I read this as because it is one of the 1001 Books to Read in Your Lifetime. I chose it because I love cummings’s poetry, was unaware that he had been imprisoned in France during WW1, and equally ignorant of the fact that he wrote a fictionalized account of his ordeal.

The book itself is anticlimactic. It recounts the days before his arrest, the days he spent in the eponymous enormous room, and a bit of what happened after his liberation. What makes this book special is the glimpse into cummings’s wry humor. While it will not be among my all-time favorite books, I know I will use what I learned when I teach my students about his life and works.