter how unusual it is. It usually isn't until you move away that you learn that the givens of your own family aren't sacred. It makes you consider the world around you in a whole different light. (view spoiler)[I loved that the book wasn't just about captivity but about the psychological impact upon release too. The news that these stories are based on focus on the horrors of the crime and not on the adjustment afterwards. In many ways Jack was an infant encountering the world for the first time. Donoghue takes us there. My favorite of these new moments was Jack's haircut. (hide spoiler)]
While some of the events in the book are disturbing, I don't think they're too disturbing. Jack's innocent voice saves us from the horror that this story could be. It's not about all the things lost in Outside. It's about wanting to stay in and safe. And it's about the power of maternal love. Because of that, the story has redemption and hope and happiness.(less)
if i voted for your review of this book before today, i had not fucking read it. oops, sorry! (upon quickfast, sherlockian investigation, i now know that only means two of you - and i read the first half of both of them before, i swear, and have now read them in their entireties) but i didn't want anything spoilt for me. i didn't want to know if the book was triumphant or devastating or funny or tragic or philosophical or melodramatic. i wanted the tone to b...more here's a confession:
if i voted for your review of this book before today, i had not fucking read it. oops, sorry! (upon quickfast, sherlockian investigation, i now know that only means two of you - and i read the first half of both of them before, i swear, and have now read them in their entireties) but i didn't want anything spoilt for me. i didn't want to know if the book was triumphant or devastating or funny or tragic or philosophical or melodramatic. i wanted the tone to be surprising, i wanted to avoid preconceived notions.
and hurrah - i got what i wanted.
now i am considering your feelings. do i think you (collective, anonymous) would benefit from a similar experience? do i dare presume?
i do, but...
but i will discuss it in what i hope will be an oblique way. if you don't know the plot of this book by now, after all the hype and acclaim, you have yourself probably been living in an 11x11 room held captive by a bad man. despite its being told entirely in the voice of an extremely sheltered five-year-old boy, it is more a meditation on motherhood and necessity and where the separation occurs between mother and child; what is the act that cleaves mother from child and allows each to lead their own individual lives? and where is the line between protection and deprivation? and what can be done with unwanted eggshells?
this book is excellent.
but i don't want to get too caught up in possible rooners. i myself want you to be like nell, all pure and speaking your own bizarre stroke-language, not knowing anything about the greater world, where this book exists. in this scenario, i am the baaaad man.
I am torn between 1 (I don't like it) and 2 (It's okay). Yesterday, I rated this "2" but in the discussion below, looks like Donoghue stole the plot from an actual event. There is nothing for me to like about this book so I am changing my rating to "1".
I bought this September 2010 copyrighted book only last Sunday for P549 ($11). Obviously, this is not part of the 1001 and 501 quests that I aiming to achieve. However, I sometimes have this urge of reading new book...moreI am torn between 1 (I don't like it) and 2 (It's okay). Yesterday, I rated this "2" but in the discussion below, looks like Donoghue stole the plot from an actual event. There is nothing for me to like about this book so I am changing my rating to "1".
I bought this September 2010 copyrighted book only last Sunday for P549 ($11). Obviously, this is not part of the 1001 and 501 quests that I aiming to achieve. However, I sometimes have this urge of reading new books as reading those mostly "serious" books can give you that old-world feeling. Kind of make you feel antiquated. This book, Room for example, mentions current book and song titles so it has that right-here-right-now-world feeling.
The plot is simple yet catchy. A 19-y/o unnamed girl is abducted by a bad guy and puts her in a modern-day catacomb referred to in the novel as simply "Room". The 11' x 11' structure is located in his backyard amidst the bushes. It has all the basic necessities (small TV, toilet, hot plate stove, etc), soundproof and a glass unbreakable roof that shows the sky.
That bad guy, called "Old Nick" (because he comes only at night bearing food and "Sundaytreats") rapes the girl everyday until she gets pregnant. The first baby comes out dead. The second is Jack and he is the narrator of this story that starts when he is a bubbly 5-y/o boy.
Both him (since the time he was born) and his mother, now 26, have not left the room. Jack does not know that there is a world outside that 11' x 11' room.
Half of the story is what happens inside the room. Half of it is outside. This is like a modern-tale of Tarzan, The King of Apes or the movie Shawshank Redemption. The characters got used to the former world and had the hard time adjusting to the supposedly "freer" one.
I liked the innocence of the boy and I can feel through the pain the mother felt for him. However, the narration is somewhat contrived and too-good-to-be-true leaving you that feeling of being shortchanged. Part of the reason is that the boy is advanced in his verbal and numerical skills and Donoghue did not offer any explanation (the mother is suicidal, happy-go-lucky normal high school graduate and could sleep and ignore her child anytime she chooses to) for that. Then, to my surprise, there is this derogatory (not sure if it is true but this does not change a thing) reference to Filipinos on p. 309: Filipina Shemale, little dirty cards with nude pictures of Filipino women or transvestites. No matter how good a book is, if foreign authors unnecessarily put Philippines and its people on bad light, then sorry, I cannot make myself like their works. Who are they to do it to us?
Filipinos should love our country and we should not patronize this kind of books. I do not understand Filipinos rating Portman's King Dork with a 5-star doing this same derogatory reference to us, Filipinos. We will not earn respect as a nation if we do not respect ourselves! I am for those Filipino doctors who marched on the street demanding apology when a character in Desperate Housewives made below-the-belt references to our fellowmen doctors in their show.
Let's say I put that aside and give the author the benefit of the doubt, i.e., she doesn't mean anything. But still I feel shortchanged. Part of it is this feeling that the author's purpose in writing the book is just to entertain us by her world of make believe. Sorry, I am past that stage in my reading. Oh I miss Kieron Smith, boy by James Kelman. He is funny, natural, thought-provoking and most of all, honest.
I was torn between 1 (I don't like it) and 2 (It's okay) but considering the derogatory reference, I settled for a "2". However, I will write a note to Donoghue in her website. I have no doubt that she has the talent but she needs to be more culture sensitive, a trait that is important to all writers if they want to have faithful followers-readers overseas. I spent my hard-earned money for her book so I deserve some kind of respect as a Filipino. (less)
danWell, our comments may have taken on a life of their own, but I assure you that mine were written after only the most thoughtful reflection.
updated
Oct 25, 2011 08:40pm
JoselitoAnd mine were not products of any reflection at all. I wrote them only using my intuition.
Oct 26, 2011 03:04am
Words are so 2010; I'm doing all my 2011 reviews as infographics:
The tweet: Oskar and Christopher walked farther, but Jack has further to go.
Lots of pluses: Unique and compelling voice of a child protagonist. If you liked Oskar and Christopher, you’ll love Jack. Treads a little too close to preciousness in some spots, but Donohoe uncovers the themes of parenting, trauma, psychological resilience, and the triumph of imagination, the inner world and the bond ...moreWords are so 2010; I'm doing all my 2011 reviews as infographics:
The tweet: Oskar and Christopher walked farther, but Jack has further to go.
Lots of pluses: Unique and compelling voice of a child protagonist. If you liked Oskar and Christopher, you’ll love Jack. Treads a little too close to preciousness in some spots, but Donohoe uncovers the themes of parenting, trauma, psychological resilience, and the triumph of imagination, the inner world and the bond between mother and child over horror bit by bit, and convincingly. Some of the minor characters are flat and ‘caricaturish’—a flaw that is easily forgiven by how well-plotted and original it is. Never feels exploitative. Book club bait, and that's okay.
Ever since its Booker nomination (it made the shortlist), Room by Irish writer Emma Donoghue has set the literary world on fire. Most people who review the book seem to love it. They talk about how riveting and suspenseful the book is and how they felt compelled to finish it in a single reading. I guess I’ll have to be one of the few dissenting voices. I really, really, really disliked Room and yes, I do have specific reasons why.
I can’t imagine anyone not knowing the basic plot of Roo...moreEver since its Booker nomination (it made the shortlist), Room by Irish writer Emma Donoghue has set the literary world on fire. Most people who review the book seem to love it. They talk about how riveting and suspenseful the book is and how they felt compelled to finish it in a single reading. I guess I’ll have to be one of the few dissenting voices. I really, really, really disliked Room and yes, I do have specific reasons why.
I can’t imagine anyone not knowing the basic plot of Room, but for those who don’t, the book was inspired by the true story of Elisabeth Fritzl, an Austrian woman who had been imprisoned in her father’s basement for twenty-four years, during which time he repeatedly assaulted and raped her. She eventually bore him seven children and had one miscarriage. Three of her children, one daughter and two sons had been imprisoned with their mother for the whole of their lives (until rescue).
Room takes its basic plot from the Fritzl case as well as the cases of Jaycee Lee Dugard in California and of Natascha Kampusch and Sabine Dardenne.
Room is narrated by a young boy, Jack, who has just “celebrated” his fifth birthday. Jack has never known a human being other than his mother, who he calls “Ma.” “Ma,” we come to learn, was abducted one night at age nineteen on her way to the school library. For the past seven years she’s been held captive in a garden shed fitted with soundproofed cork, lead-lined walls, and a coded metal security door and raped repeatedly by her captor, a man she calls “Old Nick.” Two years into her abduction, “Ma” gave birth to a son, the five-year-old Jack mentioned above.
We soon learn that “Ma” has tried to make life as normal and as sane as possible for Jack as one can in a room that measures 11x11. She holds “Phys Ed” classes for Jack in the morning and tries to ensure that he gets some exercise. She insists that they keep to strict mealtimes. They do have a TV, and though “Ma” limits Jack’s TV watching just like any good parent would do, it is from TV that Jack learns about the outside world, that he learns the stories that “Ma” entertains him with are true ones. However, despite the fact that Jack has access to television, he really isn’t aware that anything exists outside of “Room.” Even “Old Nick” isn’t “real” to Jack because Jack’s always safe in “Wardrobe” when “Old Nick” comes through “Door.” All Jack really knows about “Old Nick” is that he “brings groceries and Sundaytreat and disappears the trash, but he's not human like us. He only happens in the night, like bats.... I think Ma doesn't like to talk about him in case he gets realer.”
I have to admit, I’ve never been fond of books narrated by children, but Room, for me, was especially odious. “Ma” has created characters out of all the objects in “Room” and Jack refers to them as though they are real, living, breathing persons. There’s “Wardrobe” and “Rug” and “Plant” and “Meltedy Spoon.” One page of this is bad enough, but an entire book? It took a lot of determination for me to finish the thing. Here’s Jack describing a typical day in “Room”:
We have thousands of things to do every morning, like give Plant a cup of water in Sink for no spilling, then put her back on her saucer on Dresser.... I count one hundred cereal and waterfall the milk that’s nearly the same white as the bowls, no splashing, we thank Baby Jesus.
Waterfall the milk??????
Regarding his TV watching, Jack says:
I'd love to watch TV all the time, but it rots our brains. Before I came down from Heaven Ma left it on all day long and got turned into a zombie that's like a ghost but walks thump thump. So now she always switches off after one show, then the cells multiply again in the day and we can watch another show after dinner and grow more brains in our sleep.
And here’s Jack talking about some “quiet time” with “Ma”:
I get on Ma’s lap in Rocker with our legs all jumbled up. She’s the wizard transformed into a giant squid and I’m prince JackerJack and I escape in the end. We do tickles and Bouncy Bouncy and jaggedy shadows on Bed Wall.
Well, a paragraph of that here and there might have worked, but a whole half of a book? Not on your life. And this is a kid who can sing along to Eminem and Woody Guthrie music videos. He knows the latest dances. He listens to people speak on TV. His own mother, the only person with whom he converses, speaks normally. He uses words like “rappelling” and “hippopotami” with ease. Heck, he even knows more about the fall of the Berlin Wall than many Germans. So what’s with the almost unintelligible baby talk? I know he’s only five, but other than his horrendous speech, he seems to be a very precocious five. And please. How many rundowns of “Dora the Explorer” or “Spongebob Squarepants” can one reader take without wanting to throw the book across the room?
(From here on this review will contain minor plot spoilers. Please don’t continue reading if plot spoilers will ruin the book for you.)
The story of Room is split into two parts, the first part occurring in “Room” and the second part occurring “Outside” after “Ma” and Jack escape. The escape is, to put it mildly, totally ludicrous. For a kid who doesn’t even believe the outside world exists, to do what Jack did is beyond belief. It’s like Donoghue didn’t know what she wanted her book to be – the claustrophobic story of captivity inside a small room and how it limits the emotional and intellectual growth of a five-year-old or how a five-year-old who’s been imprisoned in an 11x11 room all his life can mature and be a hero. None of us, including Donoghue, can have it both ways.
Once we realize that Jack and “Ma” (we never do learn her name) are being held captive, one would think that Room would take on a sinister, suspenseful atmosphere and leave us wondering what “Old Nick” is going to do next. Instead, it’s painfully boring and slow going and almost totally lacking in suspense. Because Donoghue confines her point of view, at least in the first half of the book, to Jack, the insight we get is painfully mundane, and well, boring. When we finally reach the unbelievable “escape” from “Room,” it all feels forced and shallow and contrived.
Some people have made the remark that Donoghue captures perfectly the voice of a young child. I don’t think she does. I don’t even think she captures perfectly the voice of a young child who’s been imprisoned and cut off from the world for all of his five years of life. However, for the sake of argument, let’s just say that Donoghue does capture a five-year-old’s speech pattern perfectly. How many books written by five-year-olds do you find engrossing and enlightening? My bet is none. Five-year-olds can be cute in small doses and of course we love them and want the best for them, but let’s be truthful, they really aren’t very insightful or interesting for long periods of time, and neither is Jack.
And then, after the totally implausible “escape” from “Room,” Donoghue fails to explore, with deep insight, the ramifications of reentering a world from which one’s been absent for seven years, or in Jack’s case, a world he’s never known. I felt Donoghue glossed over this difficult transition. I felt the second half of the book lacked depth just as the first half did, though in a different way. What does “Ma” feel now that she’s free? Is she going to reunite with her own parents? (Her mother refused to accept “Ma’s” seeming death, while her father needed to do so and even held a funeral for her.) Is she going to introduce them to their grandson and him to them? Being held in captivity for years, then introduced/reintroduced to the outside world is going to be traumatic for anyone, but for some mysterious reason, Donoghue doesn’t want to explore the rich store of human emotions she could have mined. There was a curious disconnect between the intense trauma “Ma” and Jack would have had to suffer and the blitheness with which Donoghue relates their story.
And what of the unnatural bond, truly reminiscent of that in “Psycho,” formed between Jack and “Ma” while in “Room?” Yes, I realize that two people imprisoned together for years are going to form a deep bond, but once those people are freed, especially if they are a twenty-six year old mother and her five-year-old son, then some separation and setting of boundaries is going to be necessary in order to promote mental and emotional health. But Donoghue never explores this facet of “Ma’s” and Jack’s captivity, though clearly, she realized it exists. At one point, Jack says of himself, “Maybe I’m a human, but I’m a me-and-Ma as well.” That outlook might have served him well in “Room” but it’s a dangerous one to cultivate in “Outside.”
Donoghue took a real risk with Room and I applaud her for her courage. I think this is going to be a very polarizing book – people will probably either love it or hate it. They will feel it worked wonderfully or they will feel it didn’t work at all. Obviously, for me, it didn’t work at all. I thought the premise was wonderful, but I felt Donoghue failed to deliver. I honestly can’t understand how this book even made the Booker longlist, let alone the shortlist. I expect more depth and insight from a Booker nominated work. Do I think Donoghue was a lazy storyteller with Room? I don’t know if I’d go that far, but I do think she capitalized on gimmicks and topicality, and I was very disappointed. In the end, the whole thing felt like a cheap trick to me, and after reading it, I felt like I had to go take a long, hot shower.
This book didn't have a chance with me. 1. It was written from the perspective of a five-year-old boy. 2. For the first two thirds of the book the kid was annoying. 3. The mom breastfeeds the kid a lot. I counted twelve times before I stopped counting. The kid creeped me out by talking about which boob tasted better.
Why read it? It was this month's selection for a book club I am part of. It wasn't my pick.
Why two stars rather than one? Well, I'll...moreThis book didn't have a chance with me. 1. It was written from the perspective of a five-year-old boy. 2. For the first two thirds of the book the kid was annoying. 3. The mom breastfeeds the kid a lot. I counted twelve times before I stopped counting. The kid creeped me out by talking about which boob tasted better.
Why read it? It was this month's selection for a book club I am part of. It wasn't my pick.
Why two stars rather than one? Well, I'll be damned if I didn't start to feel sorry for the poor kid and like him despite myself. A writer who can do that to me deserves an extra star.(less)
SuelynnI read room for a bookclub too. I liked it a little more than you did but your review was spot-on! Tried to "friend" you but my math isn't...moreI read room for a bookclub too. I liked it a little more than you did but your review was spot-on! Tried to "friend" you but my math isn't so good! LOL(less)
Nov 22, 2011 09:25am
DominicAs a mom the I understand the breastfeeding was totally necessary for providing nutrition to the 5 year old. There's nothing gross about that. It's na...moreAs a mom the I understand the breastfeeding was totally necessary for providing nutrition to the 5 year old. There's nothing gross about that. It's natural to breastfeed. The mom only does it because they are not eating properly, so shes compensating for the lack of nutrition. And the boy talking about the left (breast) being better than the other I think also shows, his thinking because of course he's too old to still be nursing. I get it.(less)
Dec 10, 2011 12:10am
A novel narrated by a five year old? I'm not a kid person at all so do not think you need to be a mother to appreciate this story. There is something about Jack's way of looking at Room and at Outside that is refreshing instead of irritating. It's nice to not be dragged down by all the complexities of an adult narrator for a change and I know I would have given this story less stars if it were told through his mother's eyes. This is a story that Jack needed to tell and I am very happy that he di...moreA novel narrated by a five year old? I'm not a kid person at all so do not think you need to be a mother to appreciate this story. There is something about Jack's way of looking at Room and at Outside that is refreshing instead of irritating. It's nice to not be dragged down by all the complexities of an adult narrator for a change and I know I would have given this story less stars if it were told through his mother's eyes. This is a story that Jack needed to tell and I am very happy that he did.(less)
I still remember when the Fritzl case first came out. At the time I was still in high school and it was immediately the news headline of the week. During breakfast in the school dinning room, someone would usually pick up a paper for the table (about 7 or 8 people) and read out the 'interesting stories'. Several friends and I, sitting with our toasts and coffee, laughed at how ridiculous it was when we heard it. Most of us thought it was a joke, a poorly written horror film script. It was inconc...moreI still remember when the Fritzl case first came out. At the time I was still in high school and it was immediately the news headline of the week. During breakfast in the school dinning room, someone would usually pick up a paper for the table (about 7 or 8 people) and read out the 'interesting stories'. Several friends and I, sitting with our toasts and coffee, laughed at how ridiculous it was when we heard it. Most of us thought it was a joke, a poorly written horror film script. It was inconceivable to us how 4 people could be trapped by an old man in a basement for over 20 years. Couldn't she find any resources to break the door? or get help, or since there were 4 of them, they could at least team up and smash the father's skull to bits like some Stephen King hero. The fact that it happened in Austria only confirmed our idea that bizarre and insane serial killers mostly lurked in US and Europe (it was around the time when Eli Roth's Hostel came out, I guess Australia has the crazy hitchhiker killers). To us, the incest part was more outrageous then the whole 24 years of imprisonment. It was so distant and impossible as we sat in comfort on the safe school premises.
In retrospect, I was probably not very sensitive about the case and perhaps some of the details (at least in the news) were exaggerated or just extremely unpleasant incidences. Not that it's appropriate to blame Hollywood, but I (as well as my friends back then) was convinced that sheer determination could get you out of any trouble. Captivity can never be permanent and somehow justice would be served - remember films like Misery or Panic Room? The idea that someone would give up and remain imprisoned was too horrible to consider.
Anyway, I brought that up because Room presents a rather realistic picture of what 7 years of captivity would be like. Told from a child's perspective, your image of 'the room' is distorted to a realm of fantasy. It works well because you're spared the terror and aggression an adult would react with, but at the same time preserves the sense of claustrophobia. Everything is defamiliarised and at some points it's hard to distinguish reality with the boy's imagination. There's a scene in Benigni's Life is Beautiful where the father tricks his young son into believing that the Nazi concentration camp they were locked in was part of a game, even sacrificing his life to preserve his son's innocence. Does being oblivious to immediate danger really help in such a situation? Maybe, maybe not. But Room is beyond that, it chooses to address the post-traumatic experience rather than resorting to the optimistic 'the righteous will concur all' stereotype. It's about moving on, confronting your fear and as cliche as it sounds, the dialogue driven minimalism gives the genre another dimension. I'm also quite surprised it's long-listed for the 2010 Man Booker Prize since it doesn't strike me as being particularly literary. But hey, maybe popular and genre fiction are getting more recognition. Yay? (less)
This was the first of my Man Booker Shadowing Group reads and as such I am looking at it from a dual perspective: as to whether I judge it worthy of the 2010 award and if it works as a novel.
I feel 'Room' could herald a new sub-genre - the fictional equivalent of the Misery Memoir - MizFic. Oh dear.
It felt much more suited to being chosen for the Oprah Book Club than on the shortlist for a literary prize of this calibre. It is literary chiclit appealing to sentiment and...moreThis was the first of my Man Booker Shadowing Group reads and as such I am looking at it from a dual perspective: as to whether I judge it worthy of the 2010 award and if it works as a novel.
I feel 'Room' could herald a new sub-genre - the fictional equivalent of the Misery Memoir - MizFic. Oh dear.
It felt much more suited to being chosen for the Oprah Book Club than on the shortlist for a literary prize of this calibre. It is literary chiclit appealing to sentiment and at times it really milks it. I'm pretty immune to that sort of thing.
In its own terms it does work as a work of popular fiction. There is nothing wrong with chicklit - literary or otherwise - it just isn't something that appeals to me. Like many people I found this hard to put down because I wanted to know what happened.
Yet I did not really feel that Jack, just having turned 5, really could have had the level of comprehension expressed within the novel. Thus, I found some bits felt very much the kind of rambling consciousness of a child of this age but plenty of the book felt as if it were an adult perspective. Can a 4/5 year old really understand the concept of sarcasm? Not in my experience or that of friends who have raised kids.
I feel that if she had tackled it as other authors have as an older child/teen looking back and recalling their earlier memories it might have rung more true. (less)
TrishaI disagree. The mother was obviously very focused on her son's intellectual growth. She was the only human interaction he had (with an adult) so it wo...moreI disagree. The mother was obviously very focused on her son's intellectual growth. She was the only human interaction he had (with an adult) so it would not be very far reaching for him to understand sarcasm.(less)
Jan 12, 2011 07:19pm
AprilI wish you wouldn't insult chik-lit by calling this disturbing book by that moniker.
Oct 11, 2011 02:04pm
Most of us are unaware of how much room there is in the world or in one's individual world until all but a tiny fraction of it becomes inaccessible. And if that tiny fraction is all that we have ever known, we still have room -- or Room -- to create a world that is as large as we think it will ever need to be.
Pardon the understatement: Emma Donoghue has created an "amazing" work. ROOM begs to be analyzed, to be analyzed too much. But Archibald MacLeish just rented the last...moreMost of us are unaware of how much room there is in the world or in one's individual world until all but a tiny fraction of it becomes inaccessible. And if that tiny fraction is all that we have ever known, we still have room -- or Room -- to create a world that is as large as we think it will ever need to be.
Pardon the understatement: Emma Donoghue has created an "amazing" work. ROOM begs to be analyzed, to be analyzed too much. But Archibald MacLeish just rented the last room in my head:
A poem should be palpable and mute / As a globed fruit, /
Dumb. . . /
Silent. . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A poem should not mean / But be. ("Ars Poetica")
ROOM is not a poem. Really? Okay -- so what can I tell you? Want a real review of ROOM? Read someone else's. Mine "be" in the stars. (less)
Room, as five-year old Jack calls home, is the only place he's known. But for his mother, it's been her prison since she was abducted seven years ago. The story is compelling--a mother's love creates a world for her son in a single room, even as she grows more and more desperate.
Yet, I could not connect with the narrative. Told in the voice of Jack, the story felt contrived. It never felt like the story of a five-year old, but the story of a five-year old as told by an adult. Every ...moreRoom, as five-year old Jack calls home, is the only place he's known. But for his mother, it's been her prison since she was abducted seven years ago. The story is compelling--a mother's love creates a world for her son in a single room, even as she grows more and more desperate.
Yet, I could not connect with the narrative. Told in the voice of Jack, the story felt contrived. It never felt like the story of a five-year old, but the story of a five-year old as told by an adult. Every few pages, I could forget what seemed to me a forced construction, but without fail, something Jack would say or observe would strike me as untrue to a five-year old's perspective.
Perhaps this narrative device helped lighten a story whose subject matter was intensely depressing, but ultimately, it seemed to sacrifice the integrity of the story. (less)
I've read about a lot of different crimes, in far more detail than I'd care to remember. In all the tragedies that I've read about, manmade or otherwise, no act of violence has ever made my heart wrench more than the prolonged imprisonment of a human being for sexual purposes. It's also the crime I have the most difficulty in comprehending, as I cannot imagine the amount of inhumanity it would take to capture someone and look her in the eye, day after day for years, without mercy and without pit...moreI've read about a lot of different crimes, in far more detail than I'd care to remember. In all the tragedies that I've read about, manmade or otherwise, no act of violence has ever made my heart wrench more than the prolonged imprisonment of a human being for sexual purposes. It's also the crime I have the most difficulty in comprehending, as I cannot imagine the amount of inhumanity it would take to capture someone and look her in the eye, day after day for years, without mercy and without pity. I still get very upset when I read about these things, even years after the events which no doubt inspired this book.
To say that I was very interested in reading this book is therefore an understatement. The subject matter and the editorial accolades made this sound like a novel that was not to be missed, and the author's other work is very well-reviewed. And in the beginning of the book, I was content enough with the developments of the story, as the reader gets to know Jack and his Ma and the Room in which they've lived for so many years.
About halfway through, however, I started to become impatient with the constraints of the format the author had chosen. Having a 5-year-old narrator became an extremely frustrating exercise, both in terms of his (understandable) unwillingness to comprehend or listen to certain things and in terms of getting a truly emotional take on the experience. I don't fault the decision to write this from a child's point of view, but I do think it would have been a deeper, more rewarding story had it been narrated from an older child's perspective--perhaps from a 10-year-old's POV. I'm not certain that the voice was entirely convincing in and of itself, either; after awhile, the tendency to name every object as if it were a proper pronoun became a little tiresome, and there are interjections of thoughts and passages that are far too mature for Jack's thought processes. "In the world I notice persons are nearly always stressed and have no time," for example, shows up towards the end. (I also refuse to believe that any 5-year-old could go to a Natural History Museum and not be enthralled by the dinosaurs.) Filtering this story through someone so young also meant that the reader gains far less insight into his mother's pain and his captor's background than you might hope.
The author does include convincing details of Jack's attachment to Room itself, nice moments of closeness with his Ma, and attempts to provide adult insight and terminology through overhead conversations or snippets on tv. Overall, however, this novel was a big disappointment to me. I expected to feel something for these characters--and if it could not be something profoundly deep and empathetic, I'd at least hoped for something more than simple intellectual interest and pity.
Updated 4/27/11: I've given this a lot of thought, and based on GoodReads' ratings system, I've changed my rating from a 2 to a 1. In the end, there are two things I wanted from this book: to have some degree of deeper insight into the suffering that these characters endured and to be moved by their plight. For me, this book offered neither.(less)
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.Despite its uniqueness – written from the perspective of a five year old, this book, this novel disappointed and frustrated me somewhat. Actually, the second half of the book led me to feel rather angry. Please note that this review relates only to this piece of fiction: any cold, arrogant or dismissive tone perceived in my review in no way relates to my thoughts and feelings about the outrageous crime, the trauma, terror, dehumanisation and loss experienced by Elisabeth Fritzl and the childre...moreDespite its uniqueness – written from the perspective of a five year old, this book, this novel disappointed and frustrated me somewhat. Actually, the second half of the book led me to feel rather angry. Please note that this review relates only to this piece of fiction: any cold, arrogant or dismissive tone perceived in my review in no way relates to my thoughts and feelings about the outrageous crime, the trauma, terror, dehumanisation and loss experienced by Elisabeth Fritzl and the children she raised during her imprisonment which, it has been stated, influenced Emma Donoghue to write Room.
I really do not want for this review to try to describe and deconstruct the synopsis of this story; I simply cannot bring myself to highlight the flaws and fissures therein. But I feel that perhaps my frustrations may take me to a place where I begin pulling it to pieces.
This novel was compelling…so readable that I consumed it in just a handful of hours. I kind of want to say that the limited perspective and precociousness of the child narrator is entertaining, however that would feel disrespectful. The brutality implicit in this novel is in NO way entertaining; therefore his naivety, the rawness of his experiences can NOT tenderise the story. I could not find his perceptions amusing or charming; Jack’s constrained view of his world/s were emotionally crushing.
The circumstances of this novel are deeply, deeply disturbing. Yet, it seems to me as though Emma Donoghue has written this book to be sensational in order to become better-recognised as a bestselling author upon an international platform. This book is written for a mass market audience. I feel as though I now need to read her other novels, such as Stir-Fry, Hood and Slammerkin (which all greatly appeal to me) because she really does deserve a huge chance to redeem herself; through reading this book I felt slightly cheap, as though I was buying into one of these shocking yet commercialised saccharine-sweetened stories that I choose to ignore as I pass by so many high street bookstores.
Maybe I have become so depersonalised, disconnected and detached from my own pain, the abuse and exploitation I have endured, that I have become desensitized to the trauma which is so neatly touched upon (but in no way explored) and then so neatly wrapped-up in this novel. I am beginning to taint my writing with sarcasm…I should stop.
Hmmm...but it should be stated that:
This novel certainly lacked credibility. The second half in particular. The first half trivialised the abuses experienced by ‘Ma’ (of course through the eyes and ears of a five year old ‘Jack’ only a glimpse of these experiences could be shared with the reader); perhaps I would have appreciated this novel more if it was told through multiple voices. I needed more self-awareness, intelligence and insight from the characters.
The novel ‘Room’ also diminishes the incredulity, bewilderment and subsequent rage that Jack would most certainly have been feeling as the tiny world he and his ‘Ma’ are prisoner of literally collapses in on him when ‘Ma’ decides to give his wild imagination access to ‘Outside’.
The novel did not even come close to describing how awfully betrayed his tiny mind would have felt due to this ‘Unlying’; his false sense of equilibrium would have been completely shattered. ‘Jack’ was completely absorbed in and absorbed by ‘Room’ and the exclusivity of his relationship with his ‘Ma’, yet Donoghue decided to swiftly pass by this chaos and utter loss in order to introduce the reader to the most implausible of escape plans.
The speed at which his story, this story, is told is unbearable. In the second half of the novel, in the ‘After’ and ‘Living’ (which follows the ‘Dying’ – their astonishing escape) the time-frame of the novel juxtaposed against the sequence of events is utterly implausible. The apparent reintegration of ‘Ma’ and assimilation of ‘Jack’ into society undermined the enormity of their ordeal; this really enrages me. The trauma and bewilderment, identity confusion and attachment issues Jack alone would have endured upon his emergence into ‘Outside’ were massively overlooked by the author. I remain sceptical about the extent to which ‘Jack’ and ‘Ma’ would have encountered such insensitivity and carelessness from relatives regarding their exposure to society and wholly mystified at the apparent lack of specialist care, treatment and psychotherapy offered to Donoghue’s trauma survivors. This too really enrages me, and as such manages to endorse my feeling that this novel lacks authority. With little confidence in the author’s ability to present an entirely plausible story, and whilst accounting for the naivety of the narrator, to my great disappointment I feel that I am only able to give ‘Room’ a two-star rating.
Stunning book and the one that *should win* the Booker - of the 5 I've read/tried, i would say that only Long Song is somewhat comparable for its weighty subject, though this one has a weighty subject too. Strange Room is nice but lighter, C is mediocre at best, Parrot and Olivier boring.
This one though blows one away and as others mentioned i was ready to dismiss it - 5 year old narrator isolated in a room since birth???
Will have a full review soon.
FBC Review...moreStunning book and the one that *should win* the Booker - of the 5 I've read/tried, i would say that only Long Song is somewhat comparable for its weighty subject, though this one has a weighty subject too. Strange Room is nice but lighter, C is mediocre at best, Parrot and Olivier boring.
This one though blows one away and as others mentioned i was ready to dismiss it - 5 year old narrator isolated in a room since birth???
Will have a full review soon.
FBC Review below:
INTRODUCTION: "Room" came to my attention when it was first longlisted and then later shortlisted for the prestigious 2010 Man Booker award. It seemed to be one of the most controversial novels on the list and looking at its blurb, it is easy to imagine why.
More..."It's Jack's birthday, and he's excited about turning five. Jack lives with his Ma in Room, which has a locked door and a skylight, and measures 11 feet by 11 feet. He loves watching TV, and the cartoon characters he calls friends, but he knows that nothing he sees on screen is truly real - only him, Ma and the things in Room."
"Room" is a book that needs to be approached without knowing too much about it since the first two parts: "Presents" and "Unlying" have different flavors if you let Jack's voice to guide you in exploring what's what or if you already know.
FORMAT/CLASSIFICATION: "Room" stands at about 350 pages and is divided into five parts each named by one word that is actually quite important in what follows. Jack narrates throughout and his voice never falters and remains credible to the end.
Contemporary fiction at its best and a truly emotional novel; maybe you need to have a child to truly appreciate it, but I would still highly recommend it to everyone.
OVERVIEW/ANALYSIS: "Today I'm five. I was four last night going to sleep in Wardrobe, but when I wake up in Bed in the dark I'm changed to five, abracadabra. Before that I was three, then two, then one, then zero. "Was I minus numbers?""
So Jack wonders in the superb first paragraph of Room that decided me to read the novel. I was skeptical that the author will maintain the credibility of a five year old boy's voice throughout several hundred pages, but she did...
The five year old does not know anything else since he was born and has lived all his life there - he has a TV with 3 channels and "bunny years" that can make them clearer or fuzzier, but his viewing schedule is regulated by Ma so "his brain does not turn to mush".
Jack and Ma also have 10 books - five picture ones, though the latest one has too many "old words" and five with pictures only on the cover - the titles are really funny, Twilight and Da Vinci included - and some other stuff like five colored crayons so he has quite an interesting perspective on the world. Jack also has a tight schedule every day and its exploration forms a big part of the novel in the beginning, so we can call "Presents" and "Unlying", "normality in strangeness".
After the short transitory third part which is the weakest one of the novel since the happenings there stretch a little bit the suspension of disbelief, especially considering the whole carefulness in the setup of the "room", the book switches focus but Jack remains the same wide-eyed five year old trying to cope with what he sees now as "weirdness". So while the enjoyment of the first half of the novel was derived from "normality in strangeness", the second part deals with "strangeness in normality" and keeps the tale fresh and interesting.
Room (A++) is an impressive achievement and the one novel that imho - based on finishing three and reading enough from two more of the six shortlisted novels - deserves to win the Booker.(less)
I want to start by saying that I loved this book - loved it! When I see other reviews, prior to me reading a book, that state phrases like "unputdownable" and "kept me up all night" I tend to get very excited and have, in the past, been let down upon reading the book for myself. Not so with Room - believe the hype, people!
Room is narrated by five-year-old Jack who was born and still lives in an 11' by 11' shed with his Ma. Jack has never know any other life, and...moreI want to start by saying that I loved this book - loved it! When I see other reviews, prior to me reading a book, that state phrases like "unputdownable" and "kept me up all night" I tend to get very excited and have, in the past, been let down upon reading the book for myself. Not so with Room - believe the hype, people!
Room is narrated by five-year-old Jack who was born and still lives in an 11' by 11' shed with his Ma. Jack has never know any other life, and as far as he is concerned Room is the universe and only he and Ma exist (apart from Old Nick who is a bad man and visits Ma on an evening while Jack hides in Wardrobe and counts the creaks on Ma¡¯s bed when he's there). Room is Jack's entire existence until his fifth birthday when Ma tells him that "outside" is not just on TV but actually exists. For a boy who has known nothing and nobody else this is a difficult concept to grasp and the narrative device deployed really works in showing us (rather than telling us) how Jack tries to make sense of this information. Jack's little world has been about playing games with Ma (making an eggsnake that lives under the bed, jumping up towards the shed skylight and screaming at the top of their voices and running track round the tiny room), reading the same 5 books over and over and watching his best and only friend, Dora the Explorer, on TV. Now suddenly Ma is telling him that she once lived Outside and that she had a family and went to school before Old Nick brought her to Room and kept her there and she wants to go back!
I am usually pretty sceptical of books where the child is the narrator as I find that if not done sympathetically they make me cringe. Jack, however, was the perfect narrator: the whole world (or what he knows of it) is seen from his point of view so the book avoids the horror of Ma's plight and instead sees the relationship between mother and son, born out of the most horrific of circumstances that the reader can understand, not through Jack telling us (as he doesn't know) but through Jack showing us.
Room is both brilliantly written but also gripping: it took hold of me from the first page and never let me go until the end. This is a unique look at a relationship and a life told through the innocence and naivity of a young boy who's whole world is 11 sqaure feet. The question is, does he need anything more?
I would highly, highly recommend this book. It' one of my favourites of the year so far. The cover of the book has a quote by Audrey Niffenegger which I think sums the book up perfectly:
"Room is a book to read in one sitting. When it's over you look up: the world looks the same but you are somehow different and that feeling lingers for days".
(less)
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.This could have been a fascinating book. It’s a fascinating idea which feeds into not only our morbid curiosity, but also into the idea of the so-called “wild child.” Donoghue doesn’t quite transform this idea into good literature, though. All the time I was reading it I felt slightly as I do when I take peeks at the National Enquirer while waiting at the grocery checkout stand.
It was a brave decision to try to write this story from the POV of the child. It was an exceedingly poor d...moreThis could have been a fascinating book. It’s a fascinating idea which feeds into not only our morbid curiosity, but also into the idea of the so-called “wild child.” Donoghue doesn’t quite transform this idea into good literature, though. All the time I was reading it I felt slightly as I do when I take peeks at the National Enquirer while waiting at the grocery checkout stand.
It was a brave decision to try to write this story from the POV of the child. It was an exceedingly poor decision to have the child speak in a pidgin kind of cutesypoo dialog. Where did that come from? How did this child learn to speak? The only sources that could have taught him were his mother and the TV. The weird stilted kind of language that was put in this poor defenseless child’s mouth by the writer has no discernable source whatsoever. The result is that it's totally unbelieveable besides being off-putting. Gack. Deliver me from cutesypoo children’s dialogue. Ruined the entire book.
I also found the book strangely divided, as if it couldn’t decide if it was a story about living in isolation in almost utter ignorance of the real world, or if it was a story about how such an experience influences how the real world is seen. It began to perk up in the latter half of the book, but the kid acclimated awfully quickly. It was almost as unbelievable as the trick that got him out.
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.Any book that makes me keep reading it even when I can only describe it as horrible has to get 5 stars. The horrible is the happening...not the book. The events are terrible to imagine, but real, which makes them even worse. This is real life. We hear these stories too often, and once is too often.
**SPOILER ALERT**
I was very nervous while reading this book. It reminded me a little of a really long, really good episode of Law & Order: SVU . I just had to keep readin...moreAny book that makes me keep reading it even when I can only describe it as horrible has to get 5 stars. The horrible is the happening...not the book. The events are terrible to imagine, but real, which makes them even worse. This is real life. We hear these stories too often, and once is too often.
**SPOILER ALERT**
I was very nervous while reading this book. It reminded me a little of a really long, really good episode of Law & Order: SVU . I just had to keep reading to see what happened to Ma and Jack. The escape scene gave me serious butterflies I was so worried about them. I completely expected to cry while reading this book but I didn't. I was enthralled the entire time. Even when I wasn't reading it I was thinking about how Ma would explain different things to Jack like a dishwasher or mailbox. What about something complex like changing seasons or the Electoral College?
Donoghue's major feat is creating a Ma and Jack that you will root for from about page 4.
I really loved that after the escape the book was about life. Moving on. I think Ma even says something like, terrible things happen and life goes on. The end was wonderful, too. It ended simply and complete. It wasn't all neat tied up with a bow, because life isn't. But you got the sense Ma (I so wish Donoghue had told us her name!) could move on...it wasn't closure, just a next step. Life will still be hard, obviously you won't forget being locked in a shed for 7 years, but the book ended well. Good thing or I wouldn't have been able to sleep.
I always complain when movies (like Taken or Don't Say a Word ) end with the traumatized person magically being fine and as the credits roll, there is a sense of, "don't worry, you can live with us now even though you were just almost killed by a crazy person, here wear these new clothes I got you." There is a glossing over of the reality of the situation. "Room" doesn't gloss over anything.
The only things I had a hard time with in this wonderful, amazing book that I loved are these:
Ma is being interviewed by an Oprah-like character who wants to talk to Ma about breast-feeding Jack because he is 5 and the interviewer calls this "startling." Ma's response is, "In this whole story, that's the shocking detail?"
In fact, for me, it was. I'm sorry. I cringed every time Jack asked for "some." The other thing I couldn't stand was the dead tooth he carried around that basically became a pacifier for him, something of this mother's that comforted him.
Both of these details took me out of the story which is my only reason for disliking them. Donoghue does such an amazing job of creating Jack's consciousness that I hated to leave it. There is such an innocent sense of wonder and attempt to comprehend "Outside" that I found myself devouring the book only to be "startled" out of it every so often. I didn't want to be, I wanted to stay "in the book." I don't know if it was the word choice or what. I don't have a problem with breast-feeding and Ma was doing what she needed to to survive and keep Jack alive, I totally get that, it just didn't sit with me like the rest of the book.
Overall, I highly recommend "Room." Especially to readers who liked "The Lovely Bones." Both deal with horribly real events with a sense of wisdom that can only be seen through the eyes of a child.
“Say, that is a helluva shed you’re building there.”
“It's nothing special.”
“Oh, don’t be modest, Nick. It’s a real corker. It’s even got a skylight for some natural light. What are you going to be doing in there? A little artwork?”
“Just, you know, projects…. and stuff.”
“You got a central AC unit for it...more“Hey, there Nick.”
“Uh, hello.”
“Nice day for working in the yard, isn’t it?”
“Uh, yeah. Real nice.”
“Say, that is a helluva shed you’re building there.”
“It's nothing special.”
“Oh, don’t be modest, Nick. It’s a real corker. It’s even got a skylight for some natural light. What are you going to be doing in there? A little artwork?”
“Just, you know, projects…. and stuff.”
“You got a central AC unit for it? Plus, I see you put some furniture and a fridge in there. If you were married, I’d think you were building a man cave to get away from the old-ball-and-chain, but since you’re single, I guess you’re just planning on spending a lot of time in that shed.”
“Uh, yeah. Gonna be out here all the time. Doing…stuff.”
“And just look at that steel door with the alarm pad. You’re aren’t going to have to worry about any kids breaking into that.”
“Uh, yeah. I was worried about kids stealing my….stuff.”
“Yep. No way, they’re getting in there. Didn’t I see you sheeting it in some kind of metal under the siding? Hell, Nick, you could probably lock someone in there like a prison cell. Ha ha!”
“Uh, right. That’s a …funny idea.”
“Well, see ya later, Nick. Swing by for a beer sometime.”
7 Years Later
“Well, officer, he was kind of quiet. Always kept to himself. Still can’t believe what he did in that shed. Who could have known that’s what he was doing out there?”
*************************************************
This seriously disturbing story is narrated by Jack and starts on his fifth birthday. Jack and his Ma share Room. He thinks of every object in Room like Rug or Plant or Meltdy Spoon as a friend to be treasured, and he and Ma spend every day doing their chores and playing games like Scream where they yell as loudly as they can. Jack loves his Ma and Room, but he’s scared of Old Nick who comes some nights and stays with Ma in Bed while Jack sleeps in Wardrobe.
Jack’s Ma blows his mind by telling him that she used to live Outside, and that Old Nick stole her and brought her to Room seven years ago. She has a plan for them to get out of Room, but Jack can’t believe that the things he’s seen on the fuzzy TV screen for years are real. How can there be anything but him and Ma and Room?
The premise for this book sounds like something that a Stephen King or Dean Koontz would have come up with, and it certainly works as a kind of horror novel as Jack’s innocent depiction of life inside Room shows Ma to be the victim of a horrible crime that she is trying to shield her son from. What makes this so chilling and heartbreaking is Jack’s view of the Room as the entire world, and he has so adapted to it that the very idea of real people existing outside of it is something akin to blasphemy to him.
The writing here is exceptional, and Emma Donoghue makes what could be an over-the-top plot into a character based and all too plausible story. It’s creepy and chilling and terrible and intriguing and kind of sweet. Mostly, it's all kinds of messed up.
Perhaps the most horrible thing about Room is that Old Nick doesn’t believe in providing books because there’s plenty of TV to watch, and poor Ma is stuck rereading a few paperbacks like Twilight and The DaVinci Code over and over.
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.Setelah baca fantasi tanpa henti, saatnya refreshing baca novel yang katanya heboh banget di luar sana *katanyaaa*
awal-awal baca belum ngerti ini tentang apa, karena emang gw sengaja ga baca review atau apalah, biar nebak-nebak sendiri - lebih seru
Buku ini ada dua bagian, di dalam Room dan setelah berhasil keluar dari sana
Bagian pertama menceritakan kehidupan Jack dan Ma di dalam Room
apa yang mereka kerjakan untuk mengisi waktu di dalam ruangan itu permainan-...moreSetelah baca fantasi tanpa henti, saatnya refreshing baca novel yang katanya heboh banget di luar sana *katanyaaa*
awal-awal baca belum ngerti ini tentang apa, karena emang gw sengaja ga baca review atau apalah, biar nebak-nebak sendiri - lebih seru
Buku ini ada dua bagian, di dalam Room dan setelah berhasil keluar dari sana
Bagian pertama menceritakan kehidupan Jack dan Ma di dalam Room
apa yang mereka kerjakan untuk mengisi waktu di dalam ruangan itu permainan-permainannya, apa yang mereka makan, yah semacam itu
juga tentang Old Nick yang membawakan kebutuhan hidup mereka dan nyaris tak pernah bertemu Jack - hanya dari celah2 pintu lemari, tempat Jack tidur di usia Jack yang ke-5, akhirnya Ma menceritakan apa yang sebenarnya terjadi,
bahwa sebenarnya mereka itu dikurung - tapi Jack nggak ngerti, karena selama
hidupnya yang dia tahu ya Room itu
Setelah Old Nick menghukum mereka dengan mematikan aliran listrik di Room selama
3 hari, Ma mulai menyusun upaya pelarian - dan Jack yang memegang peranan
penting
bagian itu bikin terharu, Jack yang sebenarnya ga berani, harus menuruti rencana Ma - berpura2 mati dan digulung dalam karpet, lalu berusaha melompat dari bak truk
Bagian kedua
cerita tentang Jack dan Ma setelah berada di luar
dikejar-kejar Paparazzi, konsultasi demi konsultasi dengan dokter - bahkan harus
tinggal di klinik
cerita tentang Jack yang merasa lebih enak tinggal di Room daripada di Outside yang membuatnya bingung - dikenalkan sanak saudara, membiasakan diri dengan kehadiran orang banyak, harus belajar berbasa-basi dll
ada yang kontras, Ma merasa bebas setelah keluar, sementara Jack malah merindukan 5 bukunya yang tertinggal di Room.
ketika Ma berusaha bunuh diri, Jack harus tinggal dengan nenek-kakeknya, di sanalah Jack banyak belajar tentang hidup di luar, bermain di taman bermain, belajar hidup tanpa Ma.
waktu baca pertama, udah terasa ini kaya'nya pernah baca kejadian nyata seperti ini, lupa di mana, tapi pada dasarnya anak remaja disekap bertahun-tahun hingga beranak-pinak
untuk ukuran anak umur 5 tahun, Jack kok pinter banget ceritanya - dialognya terlalu cerdas, udah ngerti sarkasme pula, meskipun tetap tergila-gila pada Dora :D
gw sendiri lebih suka bagian pertamanya, lebih berasa 'siksaannya' halaah
soalnya di bagian kedua kaya'nya banyak banget yang mo dibahas, sampe kaya ga tuntas gitu - mo cerita soal hubungan Jack-Ma, Jack sama orang lain, belum lagi soal minat orang-orang ke mereka - jadi kaya gantung gitu deh
jangan bilang ini mo bersambung ya... grrr(less)
I can’t stop thinking about this book. The world Emma Donoghue created for the eleven-by-eleven foot space Jack and “Ma” inhabit is so haunting and real that I continue to feel frightened and creeped out. Yet I have positive feelings, too: admiration for Ma and protectiveness for Jack, who’s the cutest darn five year-old you’ve ever met. I want to take Jack home with me and cuddle. Unfortunately, taking him to a home in the outside world means he won’t know how to walk down stairs. He won’t like...moreI can’t stop thinking about this book. The world Emma Donoghue created for the eleven-by-eleven foot space Jack and “Ma” inhabit is so haunting and real that I continue to feel frightened and creeped out. Yet I have positive feelings, too: admiration for Ma and protectiveness for Jack, who’s the cutest darn five year-old you’ve ever met. I want to take Jack home with me and cuddle. Unfortunately, taking him to a home in the outside world means he won’t know how to walk down stairs. He won’t like the unfamiliar sensation of shoes on his feet. All Jack knows is the comfort of Room.
It was brilliant to write the book from little Jack’s perspective. His fresh, honest take on the world is so precious. I love how he names the parts of his world: Meltedy Spoon, Track, Sundaytreat, Outer Space, Wardrobe, Old Nick.
(view spoiler)[
Or like the time he knocks a kid down trying to hug him, coming on too strong (p. 288).
“Remember,” Grandma says on the way to the white car, “we don’t hug strangers. Even nice ones.”
“Why not?”
“We just don’t, we save our hugs for people we love.”
“I love that boy Walker.”
“Jack, you never saw him before in your life!” (hide spoiler)]
When Jack kissed Ma’s breasts goodbye I couldn’t stop laughing.
“I kiss the right and say, ‘Bye-bye.’ I kiss the left twice because it was always creamier.” (p. 303). Ha ha!
Ma comes up with incredibly creative games and activities, egged on by Jack’s stunning imagination.
This story had me on the verge of tears and left me with a very hopeful feeling, the perfect combination. I care deeply about Jack and Ma, wanting so much for their future. Though they will undoubtedly be affected by Room, I desperately want them to get revenge by living the good life. With a mother like Ma, I think Jack has an excellent start.
(less)
8 June 11 ETA: I just stumbled on this interview in Stylish.co.uk with Emma Donoghue (in 2010?) and found it interesting. Thought I'd share with those interested in her thoughts on writing a book such as this.
Room is such a hard book to read and to review. One reason I can't bring myself to rate this book 5★s is because it somehow feels wrong? to rate little Jack's story at all.
...more8 June 11 ETA: I just stumbled on this interview in Stylish.co.uk with Emma Donoghue (in 2010?) and found it interesting. Thought I'd share with those interested in her thoughts on writing a book such as this.
Room is such a hard book to read and to review. One reason I can't bring myself to rate this book 5★s is because it somehow feels wrong? to rate little Jack's story at all.
Jack has just turned 5 years old. He lives in Room (12'x12') with his Ma. Room and it's minimal contents are all he's ever known because, unknown to him, Mama was kidnapped when she was 19, seven years ago and they are being held captive by "Old Nick".
Ma does a great job of caring for and teaching Jack, in fact he sometimes sounds smarter than some children his age. But, you learn that, what first appears to be true knowledge, is only what he's seen and heard on their TV. Ma makes sure that Jack has a well-rounded day. There's exercise, only one hour of TV because "TV will rot your brain and your cells need time to grow back", reading and games. One game is the "Yelling Game", where they spend time looking up into the skylight, yelling and making as much noise as they can. We, the readers, know that this is in an attempt to be rescued, but Jack sees it as just another game in their daily routine.
Jack's given life to all the inanimate things in Room. There's Rug, which still sports the stain from his birth, Wardrobe, where he sleeps, Bed, etc. For all intense and purposes, he seems like a normal, heathy, happy child. In fact, he's a brave, naive captive who is about to learn his world is so very much larger than he could have ever imagined.
(view spoiler)[Once Jack and Ma are free, I was frequently upset by the way that she seemed to no longer have time for Jack and his questions at the time when he was his most vulnerable. But, after letting the story settle a bit and reflecting back on it, I realized that she was going through her own kind of trouble re-adjusting to the world, making it difficult for her to help him along. Then, I come back to my frustration because she is able to RE-adjust, having spent the first 19 years of her life in the real world, while Jack is experiencing all of it, so much of it frightening, for the very first time. I was so thankful that Jack had a man like his step-grandpa, who took time to explain things to him. (hide spoiler)]
Jack's journey was sometimes gripping, consistently painful, and at the heart of it, amazing. He proves the strength of the human spirit and his is never diminished.(less)
ReginaSo I can't find Forbidden! It is the first book that neither my suburban library or the Chicago library has -- and the Philadelphia Free library does...moreSo I can't find Forbidden! It is the first book that neither my suburban library or the Chicago library has -- and the Philadelphia Free library doesn't either. No US vendor sells the ebook and I ca't be the ebook from UK vendors (they won't let me!). I could by the Hardcover from Amazon, but I don't want to! This is the first time I have ever run into this situation.(less)
Jan 28, 2011 09:17am
StephThat would frustrate me. I'm sorry you can't get a copy.
updated
Jan 28, 2011 09:43am
I hold on to her hand. She wants me to believe so I'm trying to but it hurts my head. "You actually lived in TV one time?"
"I told you, it's not TV. It's the real world, you wouldn't believe how big it is." Her arms shoot out, she's pointing at all the walls. "Room's only a tiny stinky piece of it."
"Room's not stinky." I'm nearly growling.
By now, there will be very few of you who have not heard of this book. It has featured in almos...more
I hold on to her hand. She wants me to believe so I'm trying to but it hurts my head. "You actually lived in TV one time?"
"I told you, it's not TV. It's the real world, you wouldn't believe how big it is." Her arms shoot out, she's pointing at all the walls. "Room's only a tiny stinky piece of it."
"Room's not stinky." I'm nearly growling.
By now, there will be very few of you who have not heard of this book. It has featured in almost every award nomination, and has been on so many reading lists, that my thoughts on it will only add to an already swollen review database.
Room by Emma Donoghue explores the possible consequences of an abduction and a child born in "captivity". Emma sets out to create a tightly isolated environment in which the child grows up - never seeing the world outside or another human being, with the exception of his own mother and her abductor. And then, she proceeds to show how escape can mean different things to the mother and her son.
I'm sure you have heard this before - Jack's voice took me a while to get used to. It's not just the fact that the narrator is a five-year old. It has more to do with Jack's vocabulary and naming system. He occasionally used words I wouldn't expect to hear from a five-year old, and sometimes speaks like a child much younger than himself. He saw every object in his room as a proper noun - Rug, Bed, Plant, Duvet, Skylight, Wardrobe, etc. He had conversations with these objects, and far from sounding cute, that actually scared me a bit.
From Jack's perspective, there is no outside world. There is just Ma, himself and Ma's abductor. And then there's TV. Each time Ma's abductor comes to their Room at night to rape her, Jack sleeps in Wardrobe, which is his "bedroom". When I started the book, I was quite curious about how they spent each day. Didn't they tire out due to lack of things to do? Did they even have enough entertainment to last a day? Emma spends considerable time showing Ma and Jack's routine for one day - breakfast, games, TV, lunch, nap time, exercise, cooking, etc. I have to admit I was surprised when the day just whizzed by. I was most impressed with Ma's creativity with inventing games for Jack's amusement. On weekdays, they play Scream, that is, they spend some time yelling at the top of their voices. Since Jack is narrating this, it took me a long time to understand why Ma invented such a game.
Once I understood the complex structure of Room that Emma has created, I began to wonder how Jack ever got Outside, and how he coped. I enjoyed the second part of the book more because once I understood Jack, it was far easier slipping into his mind. There were a couple of areas I strongly disagreed with because even for Jack, or rather especially for Jack, they seemed near impossible. But barring those events, the rest of the book felt very plausible. Jack's attachment to Room and hence his abhorrence to leaving Room was very understanding. And yet, to Ma (we only know her as Ma in this book), Room is a prison. Having hidden from Jack any hints about the existence of the outside world, Ma struggles to convince him about everything she has denied so far.
Room was definitely a different kind of read for me. Coming on the heels of Still Missing by Chevy Stevens, I found myself thinking of the latter more often than I wished to. Abduction for an extended period of time and the victims' pregnancy are probably the only similarities between them. They were however enough to tamper with my enjoyment of this book, and so I have a feeling that I will not be picking another abduction-themed book in a long time. However, it's not fair of me to taint this book's review by mentioning the similarities, because as I recollect it, I had plenty of issues with Still Missing, whereas Room was more a clever and innovative piece of writing. It is about abduction, but it is much more than that. I'm not too big into thrillers, the ones I read have to be different in some aspect, and Room definitely met those expectations.(less)
I want to quote the blurb on the book, because it basically sums up everything I feel about the book:
"Emma Donoghue's writing is superb alchemy, changing innocence into horror and horror into tenderness. ROOM is a book to read in one sitting. When it's over you look up: the world looks the same but you are somehow different and that feeling lingers for days." - Audrey Niffenegger, The Time Traveler's Wife
I got this book on the first day of BEA. It was one of the...moreI want to quote the blurb on the book, because it basically sums up everything I feel about the book:
"Emma Donoghue's writing is superb alchemy, changing innocence into horror and horror into tenderness. ROOM is a book to read in one sitting. When it's over you look up: the world looks the same but you are somehow different and that feeling lingers for days." - Audrey Niffenegger, The Time Traveler's Wife
I got this book on the first day of BEA. It was one of the books they discussed on the Editor's Buzz panel--and I wanted it from the second they started talking about it.It's all about Jack and Ma, and you learn a few pages in that Jack has never left Room--and Room is a character in and of itself. Jack is five years old--he was born on Bed, and there is a brown stain on Rug from when Ma gave birth to him, all on her own. Throughout the novel, you learn more and more about their history in Room. Jack is a very bright, lovable five year old who has been taught by his mother that Room is all there is. When Ma decides that it's time for them to try to leave Room, Jack is reluctant because the idea of the world Outside scares him. But Ma--whose real name is only mentioned once or twice in the entire novel, if memory serves me--is desperate to get away because she knows that Jack is growing and that room cannot keep them forever.
Jack and Ma live in an eleven-by-eleven room with no windows other than a skylight, and a door that cannot be opened without a code. Jack sleeps in a wardrobe--because "Old Nick" comes at night and Ma doesn't want Jack to ever be seen by him.
The desperation of Ma to get out of the room and back into the real world is painfully realistic, especially from the eyes of Jack. One would think that hearing the entire story from the eyes of a five year old would get old or annoying after a while, but had this story been told from Ma's point of view, it would not have been nearly as unique and gripping as the tale actually is. The things that Ma has taught to Jack about what Outside is and all of the explanations she has given him sometimes make him question her when she is trying to "unlie" about it all and tell him that there really is a world out there--that his friend Dora (the Explorer) is just a cartoon, and that there are real people Outside who will be his real friends.
I loved this book. I keep looking around and seeing things in my everyday life and wondering what it must look like to someone who hasn't grown up with it all--a child who has never seen the grass, or felt the wind, or squinted in the sunshine. It's hard to think about, but this novel really makes you look at your life. I realized that my bedroom is similar in measurement to Room, and I can't imagine having a kitchen, bathroom, bedroom, and living room all combined into this single room. I can't even imagine locking myself in here for a day with my two year old sister, so I can only imagine what it was like for Ma to raise that child from birth to five without ever being able to have a moment of privacy from him--he was always in her sight.
This book comes out in September, and I think that you definitely need to get it. I rarely review adult fiction, but this novel was superb and thought-provoking. I think that the quote on the Room website sums up Jack's theory of being quite well: I'm Jack. Today I'm five. Me and Ma live in Room, that's all there is.(less)
This book grabbed me up and would not let go. It's not so much that I enjoyed the story as that I felt like I had to be there for Jack and Ma while they were going through this experience, and I had to find out what happened to them. Wow. Reading this was such an intense experience, that I now feel emotionally wiped out. Telling the story from Jack's point of view, who is a five-year-old, was simply brilliant. He doesn't know any other life except in Room, and the starkness of their situation ...moreThis book grabbed me up and would not let go. It's not so much that I enjoyed the story as that I felt like I had to be there for Jack and Ma while they were going through this experience, and I had to find out what happened to them. Wow. Reading this was such an intense experience, that I now feel emotionally wiped out. Telling the story from Jack's point of view, who is a five-year-old, was simply brilliant. He doesn't know any other life except in Room, and the starkness of their situation is felt all the more because of it. Also, I appreciated being protected, as Jack was, from the more horrifying parts of what was happening. This isn't a happy book, but I am grateful to those who recommended it to me! I never would have picked it up otherwise.(less)
This is a challenging review to write, because I feel that the more you know about this book going in, the less of an experience reading it will be. So I'll talk about the premise but not about what actually happens.
Jack is a five-year-old boy whose world is confined to a place he calls "Room." It is clear that he has never left this space, which he shares with "Ma," a loving and patient mother who is clearly struggling a great deal. At night they are sometimes...moreThis is a challenging review to write, because I feel that the more you know about this book going in, the less of an experience reading it will be. So I'll talk about the premise but not about what actually happens.
Jack is a five-year-old boy whose world is confined to a place he calls "Room." It is clear that he has never left this space, which he shares with "Ma," a loving and patient mother who is clearly struggling a great deal. At night they are sometimes visited by "Old Nick," from whom Jack must hide. It takes a while to learn why Jack and Ma are there; how they got there in the first place and why they can't leave. And that's all I'll say about the plot.
Wait -- I'll say one more thing: this book does end happily. Is that a spoiler? Actually, I think it's the opposite of a spoiler. There are harrowing moments in this book, and although I pushed myself despite not knowing whether it would end happily, I think it would have definitely helped to know.
Lots of people have praised this book with good reason, and I doubt whether I'll manage to say anything that hasn't already been put better by others (be sure to check out Joel's excellent review if you want a good description). So although it's been said, I will add my voice to the pool and say that I usually hate, loathe, and despise child narrators in adult novels. I have four kids of my own. I love them dearly, but I have yet to find a child narrator who resembles my kids in any normal way. The child narrator of the adult novel is inevitably brilliantly precocious and consistently endearing; loads of psychological insight with nary a tantrum or whine (as if being an intelligent kid automatically comes with emotional maturity -- not my experience at all); designed to pull on your heartstrings while telling a multi-layered story without ever having reached Piaget's Formal Operations stage. Or, if the author does a slightly better job of replicating the child's voice, the story ends up being simplistic and two-dimensional because kids often see things that way; although I'm happy (mostly) to listen to the stories my kids tell, they're not usually on the level of my chosen literary material.
Well, not here. Five-year-old Jack is a five-year-old I've seen before. He's self-centered. He doesn't understand a lot of things. He can act like a brat when he doesn't get his way. And through his eyes, you see a three-dimensional mother -- one who loves her child and does the best she can for him, but is struggling in a lot of ways and doesn't always act saintly (although her mothering behavior in adverse circumstances definitely inspired me to work on my own). Given Emma Donoghue's surprising success in capturing the voice of a five-year-old, having Jack narrate the story was a brilliant choice as it made this story far more powerful.
I did struggle a bit with suspension of disbelief at some points, although I'm told that this was based on some actual news stories (which I intend to go and read now) so I guess I need to stretch my imagination a bit rather than criticizing the author.
I was reluctant to read this, but I'm glad I did. Although the situation is unusual and hard to believe at times, the themes are universal and there's a lot to discuss. Not to mention the fact that it was just so well-done.(less)
HeatherI completely agree - how anyone could say this was stolen makes no sense to me, because it's clearly so creative and such a great exploration of the c...moreI completely agree - how anyone could say this was stolen makes no sense to me, because it's clearly so creative and such a great exploration of the characters - the "plot" is really just a backdrop, almost. I feel like it could only be "stolen" if a victim of this had come out and literally described these exact things.
I read it for my book club too, and we haven't met yet - I'm so looking forward to discussing it!(less)
Mar 16, 2011 02:26pm
KhayaI hope you enjoy your discussion! It should be good.
Mar 16, 2011 02:47pm
**This review contains a slight spoiler for those who want to know nothing of the book before reading it.**
I had a bit of an unusual perspective reading (or listening to) this book. In some sense, I was already very familiar with Room. Not the book itself, and not Jack's room specifically, of course. But, much like Jack and his mother, I too have been confined indoors, primarily to a single room, day-in and day-out, for more years than I'd like to think about.
My situa...more**This review contains a slight spoiler for those who want to know nothing of the book before reading it.**
I had a bit of an unusual perspective reading (or listening to) this book. In some sense, I was already very familiar with Room. Not the book itself, and not Jack's room specifically, of course. But, much like Jack and his mother, I too have been confined indoors, primarily to a single room, day-in and day-out, for more years than I'd like to think about.
My situation is obviously quite a bit different from Jack's. I'm significantly older, for one. I haven't been in this room my entire life, and I'm very aware of "Outside" and all the glorious wonders it holds. I had a chance to see the world before my confinement, and thus know too keenly all the things I'm now missing out on. In that sense, I guess I am more like Jack's mother. Except, I'm not locked in because of a cruel and abusive man by the name of Old Nick. I'm locked in because of the cruelty of a rather unforgiving and (thus far) incurable chronic illness.
I couldn't help but wonder how this affected my view of Room. Instead of trying to imagine what such a life would be like, I found some of my own life reflected back at me. I felt a strange sort of companionship with these characters. That is, it's not often I read a book where I find the setting in any way similar to my own. I understood Room. I understood the connection to the objects within it, the need to create games and develop new, clever ways to pass the time, and I understood the urgency of finding normalcy in the abnormal in order to maintain any semblance of sanity. And I understood all too deeply the mother's intense and fervent desire for freedom.
Clearly, there were many things these characters had to endure that I of course do not. My point is only that my perspective was a bit unusual. In Jack's Room, I sadly saw a bit of my own room, and thus my own life.
All that being said, no matter what your perspective may be, this is quite a gripping read. It's been awhile since I've read a book I literally could not put down. You wouldn't think a book told from the point of view of a 5-year old would grab your attention so utterly and completely, but Room does. Donoghue is quite masterful in creating Jack's voice as he first tries to make sense of the only world he has ever known, and then of the explosion of a world outside he never knew existed.
The second half of the book faltered a bit for me at times, and there were some aspects of the plot that I wasn't sure I fully bought into. I don't want to say what, exactly, as it would give too much away. But even with the slight problems I had with it, this was a thoroughly enjoyable and compelling read. It is a story whose characters I will think of for some time to come.
Emma is the youngest of eight children of Frances and Denis Donoghue. She attended Catholic convent schools in Dublin, apart from one year in New York at the age of ten. In 1990 she earned a first-class honours BA in English and French from University College Dublin, and in 1997 a PhD (on the concept of friendship between men and women in eighteenth-century English fiction) from the University of...moreEmma is the youngest of eight children of Frances and Denis Donoghue. She attended Catholic convent schools in Dublin, apart from one year in New York at the age of ten. In 1990 she earned a first-class honours BA in English and French from University College Dublin, and in 1997 a PhD (on the concept of friendship between men and women in eighteenth-century English fiction) from the University of Cambridge. Since the age of 23, Donoghue has earned her living as a full-time writer. After years of commuting between England, Ireland, and Canada, in 1998 she settled in London, Ontario, where she lives with her partner and their son and daughter.(less)
“In the world I notice persons are nearly always stressed and have no time...I don't know how persons with jobs do the jobs and all the living as well...I guess the time gets spread very thin like butter all over the world, the roads and houses and playgrounds and stores, so there's only a little smear of time on each place, then everyone has to hurry on to the next bit.”
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61 people liked it
“If I was made of cake I'd eat myself before somebody else could.”
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22 people liked it
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all pure and speaking your own bizarre stroke-language, not knowing anything about the greater world, where this book exists. in this scenario, i am the baaaad man.
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