Room

Room
Emma Donoghue

I am so, so, so very behind on writing up my thoughts on what I’ve been reading. Granted, since I’ve been sick I’ve been reading some lighter material and going through it without taking notes, but still…someone should just lock me in a room…and wait—was that just an only slight segue way into my next review? Why, yes it was, my dear non-existent reader.

In Room, Emma Donoghue’s seventh novel, five-year old Jack and his Ma are being kept captive in a converted garage but not to write book reviews. Instead Old Nick as Jack calls him because he comes in the middle of the night, visits Ma in the middle of the night for distinctly non-literary activities. Jack, born into captivity, knows only “Room” and as a consequence all the little items one would take for granted come to take on greater significance – a spoon becomes Meltedy Spoon, a bed becomes Bed, and everything outside their 11 x 11 room is Outer Space.

That is until Jack’s mother, in a momentary fit of frustration, tells Jack that what he sees on T.V. is real and is outside their door. Not long after this little revelation, in a scene that would serve well as a blueprint for creating tension and suspense in a novel, Jack and Ma, make their escape, perhaps spurred by the vision of cable television.

Once on the outside though, Jack and Ma, predictably, have some difficulties. And so does the book. Inside Room, the book slowly reveals through the contents and Jack and Ma’s games, their lives. It is both sad and comforting. Part of you wants them to stay there, cocooned in their Jack and Ma-ness.

Outside Room though, the story becomes a bit flat and not quite as believable, as if the author spent all of her energy creating the world in Room. In particular there is a scene towards the end where Ma takes a bunch of pills and is in danger of becoming permanently Gone, that didn’t ring true for a woman that spent five years fiercely protecting her son.

Still, there are some poignant observations though from Jack as he learns to live Outside, such as:

“Driving home I see the playground, but it’s all wrong, the swings are on the opposite side. “Oh Jack, that’s a different one, “says Grandma. There’s playgrounds in every town.” Lots of the world seems to be a repeat.”

The second half of the book isn’t bad by any means, it’s just, well, a little disappointing. Kind of like escaping from captivity into the “real” world would be I suppose. Except for the better television.