ROOM - A NOVEL BY EMMA DONOGHUE

Emma Donoghue's novel Room has been published in 2010 and was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize of the same year.
Emma Donoghue's own words make perfect sense when she tries to describe the pull the book and ultimately, writing the book and researching its dark background, has. It certainly has a strong pull, I read it in just two days:

“Listening in gave me insight into what such cases mean to those who hear about them: how they trigger empathy as well as voyeurism, judgment as well as revulsion.”

(Emma Donoghue: Writing Room: Why and How)

Room is a survivor tale dealing with a very horrible incident. Having been kidnapped seven years ago, age 19, Ma (her real name is never mentioned as the whole book is written from 5-year old Jack's perspective) endures her life in a soundproofed shed. She "lives" there with her son Jack whom she tries to give as normal a childhood as possible. However, they cannot stay in Room forever as Ma's abuser could easily decide to let them starve and die.

The book is subdivided in five chapters and it's surely no coincidence that the middle section is called "Dying" while the last chapter is called "Living". It already suggests that some kind of change, metamorphosis is taking place. And this will not only change the lives of Ma and Jack but also their relationship towards each other.

1. Presents
2. Unlying
3. Dying
4. After
5. Living

I admire the book for bringing the perspective of 5-year old Jack to the foreground, it made me feel as if I had to put all the pieces of a puzzle together in order to understand what is actually going on. And Jack’s life is not very different from the reader’s task – he tries to figure out what is going on. All he knows about the world is that the room Jack and his mother live in is the world. Everything else... doesn't make any sense.
Being led through the book by Jack's understanding of his surroundings (and his gradual development of understanding the Outside once he escapes) made me laugh a lot! It's true! Even though the circumstances are sad and sickening, Jack is unaware of it - the tension that is created between his ignorance (ignorance is bliss!) and the reader's knowledge of his mother's torturous imprisonment makes for more than one "funny" scene. It gives the reader a way to get rid of the sad and sickening stuff. If you can laugh there's always a little more room for breathing.

After the first 100 pages I felt like watching a theatre play, not quite unlike Carnage (the film). The room is just so confined! Everything from the outside is a mixture of threat (Old Nick, the unknown) and hope (for the mother especially). Everything on the inside on the other hand, is, well, some kind of routine. Jack's mother’s careful constructing of a home in the room fires back at her: Jack can’t understand why the mere mentioning of the place makes his mother sad. After all, for him, it was the place he called home.
It’s amazing how many topics Emma Donoghue fits into this book. The topic of freedom seeps through the pages from the beginning to the end. For Ma it's only a vague longing, for Jack it's something he didn't even know would exist. Jack experiences freedom in a strange and scary way. Freedom for him means getting used to (apparently) lacking boundaries, geometrically as well as mentally speaking. Whatever was clearly defined in the room, is now loose and somehow blurry.
Freedom also plays a role in the mother-son relationship, which is obviously one of the main themes here. From the closest relationship of two people to a close bond, to two entities in separate rooms, the connection between Ma and Jack is transformed and along the way, the book draws on topics of healthy relationships and personal space as well as the fact that surviving makes you stronger and can reunite you with a long lost family, but maybe it makes you just a little lonelier as well.
Emma Donoghue's sensitivity in regard to the topic of teenage abduction is substantial. Since this is what many discussions in the media in cases like these revolve around, it's a relief that we only get to see and to know the victims but not the abuser. A welcome step even though it makes the man a little more terrifying. I could dive into the usage of names here (Old Nick vs. Ma, both are never mentioned by their real "outside" names), but I won't. I leave a little room for your interpretation once you read the book.

If you want to read something that can shake the foundations of your perception of the world and can make you laugh at the same time, Room is highly recommendable! A book and a topic you cannot let go. Even after you have read it.

And for all film fans: fantastic director Lenny Abrahamson will do the film adaptation of the book. His last film What Richard Did evoked the same intense and horrible feeling I associate with the book. Yet, I cannot mention Jack's sense of humour enough. Anyhow: shooting starts next year.

(What Richard Did | Official Trailer | YouTube)

Also, take a look at the website which shows you Room.