Room

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Synopsis

The only world five-year-old Jack knows is Room, an eleven-by-eleven foot space where he was born and has lived with Ma all his life. There Ma has created a place for Jack to learn, imagine and grow. It's where they play games, make crafts, and watch the imaginary stories on television. But for Ma, Room is the prison where she's been held by Old Nick for the past seven years, since he kidnapped her when she was just nineteen. She hasn't given up hope of escaping or being rescued, but when she becomes aware of the precarious nature of their continued survival, she knows they must enact a daring plan to gain their freedom. Although Ma has carefully sheltered Jack from the reality of their situation, she must now convince him of the wide and wonderful world outside their little Room, and Jack must find the courage within himself to become Ma's hero in this deep exploration of the love and unbreakable bond between a mother and her child amidst harrowing circumstances.

Review

Room is a contemporary fiction novel that is entirely narrated by Jack, a five-year-old little boy who has never known any other home besides the room in which he was born and has lived his entire life. His mother, affectionately known as just Ma, was kidnapped at the age of nineteen from her college campus and has been held captive in Room for the past seven years. Many nights, she's visited by Old Nick, her captor. Jack has never really seen the man, though, because on those nights he sleeps in Wardrobe out of sight. The novel opens with Ma helping Jack celebrate his fifth birthday. Up until that time, she has pretended that the things on TV are just make believe and nothing outside of Room really exists. However, soon after Jack's birthday, Ma becomes concerned that changes to Old Nick's life may mean that they could be in even more danger, so she starts telling him the truth about Outside and begins formulating a plan to escape. She tells Jack that he must be brave and be her hero. Jack is terrified, but knowing how important it is to Ma, he does as she asks, but it's really scary. Outside is so much bigger than he ever could have imagined and interacting with people he's never met before is frightening. He struggles to remember the plan and to find his voice while figuring out how to adjust to a vast, new environment that's so different than anything he's ever known before, especially when Ma isn't there to help him.

Jack is a surprisingly compelling narrator. He's extremely smart for his age, but not in a way that seemed unrealistic. He's able to read well and do basic math, but I was able to do those things by kindergarten, too, so it seemed pretty normal to me. Jack is also only six months older than my grandson who while he can't yet read or do math, has excellent reasoning skills for one so young. I couldn't help thinking, too, that he'd had his mother's undivided attention every day, and that although they had meager resources and limited space, she managed to make his life amazingly rich. They played games, made crafts, exercised, read the few books they had, watched TV in limited amounts, and she taught him stories and songs from memory. It wouldn't be a stretch to think that a naturally bright child with daily teaching would be able to do the things he does. It also helps that he's often confused, sometimes taking things people say literally or just plain not understanding and needing to ask lots of questions. I also loved his innate curiosity. Jack is surprised when Ma starts telling him about Outside and some of the basics of how they came to be in Room. It's a little hard for him to fathom until he makes it Outside and then it can sometimes be a bit overwhelming. Although it scares Jack to think of leaving Room, he finds determination within himself to be the hero Ma needs him to be. But even after their Great Escape, he has to adjust to a whole new way of life that can sometimes be bewildering and other times discomfiting. But through it all, Jack is a wonderful child who is stunningly resilient and adaptable.

Room is very reminiscent of a fictionalized account of real stories like those of brave young women such as Jaycee Dugard or Amanda Berry, only written from the perspective of the child who was born in captivity. It makes me wonder if Emma Donoghue found inspiration for her story from these accounts or others I might not be familiar with. In any case, because of the subject matter that it covers, the book isn't exactly a happy one or an easy read. However, it is one that allows hope to spring up out of darkness. I'm not overly prone to crying over stories, so it didn't really hit me in the feels until the very end when I knew that Jack and Ma had finally moved beyond their experience in Room. I'd predict, though, that many sensitive readers might shed many tears over it. Jack's first-person narration brings a certain innocence to the story as well. He's too young to fully comprehend what's happened to his Ma, but we as the readers are very well aware of what's actually going on. That's why although it doesn't contain anything explicit since it's only Jack's observations, I'd caution sensitive readers. I have to say that as a writer myself, I was really impressed with Ms. Donoghue's ability to get inside the mind of a five-year-old and render him in such a way that felt authentic. I was also inspired by the love that Ma has for Jack in spite of the circumstances of his birth and her ability to make life fun and rich for him with make-believe play and activities spawned out of her own memories and ingenuity. Although she clearly has bad days when she's extremely depressed, somewhere deep down, she didn't give up on getting out of their circumstances. While some may find Room slow-paced or depressing and while I'll admit that it isn't the most uplifting story, I found a great deal of beauty within its pages, mainly rooted in the resilience of the human spirit and the innocent musings of its child narrator. I look forward to watching the Oscar-winning movie adaptation next.

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Emma Donoghue