Emma Donaghue - Room

[Chocaholica]

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.

I loved ROOM, was frightened of reading it then frightened to stop. Blogged about it on www.amandacraig.com

I hope it wins the Orange prize, as it's the most original novel for years.It didn't make me feel grubby - I was expecting it to be far more closely modelled on the Fritzl case, but it's not.

I finished the book last weekend - and overall enjoyed it as I said before. However, another thing that puzzled me - If the room was 11ft by 11ft ( have I got that right?)
How on earth did it fit: A bed. A sink. A stove. A wardrobe. two chairs( one a rocker?) A table. A bath. A toilet ???

BTW in case you've not seen this is the book of the month

I agree that it was a very fast read, I had loads to do but kept going back to the book because I wanted to keep reading. I enjoyed it but some things didn't sit well with me.

I loved the relationship between Ma and Jack and I had so much admiration for the time and effort she put into making their horrible existence as fun and as normal as possible for Jack. I thought that it was lovely that she breastfed him to the age of 5, but got a bit exasperated with the constant, almost relentless, references to it. The voice of Jack wasn't really consistent throughout the book - did anyone notice the part where he was referring to Ma throwing up as a thick sort of something falling out of her mouth (or something) and in the next breath using the word vomit.

I thought the escape was completely unrealistic too. Seemed too much to expect that Old Nick wouldn't take the simple precaution of checking that the boy was actually dead, and I really can't see him taking the risk of driving the body somewhere to bury it. Judging from the very few glimpses into his character ("Other girls would kill for this sort of set-up" was quite genius I thought, just the sort of thing a sicko like that would believe) I would have thought he'd just bury it in the backyard like before and pretend it was
elsewhere.

The ending wasn't really an ending I thought, it sort of petered out rather than having a definitive end. I haven't stopped thinking about this book though since I read it so it was good in that sense.

P.S. There was something else about this book that I didn't like but I can't for the life of me put my finger on it.

Ah fabulous - was looking for a thread to let out what I thought of this!

I'm in the camp that enjoyed the read but it irritated in so many ways. I did find the escape - especially that Old Nick didn't check the body, ridiculous. But for me, the most irritating part of the story was the preparation for Jack for Outside, and then for him to need to comprehend the escape, and practising for it etc.. it just didn't feel believable at all. There were many parts of Jack's narration that didn't feel 'right' for a 5 year old either - with you Megapixels on the Vomit - I don't believe that is a word that many children would naturally use either. I can't believe that he just sort of accepted the Outside so easily when he was escaping; I really thought that the author would have him stop and stare for a period at this 'new world' that up until this moment he thought was in TV.

I think what lost it for me is that Jack's wonder of this new Outside was never really explored. Children are so naturally full of imagination and curiosity, that can also be tempered with fear of the unknown and these themes weren't satisfactorily explored. I did like that Jack was desperate to return to Room - and I think the idea of the goodbye to Room felt very natural for Jack.

The breastfeeding references of 'Some' irritated as well. He refers to her breasts, he knows that they are breasts and as children grow they have names for them/ feeding rather than a general 'some'. The idea of Ma suddenly saying no to Jack near the end as her milk has finished as well and he just accepted it was rather odd as well... I'm not sure many children would try once more and then think 'oh well' to a comfort thing.

Overall it was a fast paced, enjoyable read but it didn't rest comfortably enough for me to re-read or recommend very highly!

Did anyone else notice this bit?

When they are in the clinic, Ma says something along the lines of she'd done a lot of research into abduction etc on the internet. Now a computer is mentioned at one point - the patients have to share one. Given she's never away from her son, it seemed unlikely she'd spent hours online.

Also, later she mentions 'Googling' - was that term around seven years ago? I thought it was more recent. In any case, would she have heard of it?

Oh and off she trotted to email her friends but then she realised she'd forgotten her password. Wouldn't it be more likely she'd phone them? After no human contact, apart from her son and the old guy, I would have thought she'd want to speak to them, not write a note.

I was picturing:

Hv bn lkd up 4 7 yrs! Old Nick made me pg! WWYHD?

I loved the first half of the book, before the escape. There was something so magical about the simplicity of Jack's world and how it was enough for him. He had his few things, he had his Ma, that was all he knew and he was content.

Perhaps it would have worked better if some of the second half had been written in Ma's voice.

Overall I loved this book and couldn't put it down, especially at the beginning not knowing if they would escape or not.

One bit I found odd: when Ma wrapped Jack up the rug and pretended he was dead she was very distressed and screaming at Old Nick when he came in. He says "that's terrible, you poor girl" and he proceeds to obey everything she says. It is so out of character considering when she had her first baby she was screaming for his help and he just stood there and watched her struggle and the baby die and then bury the baby in the garden.

I found other bits very insightful and clever for example in the outside Jack not knowing when people were refering to him or not in conversation when they said 'him' and 'he' as he'd never heard conversations with others before.

My favourite bit was when the doc said that Jack was only 5 and would maybe forget some of the bad stuff and that was a small mercy. Jack then said he thought that meant thankyou in Spanish. Clever and funny!

I was also irritated by Jack calling the breatsmilk 'some', FantasticFixit.
When Jack first referred to it - I hadn't a clue what he was on about,..or did he say he lay down with Ma and had 'lots' ?
I was puzzled what he was talking about !

atswintwolengths,.. She would know that people said 'Googling' from watching the TV in the Room perhaps ?

After 7 years of such a trauma I would have thought it would have been much more difficult for her to deal with her mother and family and for them with her,.. but it seemed to go so easily !
I am wondering why I enjoyed the book now ! but I think the relationship between Jack and his Mother clinched it for me

"I finished the book last weekend - and overall enjoyed it as I said before. However, another thing that puzzled me - If the room was 11ft by 11ft ( have I got that right?)
How on earth did it fit: A bed. A sink. A stove. A wardrobe. two chairs( one a rocker?) A table. A bath. A toilet ???"

yeah I have been pacing out 11 x 11 in my rooms at home to get an idea how small this would be to actually fit all this stuff in?!

I loved this book though - have not been able to stop thinking about it.

I enjoyed it read it in a few days.

The bit that didn't sit right for me was how Ma was left alone without being checked on when Jack went out for the day with the brother. I found that whole section implausible - the hospital's seeming negligence and Jack's calmness in a busy shopping mall.

I like the idea of an epilogue or similar written by Ma.

Relieved to see that I'm not the only person to not really like this much lauded book. Won't repeat all the criticisms above which I mostly share. I'd just like to add that I didn't feel that most of the characters were 2 dimensional with the exception of the grandparents, the time scales were jarring & Jacks' development just plain wrong having worked with abused children. Notwithstanding the 5 y.o. narrator.

I think it made me feel grubby/dirty because it's voyeuristic - like so much of current 'culture'.

I liked it enough to read over a couple of nights (while breastfeeding DS2 for hours at a time) but felt it was a bit schlocky. It was just too sensationalist for me - taking an attention-grabbing but extremely unusual news story and exploiting it, basically. If it'd been more complex in terms of what she did with it, then it might have felt more justified, but as it was, it was a straightforward piece of story-telling with a rather unconvincing narrator.

I did like the treatment of the breastfeeding though! Struck me that there were a lot of reasons she'd have fed him for 5 years - to attempt to avoid pregnancy again, to appear 'unsexual' to Nick, because it was an entirely private domain and a special bond with her boy, maybe to give him something healthy since she was at the mercy of Nick for their food... and I liked Jack calling it 'some'. He lives in a totally enclosed world and has his own terms and vocabulary for things he does. In fact, I wish she'd expanded on that and made him a bit more other-worldly.

I liked the first half a lot and the second half less so.

Had no issues with the BF - I saw it as a comfort/bonding thing for both of them.

Jack's voice jarred sometimes because the words were sometimes sophisticated and adult but supposedly a child's perspective.

What annoyed me the most about the second half was that the real world seemed so two-dimensional with cardboard cut-out characters, as opposed to the very vividly realised room in the first half.

I just can't get into this very well. I forced myself through the first chapter but I just found it so tedious "ma and me are making snakes out of string - we're now playing marbled - now we're eating pizza - oh and now we're running around ... " etc etc! I felt I could've skipped a LOT of of the first chapter and still grasped the concept.

Anyway it is starting to get a bit more interesting now as they hatch their plan to escape so I'll stick with it.

"with you Megapixels on the Vomit - I don't believe that is a word that many children would naturally use either"

I didn't find it strange that he was coming out with adult phrases. They did have television and played the Parrot game where he repeated a lot of long words from the tv programmes. When his grandma said he knew some long words he said "I know all the words", he was much more advanced academically than most five year olds because Ma was constantly teaching him things. As his grandma told her friends, "He can do math better than me but can't go down a slide".

Also, I can see what people mean about Nick not checking that the boy was dead, but he had seen him apparently ill the day before, reeking of vomit and diarrhoea, and he'd come back with medicine expecting to be able to make him better. He was surprised to find a 'dead' child and a hysterical Ma and probably couldn't get out of there quick enough. I also agree that he might have just buried him in the garden like the other baby but I like to think that after 5 years he might have had some feelings for Jack although he hadn't seen him. He was after all his son and he did buy him the remote control jeep for his birthday, albeit a bit late. He was probably slightly in shock at the unexpected turn of events and when Ma shouted at him to find somewhere else to bury him, he just did as he was told as he didn't get time to think the situation through.

I didn't really like it. Agree with the criticisms above that parts seemed 2D but at the same time the whole thing felt voyeuristic and "grubby".

I finished the book yesterday after having it on my book list for ages and am not sure if I was disapointed or not.

It was definitely a gripping read and I kept returning to it (I read it in 1 day) but I kept thinking is this it. There was so much more to be discussed/identified etc.

I quite liked the Ma character in the beginning and was impressed that she could keep a 5 year old entertained in a room 11x11 for days/weeks/months/years on end and make it fun etc.

However I started to dislike her once she got out - she didn't seem interested in Jack, was mean to him and seemed to have a whole character change.

I also wondered about the language the just turned 5 year old used - it didn't seem to read right.

Oh well another book ticked off my evergorwing booklist.

I just finished reading this and I really enjoyed it.

I also agree about the escape and some of the other critisisms. It seemed to me like ma didn't really mention contacting her family quick enough but you have to remember its only told through Jacks eyes, so that could explain the gaps.

I loved the part in which Ma was being interviewed and she broke down, and Jack ran to her for a cuddle, that just made me melt!

I have to say, I found it really quite disturbing and horrible - especially the beginning section when Old Nick kept coming in and turned the electricity off as a punishment. I actually had to read the end of the book to see if they were going to escape as I knew I could not cope with the whole book if it was all like that. It has stayed with me; but not really in a good way, and I also found some of the details of the escape so unbelievable as to make the book difficult to believe in afterwards. But as a description of a child's world and of a mother's sacrifice it worked quite well.

I liked it. At first I thought it was silly that Old Nick wouldn't check to make sure Jack was dead, too, but then I reread the part with Ma screaming something about not even wanting him to put his filthy eyes on Jack, so that made a bit more sense I thought.

A few days after reading this I had a terrible nightmare that DS and I were Jack and Ma...Charlie Sheen was Old Nick

I enjoyed it. I think the point is to make you feel grubby/dirty/scared. Sadly, the world is grubby and scary sometimes.

I agree there are some problems with the story pace etc but the book would need to be twice the size to cover it fully. And the book is written from a child POV so the simplicity of it os appropriate.

I quite liked it. I struggled with the first chapter then got into it. I thought, along with other people, that the beginning was interesting but it petered out once they had escaped.
DD read the back blurb and asked if she could read it. I said no, she is 9.10.

Just finished this.

I really liked it and I'm still thinking a lot about it. I agree the narrative voice was lost a bit towards the end. You can put up with it for a while - they played "Parrot" in Room, where Jack learned to parrot people on TV, so that helps the reader believe it in the second half when there is a lot of "Grandma says" etc. It does pale eventually though.

I managed to suspend my disbelief with the escape. I got the strong impression that Ma has some kind of power over Old Nick - her acted grief makes an impression on him, and he is genuinely shocked, so he is not being rational. As he takes Jack outside there is a moment when he stops - he's thinking about burying him beside the first baby - then he decides not to.

The Ma/Jack relationship rang so true for me. Ma has been seriously damaged and she doesn't have boundless patience but her love and resourcefulness are very moving. I had no issues at all with the breastfeeding and how Jack refers to it - it's obviously a very important part of his life in Room which I think is why it's mentioned so much.

I liked the step grandpa character and I thought Grandma was believable - struggling to do the right thing and come to terms with everything, and struggling to love Jack who is difficult and unaffectionate etc.

I really enjoyed reading Jack's words (mostly). I think he is entirely believable in terms of his precocious language use - he's been "hothoused" as far as his language goes. I read somewhere (might have been the webchat here!) that his language was put through an analysis programme and came out as typical of a 7yo.

Re the "Googling" reference and emailing her friends/doing internet research etc

In 2003/4 Google was pretty widely used AFAIR and Ma was at college at the time. On the point about trying to email her friends rather than phoning them - well, I think she may have found it difficult to speak on the phone - emailing's less intimidating?

I think the "research" that's referred to is just the one session in the computer room when Jack is playing a Dora game and Ma is looking up sites with words like "confinement" and "trafficking".