Joel’s review of Room > Likes and Comments
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I read a fantastic review of this a few days ago, and now I want to go out and buy a copy right now. It sounds phenomenal.
it's one of those books that i can easily see a lot of people hating. i think it depends on whether or not you can abide a book that lives more in the heart than the head. if you going in looking for something heady or a satire, you're going to be disappointed. but as a character study and an emotional story, i think it really works well. maybe it's kind of populist, maybe that's bad. i don't think so.
Sounds intriguing. Just added it 'to read'.
Great review -- I didn't quite understand the Magic N-word you crossed out. Is that an idiom?
i was referring to this trope in fiction, which presents an often simple-minded black character as having some kind of "true wisdom" about the world, teaching it to the white characters.
I have to agree there is nothing worse than a precocious nine year old.
do not read this:
it is the most annoying child narrator I have ever read. Now I always have to have personal ethical debates about whether to lie when people ask me if I know that book with the maps in it.
Just by chance the book I read just prior to Room was EL&IC. I hated it for probably the reasons I am loving Room. The nine-year-old was obnoxious. I kept thinking it was Foer not the character. In Room, Jack was Jack . . . it was the five-year-old. Great review.
thanks. oddly enough i just read EL+IC, obviously shortly after finishing room, and while i found it to be an engaging read, i didn't buy the narrator's voice at all, and found it too cute by half. it gave me heavy boots to keep reading the stupid catch phrases he shoehorned in there.
I'm buying this book because of Joel's review.
This sounds like too much for me...at least Jaycee Dugard's kids had the whole backyard to roam around in...
i found it to be a surprisingly un-harrowing book. remember, it's told through the child's eyes, and he doesn't really understand a lot of what is happening (he loves Room, for example). It's not really a tearjerker, despite the premise.
You lost me at "I haven't read Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close but it's probably annoying." I happened to love that book and character dearly. Oh well. I haven't read Room but it probably is obnoxious or, worse, waiting to become a precious Lifetime movie.
well i subsequently read EL&IC and it was annoying, so kudos to me. precocious child narrators give me heavy boots.
although the parts of that book that really bugged me had more to do with JSF's tics as a writer and also the very boring backstory for the older characters.
I almost got this the other day. I'll have to go back and do so.
This review is the best I've read all night.
thanks. i hope you find it to be non-obnoxious and not at all a precious lifetime movie.
there was a lifetime movie about a mother shooting her children. I liked that one as a kid
i don't think lifetime movies and precious moments have much to do with each other.
Best lifetime movie is still Unwed Father with Brian Austin Green.
i think "mother may i sleep with danger?" wins for having the best tile.
Fantastic review. Thank you for verbalizing what I was feeling, but unable to get properly into words.
I would also like to thank you for the term "magical negro"! It seems I was aware of this phenomena, but did not know there was an actual term for it.
Another best lifetime movie title: My Stepson, My Lover. lol!!
Great review. I couldn't express myself as well, but you said exactly what I wanted to say!!
Great review. Makes me want to read it even more.
Love that this thread devolved into a discussion on Lifetime movies, all of which were brilliant and ridiculous. Mother May I Sleep With Danger was awesome and I think it spawned the teen-girl-bad-man string of movies they did afterwards.
Good review, definitely makes me curious to read this one
Great review, really expected to hate this book as well and only picked it up due to all the attention and controversy attached to it. I am glad i did for the last two days i have lived with Jack!
Thank you for not telling about the plot. I think it's great that you got my attention without knowing anything about it, and I will put it on my request list at the library!
Thanks for writing such a descriptive review without giving the plot away. I think I have to go out and get this book, now, thanks to your excellent review!
you're welcome! i tried to avoid spoiling myself before i read it but right after i started it i made the mistake of reading the new york times review, which gives away major elements of the narrative. i didn't want to ruin it for anyone else!
did you read it? i liked it. it hasn't held up super well in my head but it's well executed.
it's not like the book is full of lurid detail. it's all from the point of view of the boy, and he doesn't really understand what is happening. i think it is interesting because it shows how children's understanding of the world is shaped by their experiences and environment. the kid is totally happy growing up because he doesn't know any different.
well i don't think she really IS writing about rape and molestation. those are the circumstances but very little of that is on the page. the book is about how a very bizarre and harrowing set of circumstances can appear normal through a child's eyes. of course, readers know what is really going on, but there aren't any explicit scenes of rape or anything. also no child molestation, nothing sexual happens to the boy.
i don't care if you read it but the book is hardly exploitative. i wouldn't be interested in a standard thriller about rape and kidnap, but that's not what this is.
also if no one writes even non-fiction about it, how can we increase awareness that it is actually a problem? not talking about problems doesn't make them go away, as you know well. i'm sure a lot of people don't want to read gross books about animals being slaughtered.
how would you unless you read it? i never know if a popular book is worth reading until i actually do. sometimes they are.
i agree when it comes to your average killer thriller (but then, i don't read those books very often). but this particular book is about giving the survivors a voice rather than focusing on the acts themselves. sure, you could say it is exploitative because it uses those incidents as a hook, but it does an ok job, though it is hardly a sophisticated treatment of the material.
@K.I. Sure, the premise is creepy, but there is nothing in this book that is lurid. If the topic doesn't interest you, don't read it. I'm not sure why, if you're not interested in reading this book, you have spent so much time debating it.
I thought this Book was engrossing, and i agree, a terrific representation of a child mind. I was lucky enough to know nothing when I started, so entering this world was a bit like a drug flashback in the beginning.
Well said Joel. But I still don't get how the boy acquire such language proficiency.
Ladyjexie wrote: "Sounds intriguing. Just added it 'to read'."
yes, i think so
I just started reading this book and I'm on the fence about finishing it. I don't know if I can swallow the 5 yr old narration thing. I'm hoping the story will draw me in and I will forget about the annoying narrative. Your review gives me hope.
Tina wrote: "I just started reading this book and I'm on the fence about finishing it. I don't know if I can swallow the 5 yr old narration thing. I'm hoping the story will draw me in and I will forget about t..."
At some point, it was annoying and disturbing but the theme was great and was perfectly portrayed by the innocent narrator. I still suggest on reading it through.
you get used to the voice (and the book settles down a bit) after a few chapters. i think it is tough to love right away; you have to get into the rhythm and get used to his head.
I listened to this book on CD in my car--it really came alive--and is probably why I like the book so much--I hve now listened to it twice--and it is just so thought-provoking--it really is a good novel butter be scotch--read is hearing a 5 year old voice---or better yet--get it on CD:)
I read the book without knowing anything other than a little boy lived in this room and it was told from his perspective. I agree with your comment, Joel, about reading without knowing much at all. It made for an entirely different reading experience.
thanks, angela -- i tried to keep away from as many spoilers as possible.
This was a fantastic book and you have pointed out many of the reasons why. Try the audio book. It is even more compelling and so well done
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Madeline
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Sep 15, 2010 08:32AM
I read a fantastic review of this a few days ago, and now I want to go out and buy a copy right now. It sounds phenomenal.
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it's one of those books that i can easily see a lot of people hating. i think it depends on whether or not you can abide a book that lives more in the heart than the head. if you going in looking for something heady or a satire, you're going to be disappointed. but as a character study and an emotional story, i think it really works well. maybe it's kind of populist, maybe that's bad. i don't think so.
Sounds intriguing. Just added it 'to read'.
Great review -- I didn't quite understand the Magic N-word you crossed out. Is that an idiom?
i was referring to this trope in fiction, which presents an often simple-minded black character as having some kind of "true wisdom" about the world, teaching it to the white characters.
I have to agree there is nothing worse than a precocious nine year old. do not read this:
it is the most annoying child narrator I have ever read. Now I always have to have personal ethical debates about whether to lie when people ask me if I know that book with the maps in it.
Just by chance the book I read just prior to Room was EL&IC. I hated it for probably the reasons I am loving Room. The nine-year-old was obnoxious. I kept thinking it was Foer not the character. In Room, Jack was Jack . . . it was the five-year-old. Great review.
thanks. oddly enough i just read EL+IC, obviously shortly after finishing room, and while i found it to be an engaging read, i didn't buy the narrator's voice at all, and found it too cute by half. it gave me heavy boots to keep reading the stupid catch phrases he shoehorned in there.
I'm buying this book because of Joel's review.
I loved this book. I was surprised how much I loved Jack.
This sounds like too much for me...at least Jaycee Dugard's kids had the whole backyard to roam around in...
i found it to be a surprisingly un-harrowing book. remember, it's told through the child's eyes, and he doesn't really understand a lot of what is happening (he loves Room, for example). It's not really a tearjerker, despite the premise.
You lost me at "I haven't read Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close but it's probably annoying." I happened to love that book and character dearly. Oh well. I haven't read Room but it probably is obnoxious or, worse, waiting to become a precious Lifetime movie.
well i subsequently read EL&IC and it was annoying, so kudos to me. precocious child narrators give me heavy boots.although the parts of that book that really bugged me had more to do with JSF's tics as a writer and also the very boring backstory for the older characters.
I almost got this the other day. I'll have to go back and do so.This review is the best I've read all night.
thanks. i hope you find it to be non-obnoxious and not at all a precious lifetime movie.
there was a lifetime movie about a mother shooting her children. I liked that one as a kid
i don't think lifetime movies and precious moments have much to do with each other.
Best lifetime movie is still Unwed Father with Brian Austin Green.
i think "mother may i sleep with danger?" wins for having the best tile.
Fantastic review. Thank you for verbalizing what I was feeling, but unable to get properly into words.I would also like to thank you for the term "magical negro"! It seems I was aware of this phenomena, but did not know there was an actual term for it.
Another best lifetime movie title: My Stepson, My Lover. lol!!
Great review. I couldn't express myself as well, but you said exactly what I wanted to say!!
Very interesting review. I think I'll give this one a try
Great review. Makes me want to read it even more. Love that this thread devolved into a discussion on Lifetime movies, all of which were brilliant and ridiculous. Mother May I Sleep With Danger was awesome and I think it spawned the teen-girl-bad-man string of movies they did afterwards.
Good review, definitely makes me curious to read this one
Great review, really expected to hate this book as well and only picked it up due to all the attention and controversy attached to it. I am glad i did for the last two days i have lived with Jack!
Thank you for not telling about the plot. I think it's great that you got my attention without knowing anything about it, and I will put it on my request list at the library!
Thanks for writing such a descriptive review without giving the plot away. I think I have to go out and get this book, now, thanks to your excellent review!
you're welcome! i tried to avoid spoiling myself before i read it but right after i started it i made the mistake of reading the new york times review, which gives away major elements of the narrative. i didn't want to ruin it for anyone else!
did you read it? i liked it. it hasn't held up super well in my head but it's well executed.
it's not like the book is full of lurid detail. it's all from the point of view of the boy, and he doesn't really understand what is happening. i think it is interesting because it shows how children's understanding of the world is shaped by their experiences and environment. the kid is totally happy growing up because he doesn't know any different.
well i don't think she really IS writing about rape and molestation. those are the circumstances but very little of that is on the page. the book is about how a very bizarre and harrowing set of circumstances can appear normal through a child's eyes. of course, readers know what is really going on, but there aren't any explicit scenes of rape or anything. also no child molestation, nothing sexual happens to the boy.i don't care if you read it but the book is hardly exploitative. i wouldn't be interested in a standard thriller about rape and kidnap, but that's not what this is.
also if no one writes even non-fiction about it, how can we increase awareness that it is actually a problem? not talking about problems doesn't make them go away, as you know well. i'm sure a lot of people don't want to read gross books about animals being slaughtered.
how would you unless you read it? i never know if a popular book is worth reading until i actually do. sometimes they are.
i agree when it comes to your average killer thriller (but then, i don't read those books very often). but this particular book is about giving the survivors a voice rather than focusing on the acts themselves. sure, you could say it is exploitative because it uses those incidents as a hook, but it does an ok job, though it is hardly a sophisticated treatment of the material.
@K.I. Sure, the premise is creepy, but there is nothing in this book that is lurid. If the topic doesn't interest you, don't read it. I'm not sure why, if you're not interested in reading this book, you have spent so much time debating it.
I thought this Book was engrossing, and i agree, a terrific representation of a child mind. I was lucky enough to know nothing when I started, so entering this world was a bit like a drug flashback in the beginning.
Well said Joel. But I still don't get how the boy acquire such language proficiency.
Ladyjexie wrote: "Sounds intriguing. Just added it 'to read'."yes, i think so
I just started reading this book and I'm on the fence about finishing it. I don't know if I can swallow the 5 yr old narration thing. I'm hoping the story will draw me in and I will forget about the annoying narrative. Your review gives me hope.
Tina wrote: "I just started reading this book and I'm on the fence about finishing it. I don't know if I can swallow the 5 yr old narration thing. I'm hoping the story will draw me in and I will forget about t..."At some point, it was annoying and disturbing but the theme was great and was perfectly portrayed by the innocent narrator. I still suggest on reading it through.
you get used to the voice (and the book settles down a bit) after a few chapters. i think it is tough to love right away; you have to get into the rhythm and get used to his head.
I listened to this book on CD in my car--it really came alive--and is probably why I like the book so much--I hve now listened to it twice--and it is just so thought-provoking--it really is a good novel butter be scotch--read is hearing a 5 year old voice---or better yet--get it on CD:)
I read the book without knowing anything other than a little boy lived in this room and it was told from his perspective. I agree with your comment, Joel, about reading without knowing much at all. It made for an entirely different reading experience.
thanks, angela -- i tried to keep away from as many spoilers as possible.
This was a fantastic book and you have pointed out many of the reasons why. Try the audio book. It is even more compelling and so well done
