The Enormous Room by E.E. Cummings

[Diane]

Rating: 3.5 stars
Read: March 2017

This is a fictionalized memoir/semi-autobiographical novel based on Cummings experiences as a prisoner of war in a French concentration camp for four months during WWI. The title refers to the large cell in which the male prisoners were kept.

Cummings paints rich descriptions of his fellow inmates (you can see a lot of his talent as a poet here). He even throws in a bit of humor from time to time, despite the harshness of the surroundings. Their are also a few jabs aimed at the French government.

Overall, a good book, although Cummings sometimes tends to go a bit overboard with his descriptions of characters and day to day life in the prison. Also, not a lot really happens here. Again, the book is mainly descriptive. It also seems a bit disjointed at times.

[Kristel]

I completed this work by the young e.e.cummings written at 18 about his time as a prisoner or detainee of the French Government for suspicion during WWI. The author my be better known for his poetry but this is a work of nonfiction/memoir and the prose is delightful. He paints a picture with his words. I read this as an audio and am now going through it to study it a bit. Not sure yet how I would rate it. But it is probably a great piece of literature.

Cummings and his friend B are really pacifist but go to Paris and volunteer as ambulance drivers. Because B writes letters home that are negative toward the French, they are detained in a war detention camp for several months. This book is about that experience. Cummings wrote it to satisfy his father who wanted to sue the French government for the imprisonment of his son. Cummings wrote it upon his father's word that he would not sue. The story follows the structure of The Pilgrim's Progress. It draws pictures of the characters through the written word. It is a journey for cummings in his early years. He wrote this when he was 18. Rating 3.3 (I probably liked this more than this rating indicates)

[Amanda]

Read: March 1st 2019
Rating: 3 stars

I listened to this one on audio as well. I imagine I missed some of the characteristic features of Cummings' work this way (such as the lower case i), but I still enjoyed it as audio.

One thing that particularly struck me was how apolitical it was for a book about political imprisonment, but the fact that it rested on the idea of loyalty to a friend instead was a great narrative angle as well. The whole rag-tag cast of disparate characters also really made it come alive for me. I would say it was a high 3 stars (maybe 3.5), I enjoyed it quite a bit, but I wasn't so deeply moved that I would put it on an all time favorites list.

[Valerie]

Finished May 31, 2019

This is a very interesting, fictionalized autobiography of e. e. cumming’s time in French prison during WW1. It starts in a very sardonic way, gently mocking the situation and the French Government, along with his observations of his transport to the prison. In fact, at first his narrative seems like a farce until his actual arrival at the prison. Then when he starts describing his fellow inmates in the ‘enormous room’ there is real affection mixed in with the gimlet eye. Cummings was a keen observer of the others at the prison (inmates, guards and others) as well as his surroundings and the routine of their days. His writing is very descriptive and abstract at the same time. He does not go into too much detail of how awful it must have been, but the allusions of the filth, cruelty and poor treatment paint a very powerful picture. 4.5*