Room

This book is probably one of the most difficult books I've ever tried to review. It's so hard to categorize it and there is absolutely nothing out there like it. We see the world through five year old Jack's eyes, and it's remarkable how Miss Donoghue manages to depict this. Jack is so believable and so heartbreaking. Jack's Ma had been kidnapped when she was 19 and held in a small (11'x11') sound proofed shed for 7 years by a man we only know as Old Nick. She never sees the outside except through a sky light. And she has Jack two years after her abduction. We come into the story when Jack is 5, but we see what his world is like in this prison. To her credit, Jack's mom provides as much stimulus as she can for him and as a result, Jack show more is a very intelligent little boy that knows how to count, read and write. She manages to create a world for him that is safe and wonderful from within the confines of this room. The last half of the book is all about Jack and his Ma's life outside, and I think that this part is even more sad and poignant than the first part because everything is so new and scary for both of them, and they each have a huge adjustment to make while living life outside of Room. But we have Jack's perspective of everything throughout this wonderful book, and that is a special thing indeed. I think it made me even look at things differently in our big old world. Above all, this book is not sad, but it is poignant, profoundly affecting, and a book that depicts love like no other book I've ever read. I am glad I took the time to read it. show less

I admit that I was prepared to be disappointed by this book; I didn't trust its popularity. And about 1/3 into it, I got a little bit bored. And then it took off and I couldn't put it down! I woke up with Jake's narrating voice in my head (I'm just as glad to have that part done with). The book is multilayered. It's not about abuse, not really. It's an exploration of boundaries and experience, human development, the meaning of "real," and the millions of nuances of the interpersonal and the physical worlds which we simply take for granted. The relationship between Jake and his Ma is poignant, and the difference between their experiences after they are liberated from Room is believable and interesting (the Psychologist in me loved that show more part).

I laughed out loud at the scene when Jake catches a talk show on television that is about him --- and the intellectuals on the show are discussing the post-modern meanings of Jake's experience. Donoghue's not-so-subtle poke at this level of meaning in her novel is a nice touch. And the thing is, the novel is worth discussing on that level, but it's also worth enjoying as a touching, humorous, exciting, and very well-written story about a boy who encounters the world after spending his first five years in a room. show less

For a truly psychological novel, your book group might try reading Room. Told from the perspective of a five year old, this title tells the story of a mother and her son and the life they live inside a small room where they are held captive. Knowing nothing of the outside world, Jack’s frame of reference informs the story and makes his innocence all the more wondrous and terrifying. The first part of the story deals with Jack and Ma’s time inside Room, an 11-square-foot shed. After Ma reveals that Outside is not a fantasy but a real place, the two craft an escape plan. Jack’s escape will have you on the edge of your seat, or cowering beneath your covers. The second part of the story deals with Jack’s discovery of a broader show more world. Ma’s reintegration into the world after seven years of captivity isn’t easy or smooth either. A character-driven nail-biter of a novel, Room delivers everything one could want out of a book club book: complex ideas, an interesting structure, and relevance to current news. Both haunting and disturbing, Donoghue’s novel still elicits a sense of hope for a new start. The psychological aspects of Jack and Ma’s life of confinement and then reintegration with the world provide many points to launch discussion. show less

For five year old Jack, there has never been anything other than Room and Ma. He was born in Room, he's lived his entire life in Room, he has never left Room. Ever. It is his home. However, for Ma, it has been a prison for the last seven years, a place where she has been held captive by Old Nick. It is also where she keeps Jack safe, but even she knows they'll have to escape eventually. It is going to have to be a daring plan, one that requires all of Jack's bravery to deal with the Outside, a place that he has never ventured into. But if they actually get to the Outside, how will Jack deal with discovering that there truly is another outside world that he has never known about.

Told entirely from Jack's point of view, Room is unlike show more anything that I have read. To look at life through the eyes of a child who has never experienced anything beyond the 11 x 11 foot dimension of his confines is amazing. Things that we would take utterly for granted are utterly new and strange to him. It is a sometimes refreshing and frightening perspective, and one that is entirely unique.

Sometimes I found Jack to be a little too intelligent for never having experienced anything outside of Room and Ma (we never discover her real name) seems to have a little bit too much insight on how to care for Jack and the things that he needs to stay healthy for someone who was kidnapped at 19 and no contact with the outside world or guidance on how to raise a child. For instance, knowing that they need time to sunbathe from the light coming through the skylight so that they have a tolerance for sunlight or having Jack focus on things close and then far away (the roof) to help strengthen his eyes seem, at least to me, a little too far fetched for someone in Ma's situation to inherently understand.

These technicalities aside, Room is still an astounding book and one that I couldn't put down. Ma's love for Jack, even when she is at her wit's end with him, and Jack's returned love for Ma, even when he is angry with her and doesn't always understand her reasons for what she does, is evident on every page. Emma Donoghue balances just the right amounts of hope, pathos, suspense and relief to make Room an engaging story without taking any of these elements too far.

Highly Recommended. show less

A haunting tale that draws you into a world in which you, on one hand are eager to learn more, and on the other want to shut the door to. There is a sense of wanting to shut out the horrors of the story but the story teller draws you into his 5 year old world and the horrors that are the reality of our lives. This is a fascinating novel about the relationship between mother and child. The will that it sometimes takes in order to be the parent that you need to be for your children. But it goes far deeper in that the mother and child are entangled into a much smaller space and reality than the rest of us experience. Your heart breaks as you read, but there are moments when you can't help but laugh out loud. Little Jack is the kind of show more child you want to scoop up into your arms and hold tight for dear life. It is a book that I did not want to put down, and a book that will stick with me. show less

Room by Emma Donoghue is an extraordinary book. It is not literary, despite the Booker nomination: the first half reads like a thriller of the darker variety and the second half like a tear-jerker. The whole story seems contrived, and one part (the escape of Jack from the Room) stretches credibility almost to the point of breaking. Yet, the novel is strangely compelling and once taken up, hard to put down. Why?

I believe this is because of the psychological and mythical depth of the narrative. The author herself has said two things prompted her to write this novel. One, the extraordinarily limited world of a person forced to stay in close confinement for an extended period of time: the second, the bond between the child and the mother, show more especially in the early oral stages where they are scarcely two entities. Let us examine each in turn.

Jack's Ma (she is never named in the novel: she exists only as the Mother) has been confined in a soundproof, eleven feet-by-eleven feet shed in his backyard by a psychopath (known only as Old Nick) for seven years. She has been abducted by him and kept there as his sex slave since she was nineteen: Jack has been born in captivity, her second child by Nick (the first had been a stillbirth). Jack has never been outside the shed. He calls it Room, and it is all the world to him: a living, breathing entity. What is seen on the TV is a myth, and all the people inhabiting that world are unreal. The only other real (or semi-real) entity is Old Nick, whom Jack has never seen, as his mother hides him in the wardrobe as Nick comes for his nightly visit. Nick is known to Jack only through the creaks of the bed as he rapes his mother.

Jack's world is claustrophobic, but he does not know it, as it is the only world he has known for the five years of his life. For him, the existence is idyllic, a composite entity composed of only he and his Ma. All the toys, books and collages made from junk by his mother are living entities for Jack. We see Room only through his eyes: Emma Donoghue has done a fantastic job with the kid's POV. He is very advanced in certain ways but extremely juvenile in other. His language is a curious mixture of portmanteau words, grammar mistakes, and long phrases picked up from TV. It is the brilliance of the author which makes us feel the claustrophobia of the atmosphere for Jack's mother even when he himself revels in it.

Coming to the curious relationship between Jack and Ma, the Oedipal suggestions are very evident. Ma still breast-feeds Jack, even though he is five (it is called "having some" - I found that terminology vaguely vulgar, therefore effective): his penis always "stands up" in the morning. This is the "mythical drama played out in every nursery", as Joseph Campbell said: the urge of the son to kill the father and marry the mother - and the father here deserves very much to be killed.

Jack is the hero of all the fairy tales his mother tells him, like the eponymous hero of most English fairy tales. His birth in captivity, escape and rescue of his mother also parallels the story of many a Godchild (Krishna comes to mind immediately). It is highly significant that Jack prays to the Baby Jesus, and also that the villain is known as "Old Nick" - the name of the Devil.

The book is split in two: the first part in Room, and the second out of it (or "Outside" as Jack calls it). The author's aim in structuring the narrative thus is evident; to show that Jack and Ma have become a single entity almost, impossible to separate. In fact, Room has travelled with them. The invisible prison continues to suffocate Ma to such an unbearable stage that she tries to commit suicide.

Ultimately, Jack is partially rehabilitated when he goes back to the Room and says goodbye to it. We feel that finally there is a ray of hope. However, even with that upbeat ending, one has to say that the novel sort of loses steam in the second half.

Still I will give this novel four stars for the daring concept and the craft of keeping the child narrator's voice genuine through 400 pages (no mean achievement): also for the very real claustrophobia of Room and the mythical and psychological dimensions. The deduction of one star is for the rather insipid second half and the totally unbelievable escape.

Highly recommended. show less

This book was quite disturbing and very engrossing. Some moments made me feel rather uncomfortable, but I could not put it down. The concept of making the narrator a five-year old child is an interesting one, and probably the only way this novel would have worked. Jack's innocence of the situation saves this from becoming a psychological tragedy. Instead, we are shown little snippets, little indications that things are not quite right; even more so than just a woman a child being trapped in a room might indicate. As a reader, I found the emotional toll quite high, and I do not think I could have read for much longer, if they had not escaped when they did. Convincing and spine chilling, one cannot help but admire young Jack and show more congratulate his mother for making the best of a terrible situation. show less