Introducing our March Book of the Month - Room by Emma Donoghue




From the book

©Emma Donoghue


Jack is five, and is excited about his birthday. He lives with his Ma in Room, which has a locked door and a skylight, and measures eleven feet by eleven feet. He loves watching TV, and the cartoon characters he calls friends, but he knows that nothing he sees on screen is truly real- only him, Ma and the things in the Room. Until the day Ma admits there’s a world outside...
Told in Jack’s voice Room is the story of a mother and son whose love lets them survive the impossible.

• Hardcover: 336 pages
• Publisher: Little, Brown and Company; 1st Ed.: Sept. 2010 edition (September 13, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0316098337
• ISBN-13: 978-0316098335



Author Website

This book has taken the publishing world by storm, and was nominated and short listed for the 2010 Man Booker Prize. I can guarantee that you won't ever forget it - hope you find enough content in the book to be able to join in with our discussion



Book opens for discussion 23 March 2011

This is my neighborhood book club book selection based on the amazing reviews it's received. I'm not hosting until next fall, so I haven't read it yet. I need to get cracking, so I can join in here too. I have to read my March book, March, first though.

Room arrived at the library for me. I will pick it up tomorrow when we'll be there anyway for a special activity. But, I have astack of books already waiting for me to read and a second waiting along with Room, so I won't be reading it quite yet. I guess I have a few weeks before discussion starts anyway, which is good.

I am number 232 in the hold queue for this book, but hopefully will be able to read it before the month's end. From all of the reviews I have seen, it should be worth the wait.

I read this book the first week it was available for my Kindle. An excellent read!

I just finished Room and have to say that I was a little sick through the beginning and had to quickly read one of those Harlequins on my Nook to get the story out of my head. A really good story but it stays with you a bit which I guess is the mark of a 'good' book.

It's a challenging read and won't be to everyone's taste - but it should make for an interesting discussion

I read it in a single day on Friday (finishing shortly before midnight). It was an emotional ride, but I thought it was an excellent read. Can't wait for the discussion to start.

Edited to add: Now I'm reading Columbine by Dave Cullen, which is non-fiction and even more emotional because of that fact. Another great read, but after this I'm moving on to something funny!

SPOILER WARNING - BOOK IS OPEN FOR DISCUSSION


March Book of the Month - Room by Emma Donoghue

©Emma Donoghue


From the Book

Jack is five, and is excited about his birthday. He lives with his Ma in Room, which has a locked door and a skylight, and measures eleven feet by eleven feet. He loves watching TV, and the cartoon characters he calls friends, but he knows that nothing he sees on screen is truly real- only him, Ma and the things in the Room. Until the day Ma admits there’s a world outside...
Told in Jack’s voice Room is the story of a mother and son whose love lets them survive the impossible.

Emma Donoghue




Book Group Questions

• How did you feel about Jack being the narrator of the story?
• What did you feel about Ma’s involvement – could she have done more to allow Jack to be freed from room. Was she selfish, or brave to keep him?
• What was the dynamic between Old Nick and Ma -
• Did Ma need Jack, more than Jack needed Ma?
• In some ways Jack is very mature for his age, whilst in some instances he is still a baby – how would you explain the differences between real and unreal?
• What would have been your Sunday treat?
• Did you want to know more background to the story, or would this have detracted from the overall impact?
• Where you fascinated, or repelled by the story?
• How do you view Jack, is he a hero, or a victim?


Interview with Emma Donoghue

Now that some of us have had the chance to read this month's selection, it would be interesting to see what we all made of it. Please post your thoughts; hopefully we'll all have different interpretations of the story. Don’t be afraid to discuss, disagree and generally pull the book to pieces. The questions are just a guide -don't feel you have to answer any, or all of them - your opinions are what matters most...

If you like this book you may like to read:

• The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold
• The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas by John Boyne
• Tatty by Christine Dwyer Hicks

Book is now open for discussion Here

Looking forward to discussing this interesting book with you all....

I really enjoyed Room. I started it Friday morning and finished it a little before midnight that night because I was gripped by the story and curious about what would happen. And, I thought it was a very quick read.

I really enjoyed Jack's voice of innocence and naivete. And, that we got to see his confusion and then growing understanding of the world. The story was really disturbing, of course, but I thought that Jack injected some humor that might not have been there through a different POV - he's only 5 after all. I think it might have seemed even darker if we learned the story from Ma's POV or an omniscient narrator.

I really need to go exercise, but a couple of things I remember noticing that I'll toss out and maybe later I can respond to other questions:

1. I was impressed at how quick and efficient the cops were in finding Ma once Jack got out. In so many books, the cops are slow, inefficient or incompetent, but I was glad they weren't in this case.
2. I know Ma was concerned about Steppa being on drugs or whatever, but I thought he was really good with Jack. Obviously, he wasn't comfortable being the constant caregiver, but he dealt with him well in scenes like the legos, and matches and the beach.
3. Was Ma having brief depressive episodes on the days she was "Gone" in Room? Or severe migraines or something? I wasn't quite sure what to make of those. I'm thinking depression since she took all those pills in the hospital and seemed suicidal, but that was after the uncomfortable TV interview, so I wasn't sure if that was the same as the earlier ones before their escape.

I know there's more, but I really need to go now.

This book made me uncomfortable throughout the story on so many levels. It was apparent early on what their situation was and how Ma clung to her sanity through Jack's existence. I don't think that she would have survived as long as she did and Jack who didn't know any other world but this fiction that she had created for him. The writing of this story was brilliant in the way it made you look at life and the world through Jack's eyes. There wasn't anything that Ma could have done to protect him further. I couldn't believe it when the interviewer asked her whether she ever thought about having Nick take Jack to a place where he could be "saved and adopted" to live in a normal place. Yeah right, let's hand over an infant to a psychopath and trust him to do the right thing. And although the doctor and lawyer were helping her cope, it was clear that they had their own self-interest in mind.

The person that seemed to help the most was the Grandmother. She took Jack home and gave him "normal" even if she made mistakes along the way. She had an intuitive way of forcing Jack into situations and making him deal with it. Everyone else was so worried about doing the wrong thing that they forgot that he was a child and needed to be introduced to other children and playgrounds and boundaries. That was an area that I could really relate to since I remember having some boundary issues with my own daughter. I think that Ma did the best she could in the situation she was in but when she was in the Room, she was in survival mode. There were no decisions to make outside of staying alive and no distracting stimuli to interfare with her goal. Once released, they were bombarded with people and their opinions and the weather and so on. Now there were other people to take care of Jack and she could give in to the depression that was at the root of her "gone days". Ironically, it was that lapse in judgment that helped her to grow and cope more than anything else. She realized that she could start to separate from Jack as an individual person and that there were others who could share the burden.

All I know is that when I started reading this story I said "they had better be saved". The plan was clever but the result so tragic. While Ma craved her freedom, Jack missed the structure and comfort of his little Room. His taking her back was so touching and it made you feel that these two were going to be all right after all.

This story stayed with me for so long after reading it. I've been reading nothing but fluff to get the image out of my mind. Just what I need as we start looking at colleges to even think about this girl plucked off a campus and stuffed in a room for 7 years. Yikes!

What a grim and captivating book. OMJ, I couldn't put it down. My heart just broke for Jack and his mother, and unlike real life, there was a resolution within sight. I can't imagine the families who have lived this nightmare in real life. Through Jack's eyes, I was able to somewhat imagine what it must be like for children who are born into this way of life. Sadly, there have been a couple of similar cases in the news, and even then, there's no way to fully appreciate how those children's lives were limited to such a small area. How in the world could they understand that there was more in the world than the basement or backyard where they were confined? It did help move the story along and explain the situation when Jack repeated conversations that he heard between Ma and Old Nick.

When Jack made his escape, and Old Nick got away, I was so fearful for his mother. I was also very glad that the police were able to rescue his mom quickly, not only for her sake, but for the sake of Jack. She was all he knew, and to have her taken from him would have been more than my heart could have handled. Having never spoken to anyone other than his mother, and then to be thrust into such a terrifying situation, I wasn't sure he was going to be able to communicate the information he needed to in order for the police to find his mother.

For me, the way the story unfolded with being trust into a day in the life of Jack and his mother worked well. Even though I had heard enough about the book to know they were being held captive, I really didn't need the background laid out for me in the beginning. The story held stronger impact with that being held back until later.

Pauline, sometimes it's hard to not think about the worst that might happen, especially when it comes to our children. I can understand how a book like this could rattle you when you're in the midst of the college search. However, this is also such an exciting time for our emerging young adults. Good luck in finding just the right place.

So true, Dallis, but I'd really like to just stick my head in the sand and not think about these things.

Another thing that struck me was that despite being isolated, Ma instinctively knew the right way to raise a child. She provided a structured day that included reading, physical activity, laying under the skylight to get sunlight, etc. Ironically, it was that structure that Jack missed on the outside.

Good luck with the college search Pauline. And, I can see where the timing of reading this book was perhaps non-ideal.

I was concerned about how well Jack would communicate on the Outside, also. It turns out that he didn't do a great job for a while, but Officer Oh (I think that was her name), was very patient and I thought did a great job at interpreting what Jack was able to tell her. I was also glad that the man with the dog and child just called 911 immediately, so Jack's inability to tell him the situation didn't really matter.

And, children, in general, crave structure and routine. It also might be that in her circumstances, Ma needed some sort of a regular routine to continue to function. Having some plan for different activities could make the days more bearable than just sitting around with "nothing" to do. I was also impressed by her creativity in coming up with games and toys to keep Jack entertained even in such limited circumstances.



I completely agree. I wouldn't have trusted him to take Jack anywhere either. I was impressed that she insisted on leaving Jack in the wardrobe whenever Old Nick came so he never even saw him (after the day he was born). I think that definitely helped to keep Jack safe.