Emma Donaghue - Room

Chocaholica · 2011-01-15T19:05:45+00:00

Has anyone else read this? I just read it, intrigued but not tbh expecting much, and found it very compelling. Yes, the narrative voice gets a bit lost (v hard to write from 5 year old perspective for whole novel I think) and I was cross at the end, but it was very powerful and moving, I thought. Not least because it made me realize that children don't necessarily need/want what we want them to, or think they do.

CupcakesHay · 15/01/2011 22:12

got it to read - but kind of keep looking at it and picking up other books over it.... is it good?

Original poster

Chocaholica · 16/01/2011 08:04

I thought it was! it is gripping and a very easy read, too.

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sumum · 16/01/2011 12:34

read this in a day yesterday after someone had recommended it to me.
I am still thinking about it this morning.
Very interesting read.

TeenageWildlife · 17/01/2011 17:52

Really unusual and rather gripping I thought.

comewhinewithme · 17/01/2011 17:54

The firstery half was very gripping. My heart was pounding during a certain point.
The second half was ok but I thought it got a bit lost.

On the whole I did enjoy it.

MaggieMuggins · 17/01/2011 22:44

I picked this book up in a shop today and for some reason the premise made me feel really anxious and I had to put it down like it was an evil presence. I was having a bad day though...

boogeek · 17/01/2011 22:57

Oh I am happy to see this thread, I just finished it a couple if days ago and have been thinking about it a lot since. Quite the most compelling book I've read in a long time. My only criticism really was that jack and ma managed to spend that week apart without either if them getting distressed - were we supposed to think they were glad of a bit of space? Because I don't think they would be. Sure, for an afternoon....loved Steppa though :)

Original poster

Chocaholica · 18/01/2011 08:19

Not sure how much to say as plot spoiler, but I thought about the Ma/Jack separation thing too. And concluded that she psychologically was having a breakdown of sorts and needed space.

Most interesting for me, I think, was how Jack utterly loved and felt safe in a space of imprisoned horror.

I liked Steppa too. The real grandfather.... can't bring myself to say anything about him...

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LordVolAuVent · 19/01/2011 22:39

Have just read this book and loved it, but in a strange way because i found it so moving in an almost uncomfortable way. Haven't really stopped thinking about it since. Think Jack reminded me of my little boy a lot, which is possibly partly why I was so affected.

Why were you cross at the end chocaholica?

I too thought that ma was having a breakdown and probably totally unaware like when she was "Gone" on occasion. Agree that Jack would've been more distressed most likely, (although think he was distressed, i really felt awful for him) but quite glad he wasn't too much more so, don't know if I could've taken it!!

Did anyone else feel irrationally a bit angry with ma for not being more understanding of jack's feelings towards Room afterwards?! Although completely understanding her desperation to get out/away and impatience to get back to things..

I thought it the best portrayal of mother-child love and bond i've read anyway, and how a mother will do anything really to protect her child and keep him safe and feeling loved, as you said Chocaholica.

Original poster

Chocaholica · 20/01/2011 07:39

I think I was cross because I kind of felt the ending (not the very end, but the bit just before) was weaker than the rest. And I felt Jack was accepting the new life faster than he would have given the way his character had been portrayed. But as you say, I didn't want him to be more distressed either!

As for Ma, well, I've thought a lot about this. I reckon she had just been holding it together for so long that she just let it all out at once and couldn't take Jack's feelings into account entirely anymore. Which is understandable given she'd only thought about him all those years.
Also I wonder if for her the room reminded her more of rape and of her first lost baby, which she had repressed while in there but desperately needed to escape afterwards.

Whatever the flaws in this book, it has really made me think. Not least about how maternal love can overcome so much else for kids. You know like the magic 'kiss it better Mummy', and it works, somehow, well that's because they sense that we love them and they feel protected.

Presumably that sense fades over time. My DDs are little though (oldest is 3) and it's still like that now here.

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Deaddei · 20/01/2011 22:05

I have just bought it today along with a book by Linda Grant, the name escapes me.

LordVolAuVent · 20/01/2011 22:37

yeah i agree, chocaholica, about ma's feelings towards jack and the room - a kind of post traumatic stress disorder no doubt! obviously while jack had only seen the room as home and was completely safe and protected in there (or felt as if he was), ma was looking to escape the whole time and knew it was never home, and she was always half out the room in her mind.. do completely understand her feelings but felt really so sad for jack. was glad about what ma did right at the end.

agree also that jack probably did move on quickly, although it was kind of explained by the doctor saying about how at his age he was still 'plastic' and it is true that kids are remarkably resilient and accepting at a young age, especially as he had really come to very little psychological harm and no physical harm because of how amazing ma was.

read somewhere that the author was more interested in the idea of a 5 yr old 'arriving' on earth, and the mother-child bond, rather than real traumatic, harrowing stuff, which is why she went into no real distressing detail with the rape/kidnap thing or details about old nick... i guess having jack really traumatised wouldn't have served much purpose really, with that in mind.

it has made me think SO much as well, and made me really proud of that maternal love. I think jack is one of my favourite ever characters, i loved him! ps. was also really glad they still shared a bed, is that strange?? i think ma would've needed to as much as jack!

sorry if we've ruined it for you deaddei!

LordVolAuVent · 20/01/2011 22:38

yeah i agree, chocaholica, about ma's feelings towards jack and the room - a kind of post traumatic stress disorder no doubt! obviously while jack had only seen the room as home and was completely safe and protected in there (or felt as if he was), ma was looking to escape the whole time and knew it was never home, and she was always half out the room in her mind.. do completely understand her feelings but felt really so sad for jack. was glad about what ma did right at the end.

agree also that jack probably did move on quickly, although it was kind of explained by the doctor saying about how at his age he was still 'plastic' and it is true that kids are remarkably resilient and accepting at a young age, especially as he had really come to very little psychological harm and no physical harm because of how amazing ma was.

read somewhere that the author was more interested in the idea of a 5 yr old 'arriving' on earth, and the mother-child bond, rather than real traumatic, harrowing stuff, which is why she went into no real distressing detail with the rape/kidnap thing or details about old nick... i guess having jack really traumatised wouldn't have served much purpose really, with that in mind.

it has made me think SO much as well, and made me really proud of that maternal love. I think jack is one of my favourite ever characters, i loved him! ps. was also really glad they still shared a bed, is that strange?? i think ma would've needed to as much as jack!

sorry if we've ruined it for you deaddei!

LordVolAuVent · 20/01/2011 22:38

sorry, dunno why that posted twice!

Cyb · 20/01/2011 22:41

I loved it

Made me think differently about how children see the world and what high expectations we have of them

But it does take a bit of getting used to at the start to learn the boys way of describing things

Cyb · 20/01/2011 22:41

I loved the step Grandpa character too

missyfafa · 20/01/2011 22:50

Thought the idea was good, although it reminded me somehow of "The Lovely Bones" but poorly written and somewhat of a let down at the end.

ivykaty44 · 26/01/2011 10:19

Ma had protect jack in the room by getting him to go in the wardrobe and in doing so he was protected from old nick when he visited in the night/eve

Lucifera · 26/01/2011 13:28

I read it v quickly, couldn't put it down, and we're going to discuss it in my reading group soon so am glad to see this thread. I did have trouble believing some of it, the escape plot and how it worked for one thing, but then considering what happened in the Josef Fritzl case I suppose it wasn't so far-fetched.

Davsmum · 28/01/2011 13:41

I am halfway through the book and enjoying it. It seemed a bit unrealistic that Jack went from not knowing anything about why they were there to being able to deal with their escape within a few days ? - and at the age of 5 ??
After Ma being there for 7 years - they got away too easily at what was the first attempt since Jack was born.

I hope by the end of the book, I am still enjoying it

MrsvWoolf · 28/01/2011 21:07

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

atswimtwolengths · 29/01/2011 16:36

I'm three-quarters of the way through it - Jack's mum has just taken an overdose.

If this had been written before the Fritzl case (also the other case in Germany (Natascha Kampusch) then I would have thought this was a better book.

But the story has just been given to the author - there's nothing she's done that any other author couldn't have done. It's not her story, it's a news story.

I found the escape just ridiculous. The man didn't check the child was dead? The police found the house so easily (oh three stop signs and a left turn - that must be X Road! And lo and behold it IS X Road! And oh there's a shed!)

The mum was found just minutes after the police saw Jack yet Jack had no idea where he lived. It makes a mockery of people in that situation.

Also (revving up now) why didn't his mum write something on his body for him to show the police? Why a letter, which the guy was obviously going to find?

atswimtwolengths · 29/01/2011 16:38

Far more tension would have been given if two voices had been heard - his and his mum's. The search for the mum could have been really powerful if we'd heard her point of view - imagine her waiting, not knowing whether her son had actually been buried. Imagine if Old Nick had come to see her and said nothing about Jack's escape - how scary would that have been for the mother?

By the way, where was Old Nick when the mother was found?

Earwigging · 30/01/2011 09:16

For one horrible moment when Jack was safe with the police I thought Old Nick had gone back to the shed to kill Ma, and she had made that sacrifice so he could be free.

Also a bit miffed with Grandma for not being more understanding, she seemed to expect him to behave more normally.

But overall a very good book, very gripping and I don't read many books to the end, often get bored!

Davsmum · 31/01/2011 13:26

atswimtwolengths

I have now finished it and I must agree with all you have said.
Overall I suppose I did enjoy the book/glad I read it but I would have preferred it had those points you raised not been that way.