Reading List: Room - Emma Donoghue

Hello readers and welcome back to another installment of the Reading List. As mentioned previously I am trying to work in more BIPOC and (some contemporary) female authors onto this list. To that end I decided to go with a novel that was a hit when it was released in 2010 and only went on to receive recognition (and a movie) from there, Emma Donoghue’s claustrophobic Room.

Unfortunately this was a rather lackluster read in many respects, but I will get to my criticism towards the end of this brief essay. This novel was a very interesting read in many ways, but as I hope to show, the use of narrative voice just brought the entire work down for me in the end. This novel is about two main characters, “Ma” and “Jack” who as the novel opens are captured by a mysterious figure only known as “Old Nick.” As the novel progresses we realize that “Ma” was kidnapped by “Old Nick” when she was just in college and had been held hostage in a shed behind his house for years. However (spoiler alert) they do hatch a plan to escape that works and the second half of the novel is spent on them attempting to readjust to society after their ordeal. This involves plenty of scenes in hospitals and a decent closure involving Jack living with his grandparents. There is a bit of tragedy that I won’t spoil because it felt a little unearned, but it does add to the tension toward the end of the book.

However well written this book was (and Donoghue is no slouch in the prose department, referencing all kinds of works like The Catcher in the Rye among others), the entire novel fell flat for me because of the simple choice of narration. This book could have been so much better, in my honest opinion, if it had been written from the perspective of the mother. Having to see the world (and language) from a five year old kid’s perspective was just flat out annoying at times, and took me out of the intense world the novel paints very well. My edition of the book contained an interview with the author and even there she flat out states that this decision “might turn some readers off” and I would count myself among those people. Also some of the narrative beats felt entirely contrived (the initial kidnapping, the escape) and could have used a little more work between author and editor.

So would I recommend this novel to those out there attempting to learn from others’ use of the written word to tell stories? As much as it pains me I don’t really feel I can recommend this book unless the target reader enjoys thriller type stories and can stand to read the voice of a five-year-old protagonist for its entire length. If you can, this book might be for you. If not, I would say skip it and check out some of Donoghue’s other (good) work. I am sorry to produce such a downer of a review this time around but I feel I must be honest with my feelings about this work so that others can know whether or not they want to sit down with it. And of course it is well known that this book also spawned an Oscar-nominated and winning film in 2015, which as par for my Reading List course I avoided. But I would not condemn anyone for checking out the movie first to see if they might have interest in the book.

Thanks again for joining me on this reading adventure and a (late) Happy Halloween for those who celebrate!