Room

A Novel

By: Emma Donoghue

Narrated by: Michal Friedman, Ellen Archer, Robert Petkoff, Suzanne Toren

Length: 10 hrs and 45 mins

Publisher's summary

To five-year-old Jack, Room is the entire world. It is where he was born and grew up; it's where he lives with his Ma as they learn and read and eat and sleep and play. At night, his Ma shuts him safely in the wardrobe, where he is meant to be asleep when Old Nick visits.

Room is home to Jack, but to Ma, it is the prison where Old Nick has held her captive for seven years. Through determination, ingenuity, and fierce motherly love, Ma has created a life for Jack. But she knows it's not enough...not for her or for him. She devises a bold escape plan, one that relies on her young son's bravery and a lot of luck. What she does not realize is just how unprepared she is for the plan to actually work.

Told entirely in the language of the energetic, pragmatic five-year-old Jack, Room is a celebration of resilience and the limitless bond between parent and child, a brilliantly executed novel about what it means to journey from one world to another.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your My Library section along with the audio.

©2010 Emma Donoghue (P)2010 Hachette Audio

Critic reviews

"The award-winning best seller that became one of the most talked about and memorable novels of the decade, Room is "utterly gripping...a heart-stopping novel" (San Francisco Chronicle).

"Emma Donoghue's writing is superb alchemy, changing innocence into horror and horror into tenderness. Room is a book to read in one sitting. When it's over you look up: the world looks the same but you are somehow different and that feeling lingers for days." (Audrey Niffenegger, author of The Time Traveler's Wife and Her Fearful Symmetry)

"This is a truly memorable novel, one that can be read through myriad lenses - psychological, sociological, political. It presents an utterly unique way to talk about love, all the while giving us a fresh, expansive eye on the world in which we live." ( The New York Times Book Review)

Just okay

First, let???s get past the horror of the possibility inherent in this book. It can and it does happen! But, as a work of art, of something with which to spend one???s time, I???ve more to say.

I came late to this book. Didn???t intend to read it, but it is an assigned read; and the only reason I can imagine that it is assigned is to show the perfection with which an author can reveal details. The first third -- yes definite thirds ??? was dedicated to introducing Ma and Jack and Old Nick and how the three came together. I was truly taken in by the arduous task of living with Jack in one room. There were some red herrings ??? I thought at first that Ma was a drug addict. At times I thought Nick was a ???good guy??? and I thought maybe there was some element of the captor identifying and ???liking??? the captor. (Stockholm syndrome?) This weird psychology was later explained (in the third section) by adding a previous dead child, etc. I didn???t much care for that. I think the truth would be far more intricate and wouldn???t require a previous dead baby.

Beyond the first portion, as we learn what ???get some??? means, as we learn about the sound of the door code, as we look with great generosity upon Ma (who is never identified), we learn very little. I know the book itself, the structure of the text is intended to resemble a tightly built room ??? excluding much more than it admits, and that the fresh air that blows in when the door opens is often tainted by things that cause discomfort, but the author left me without relief.

The section in the Clinic is useless, as are the silly passages about Jack and his new extended family. Only steppa seemed real and normal and all-accepting of him. But, alas that too is tainted as steppa is disliked by Ma and maybe by grandma. He is an ancillary, not too well loved person in the book; also Grandpa, whose honesty about Jack???s origins banish him from the family. His avoidance of the boy is only a weak method for the author to show that Ma is willing to give up her family for her boy. We get it!!

About Ma. What???s this business of being ???gone???? Why the attempt at suicide? Not enough foundation for that, it felt like filler. Hitting all the notes that the reading public clamors for. Her recovery from said effort was too swift, and leaving Jack alone with her so soon in the Independent Living was dangerous. All that in three weeks? Come on!

Jack is what he is. I feel he is drawn perfectly and he grows out of the circumstances dictated by the book.. He has no unreasonable thoughts or activities, though yes, his vocabulary might be too great. I hate that his cousin, Bronwyn, is degraded by being babyish and demanding, as an illustration of Jack???s maturity. Too unrealistic.

Frustrating for me was the excessive use of the word ???bit.??? I wanted to scream. Could there have been no other pronoun or noun used to describe a part of a whole. That was really hard to take.

The most frustrating part, though it extends throughout the whole book, is Ma???s constant allusions to books, paintings, stories, myths, religious stories, all that over and over and over again. I was already sick of Alice and ???baby Jesus and St. Paul,??? but when the Great Escape occurred on Easter Sunday, really I wanted to gag -- but I did read on. It is as if the author needed to trot out all her childhood favs, stories and lessons and show how they influence us. We get it!!!

The lack of closure beyond ???Goodbye Room,??? was poor. I would rather the author had cut out some of the post-Clinic trips and Grandma???s aggravations and given a little time to the court case, to the sessions between Ma and Dr. Clay and Noreen. Pilar and Officer Oh were fabulous, interesting and important in their ways.

I am interested to know the real source of this story. Among the many books mentioned in the story was ???The Shack,??? and I am wondering (because I loathed that book), if Donoghue either created something with that same ???in the news feel??? because she read The Shack, or if she wrote it from some inside knowledge of some true case. The Shack was a sham of a book, poorly written and a book that relied on sensationalism with a backdrop of Christian redemption earned not by prayer and sacrifice but by convenience. An accident, a hospitalization, probably drug-induced stupor all contributed to the dream of redemption. That is not redemption. Ma and Jack were indeed redeemed, and theirs seemed to me more genuine.

We know Ma was no ???saint??? when she got picked up, and the book sort of wants us to think her abduction was a punishment for her ???sin??? of her prior abortion. The author then adds another baby who must die before St. Jack is born.

Conveniently, Ma dreamed up plans A&B after Jack saw the airplane and she had to begin telling him the real truth about outside and inside. There is something worth investigating in her timing of a plan. I am not ???blaming??? her for being incarcerated, nor am I wondering why she didn???t make a better or sooner effort to fight to get out. (In fact she put Jack in grave danger ??? a five year old upon whom their Escape was dependent). I am wondering why the author did not use a more profound moment for Ma to come to a plan. If she wanted to play the Christian theme, the author could have staged a visitation from Baby Jesus or his mother and planted the idea in Ma???s head. The airplane was not enough to put in motion the complexities of the Escape.

In all it was a good book. It was better x10 than The Shack, and better than some drivel by some books which are promoted as the ???next best thing.??? This is not great ???literature??? ??? it simply alludes to great literature.

Haunting...

The reviews of this book were rather mixed, but I downloaded it anyway, and I am really glad I did. The story is absolutely haunting. I have listened to this story through twice now and I can't stop thinking about it. Room is disturbing in its concept... Imagine living with a small child for 5 years in an 11x11 room. But the telling from Jack's perspective is so different from what an adult would think of the situation and is therefore completely unique. Everyday that I listen to this story, it makes me more aware of the little things I've come to take for granted. Exceptional story, well read and thought provoking.

Room - Wonderful Book

I watched the movie of this book first & was curious to what the differences where between the book and movie. Parts of the movie gave me chills it was so intense, the book was even better. If you can stomach it (because it’s very sad in several places) I highly recommend you pick up this book.

FASCINATING story

Any additional comments?

Brilliant concept. Great that it is told from child's point of view. GREAT book. Just GREAT.

Not what I expected. Kind of anticlimactic.

The family perspective was disappointing. I would support my daughter with anything if she survived an ordeal like described in this book.

It was ok.

It took me about an hour to get used to the kid voice because it sounds a little cartoon-like. Also, there were many times where Jack's stream of consciousness got a little long. I thought the story was interesting but I wish the author would have written some chapters from Ma's point of view rather than just Jack's.

room

struggle to finish it was hoping for more. more from the adult side mixed in

Captivating, thoughtful, and awesome

Would you consider the audio edition of Room to be better than the print version?

Having not read the print version, I was taken away by the story, from minute one, and had no preconceived ideas about the characters or the scenes.

What did you like best about this story?

Seeing such a horrific situation through the eyes of an innocent and blissfully ignorant child was a unique experience. It amazes me that someone thought of this, and also makes me think differently about the world from time to time.
The mother's unravelling, and the boy's journey to enlightenment was captivating.

What does the narrators bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

The innocence of the boy really shone through in the narration, and I can imagine that the "child like speech" patterns would have been tough to read through ( like reading a southern belle accent in gone with the wind....

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Yes! I listened to this book when I was driving to work and home... It was tough to get out of the car when I arrived at my destination, and I found myself looking forward to the long drives!

Any additional comments?

ROOM is a book I refer people to regularly... It still haunts me and is one I will listen to again and again.

One of the best books I've read.

I was lucky enough to read Room and The Help back to back. Not similar books, but two of the best I've ever read. Easily. I read them months ago and just realized I forgot to review.

Room is unbelievable. I don't want to ruin ANY of the plot. So just want to say, this is a must read. Rare sort of novel.

A surprise!

What did you love best about Room?

This one started out slowly for me because by the time I downloaded it, I'd forgotten what the story was about. What enchanted me from beginning to end was the narrator's reading of the story,--could this have been a 5-year-old? Certainly sounded like it. Now that we, the reading public, have several "kidnapping" stories under our belts, the story is not implausible and was pretty fascinating listening. I highly recommend it.

What does the narrators bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

The narrator actually made this story for me as told by a 5-year-old. I had to go online to find out who the narrator was, I was that charmed by her. I was devastated to learn that the narrator had recently died in childbirth. I felt very close to her after listening to the book.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Who has that kind of time?