Room

ROOM

by Emma Donoghue

 

Nomination: Booker Finalist 2010, Orange Prize Finalist 2011

 

Date Read: August 23, 2020

 

When Room first came out, I had no interest in reading it, believing it would rip my heart out. Either I’m becoming more callous or Donoghue did such a brilliant job of making it not as a graphic and horrific as it could have been. Instead, well over half the book focuses on their recovery and becoming people in the world.

 

Ma does an incredible job of shielding Jack from the horrors that are happening right under his nose. She nurtures him, protects him, educates him, and loves him with a fierceness not all mothers are capable of, particularly under such stressful circumstances. While Ma wants desperately to leave, Room is Jack’s sanctuary and place he feels snuggly. 

 

I didn’t believe that Ma’s plan for escape would work but Jack pulled it off. This is when the real work begins. Ma has to deal with her own individuality out in the world, face the trauma she has suffered and still be the rock-solid Ma she has always been for Jack. Jack, meanwhile, is overwhelmed by all the stimulus in the world and longs to go back to Room, the place where he felt safest and most secure. The few possessions he holds on to trigger Ma while comforting Jack. 

 

Fortunately, Jack is young enough and pliable enough to adapt to all the changes and stimuli around him, not perfectly at first but better and better each day. He is able to say good bye to so many things – breast feeding, his exclusive relationship with Ma and, eventually, Room. Ma has a rockier road but she too is capable of growing and evolving. 

 

Donoghue did a brilliant job here of not focusing so much on “Old Nick” but on how his actions affected others – Ma and Jack, obviously, but also her parents, their marriage and the world at large once they are discovered safe. I can see why she got a Booker nod.