Occasionally, for no real reason a book I know I will probably end up loving just sits on my shelves year in year out and doesn't get selected. Last year I belatedly got round to Jessie Burton's "The Miniaturist" (2014) and that ended up runner-up on my Books Of The Year countdown. This has been hanging around even longer. I've even read and enjoyed this author before. Looking back to 2017 and my four star review of "The Wonder" I mentioned I had a copy of "Room" on my shelves and it had been there some time by then, seeing as the paperback appeared in 2011. I'm just delighted to have got round to it at long last.
Emma Donoghue is an Irish author who became a Canadian citizen in 2004 and has set this, her 7th and most celebrated novel, in the USA. It was a big seller, won WH Smith Paperback of The Year at the National Book Awards, Novel Of the Year at the Irish Book Awards and the Canadian and Caribbean section of the Commonwealth Writers Prize. It made the shortlist of the Booker and Orange Prizes. If I haven't read the book then I generally avoid the film adaptation until I have done so which was the case for the 2015 movie which was nominated for Best Picture at the Academy Awards and won Best Actress Oscar as well as other performance accolades for Brie Larson. Now I've read the book I can look out for the film.
It's hard to avoid a book as big as this was without having preconceptions of what it is about and the type of book it is. I knew it was about a woman and a boy locked in a room together and it was no surprise to find out that the inspiration came from the Josef Fritzl case. It certainly does not avoid what we might expect from a thriller but there's a lot more to it than that.
I did not know that the narrator was five year old Jack and it his perceptions of these ghastly events that the author focuses on. Jack has never been out of the room and his understanding and comprehension is all over the place. The room is his only reality and totally shapes his world view. He is intelligent and reads well yet also unsurprisingly immature especially with regards to what is real. I know that his narrative full of cartoon references and objects which are extremely important to him, his self-obsession and baby-talk alongside great insight and unpredictable pockets of precocious knowledge has divided readers over the years but I found it fascinating. It is such a grim premise but the book abounds with humour and warmth and I thought that made it special. His relationship with Ma (we know no other name for her) makes for extraordinary reading which is both life-affirming and disturbing. It is a fast read, the style is often conversational but there's no way I could have read it one sitting as a number of the review quotes in the book claim. I really needed time for everything to percolate. It may have taken me years to get round to reading this but I don't think I will ever forget it. Another late-to-the- party reading choice. Another five stars.
Room was first published in 2010 by Picador. I read the 2011 paperback edition.
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