The Mars Room Book Review
Sneha Jaiswal (Twitter | Instagram | GoodReads)
“The Mars Room” follows Romy Hall, a former stripper serving a life sentence in a high-security prison, who recalls fragmented memories of her life, vividly detailing the harsh reality of living among criminals in a system that seems to care for no one.
Rachel Kushner’s writing style is so frenetic, it feels like The Mars Room is a real-life memoir, where a person simply jots down any interesting memory that comes to them. Most of Romy’s memories are from working at a place called “The Mars Room.” It’s there that one of her clients, a creepy man, begins to stalk her. His obsession with Romy leads to her incarceration – she acts out violently in self-defense, lands a crappy state-appointed lawyer, and ends up in jail. She ends up in Stanville Women’s Correctional Facility, surrounded by dangerous women, each one with a wilder story than the other.
But this book isn’t just about Romy; it also follows a few other characters. Some are her fellow inmates, while one is a correctional educator who struggles to avoid entanglements with attractive prisoners like Romy. Later, we even get the perspective of Romy’s stalker. The author skillfully weaves these narratives together, though at first, the shifts can be frustrating, as it’s unclear how they connect to the main character.
While I liked Kushner’s writing style, I really needed some more structure from this story because, in the end, it just felt underwhelming. Romy doesn’t seem to care much about anything except her young son, who is left at the mercy of her estranged mother when she is imprisoned. And the thing is, how does the reader care about a protagonist who doesn’t give a damn about themselves? Especially when not a lot of interesting things are happening around her. Besides, foreigner viewers will feel overburdened with all the colloquial terms and references about San Fransisco, although, I suspect that maybe those from the region might enjoy local descriptions.
In the end, “The Mars Room” is a frenzied read about a woman prisoner, her life experiences, and her desperate attempts to connect with her son. The climactic chapters were a little jarring, however, it helps understand the twisted psyche of the stalker that ends up destroying Romy’s life.
Give this book a try if you’re intrigued by the idea of a fictional novel set in women’s prisons. I especially enjoyed the parts featuring interactions between the prisoners and the elaborate schemes many women devise to “trap” someone – either to help them escape or to fund their lives once they’re released.
Rating: 3 on 5.
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