Goodreads Book Review: Room

Room by Emma Donoghue
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I remember when the three young women held captive in a Cleveland house were discovered. The story was one of the most heinous things imaginable, and I couldn't begin to comprehend what it was like for the women. I do remember wondering about what it must have been like for the 6-year-old girl who was born into captivity to one of the women - what a bizarre way of growing up it must have been. Emma Donohue's novel Room explores this perspective. The story is narrated by 5-year-old Jack, who lives with his Ma in an 11-by-11 foot garden shed. Ma was kidnapped when she was 19-year-old college student; when the novel opens she has been imprisoned in "Room" for 7 years.

Room's disturbing subject matter is made bearable by Jack's innocence. There are shades of Life is Beautiful in the story, as Ma tries to shield and protect Jack by teaching him that Room all there is and that the images he sees on TV only exist on TV. She shuts him in a wardrobe every night before captor "Old Nick" visits, as she fills Jack's days with games, books and educational materials she asks for as "Sundaytreats." However, Ma can't maintain this life forever, and as the novel unfolds she finds herself growing more and more desperate.

Ma and Jack's heroic escape occurs midway through the novel, and the remainder focuses on the pair's struggles and triumphs in adjusting to life "Outside."

I admit it took me a little while to get into Room; initially Jack's voice just came across as stilted and unnatural sounding. But soon I was able to get lost in the Jack's unique perspective as a 5-year-old whose entire world encompasses a single room. And remarkably, details of Jack and Ma's daily rituals that would otherwise be mind-numbingly boring were made fascinating by this perspective.

The pacing actually slags a little in the second half of the novel, despite the interesting themes Donahue delves into as Jack struggles to adjust to his expanding world. But despite the limits of the narrative structure, both major and minor characters are as fully-fleshed and believable as Jack is. Although "Ma's" real name is never revealed, her fierce and devoted maternal love is only one aspect of her character. And Donohue explores how much the world Ma once knew changes during the seven years she is in captivity (her father, assuming she is dead, flees to Australia, and her mother finds a new partner whom Jack calls "Steppa").

As an outsider to the world and to society (he is described as being like a newborn), Jack has unique insights into behaviors and customs that people tend to take for granted. Observing how all the adults "Outside" are constantly stressed and complaining about a lack of time, he says that "I guess the time gets spread very thin like butter all over the world...so there's only a little spear of time on each place."

Room is not without flaws. Nonetheless, it is still one of the most haunting books I've read in awhile - at once harrowing, insightful, funny and heartwarming.


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