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A review by emilyusuallyreading
Room by Emma Donoghue
5.0
What I Liked
Room at its core is a love story between a mother and her child. Both characters are beautifully written. Although the narration comes from the voice of a child, it powerfully reflects the strength of "Ma" and her fight to survive.
Although Jack is carefully sheltered from Old Nick's abuse, tension builds within the novel through his perception of his mother, a woman who is struggling desperately under the trauma of rape, confinement, and kidnapping. The lack of social interaction with the outside world also takes its toll on Jack.
Donoghue gracefully is able to avoid sensationalism as she touches on heavy topics like rape, abuse, and kidnapping. Jack's childlike voice helps to keep the focus of the novel off of the "gory" details and instead places the spotlight on the relationship between mother and son. Room reminds me of The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, although Jack's extreme innocence makes more sense than Bruno's.
I was deeply affected by this novel, and I will be thinking over it for many more days.
What I Didn't Like
The story is quite difficult to get into at first. It's written in the rambling language of a 5-year-old child with his own names and references to everything in his life. For the first chapter or so, I found myself re-reading paragraphs four or five times over in an attempt to understand what Jack is trying to describe.
Example (one paragraph): "Ma switches Lamp off now and we lie down, first we say the shepherd prayer about green pastures, I think they're like Duvet but fluffy and green instead of white and flat. (The cup overflowing must make an awful mess.) I have some now, the right because the left hasn't much in it. When I was three I still had lots anytime, but since I was four I'm so busy doing stuff I only have some a few times in the day and the night. I wish I could talk and have some at the same time but I only have one mouth."
Room at its core is a love story between a mother and her child. Both characters are beautifully written. Although the narration comes from the voice of a child, it powerfully reflects the strength of "Ma" and her fight to survive.
Although Jack is carefully sheltered from Old Nick's abuse, tension builds within the novel through his perception of his mother, a woman who is struggling desperately under the trauma of rape, confinement, and kidnapping. The lack of social interaction with the outside world also takes its toll on Jack.
Donoghue gracefully is able to avoid sensationalism as she touches on heavy topics like rape, abuse, and kidnapping. Jack's childlike voice helps to keep the focus of the novel off of the "gory" details and instead places the spotlight on the relationship between mother and son. Room reminds me of The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, although Jack's extreme innocence makes more sense than Bruno's.
I was deeply affected by this novel, and I will be thinking over it for many more days.
What I Didn't Like
The story is quite difficult to get into at first. It's written in the rambling language of a 5-year-old child with his own names and references to everything in his life. For the first chapter or so, I found myself re-reading paragraphs four or five times over in an attempt to understand what Jack is trying to describe.
Example (one paragraph): "Ma switches Lamp off now and we lie down, first we say the shepherd prayer about green pastures, I think they're like Duvet but fluffy and green instead of white and flat. (The cup overflowing must make an awful mess.) I have some now, the right because the left hasn't much in it. When I was three I still had lots anytime, but since I was four I'm so busy doing stuff I only have some a few times in the day and the night. I wish I could talk and have some at the same time but I only have one mouth."