A UNIVERSE CONTAINED BY FOUR WALLS... "ROOM"

I despair at myself sometimes. I really do. It is probably the main reason the stories of my purchasing cheap books or DVDs makes it to the blog so often. ``Buy one get one for 1 pound`` the sticker on Room proudly proclaims. I remember very clearly, this is the ``one for 1 pound`` I chose on one particular shopping spree. I was in two minds about buying it although the subject matter did intrigue me; I worried whether it would prove too ``heavy`` a read as the story is one of the darkest ones I have yet to come across. The other danger was, of course, that it would be made too sensational, almost flippant, and that would have made me angry too. But at the end of the day, as I told myself, ``it`s only a pound``. It turned out to be one of the best pounds I spent this year.

Room is five year old Jack`s world. It is the only world he has ever known. It is where he and his mother live, eat, bathe, sleep and play. His mother is called Ma. She has no other name. There is a television in the Room with many different things on it but they`re just TV they`re not real. So they cannot ask for things like puppies, ice cream or chocolate for Sunday treat. Other children and people they see on the television aren`t real either, the only other real person (except Jack and Ma) is Old Nick (as Jack calls him) who bring supplies and sometimes stays the night. But today is Jack`s fifth birthday, it means he is all grown up now, and it may well be time to learn that there is a little bit more to his little world than he initially thought…

You may have gotten a sinking feeling in your gut as you read my version of the blurb, that means you`re pretty much on the right track. Excuse the spoilers, but yes, this is the story of a young woman who was kidnapped and held in a ``room`` in a garden shed for years and who gave birth to a child as a result of rape. The plot twist is that we read the entire story not from her perspective, but from the perspective of Jack, her son. Through Jack`s stories and interpretations, we begin to understand how Ma has made this world up for Jack and has done everything in her limited power to keep the outside world at bay – for the sake of her own sanity and Jack`s. But more importantly, we admire their resilience as Ma has not quite given up hope of escape… And when, in the end, she and Jack break free, a whole new world is opened up to them.

I think I honestly found the second half of the book a lot more striking than the first. I mean don`t get me wrong, the first half has its merits by the boatload, I marveled at how the little alternative universe was formed within the four walls of the Room. Ma clearly trying to keep Jack stimulated without awakening his curiosity about what could lie beyond the walls and Jack, with the naiveté specific to young children, accepts this universe without question. For this reason, it is fascinating to analyze Jack`s thoughts and reaction when he is brought face to face with the real world. In her ``how and why`` section at the back of the book writer Emma Donoghue explains that her own son, four at the time the book was written, was a great inspiration along with the main source of Jack`s ``voice`` as Jack speaks with several (small but noticeable) grammatical errors and uses quite a few invented words. It is in part this dedication that has made the character of Jack so real. This and no doubt close observation of how children see and interpret the world as they discover it.

Donoghue also points out that Jack and Ma`s captivity can also be seen as an illumination of the human condition on many levels. One does not necessarily have to be physically trapped in a room to feel trapped by a situation or a relationship. And if we are trapped by a relationship or situation, it is quite common for the brain to form coping mechanisms of various kinds. We may not exactly believe that ice cream is not real but we form new, and sometimes erroneous beliefs about other people, relationships, the way the world works… And the more entrenched we become in our beliefs, the harder it is for us to shake free until one day, like Jack facing the real world, we are faced with something or someone who shakes up our belief system… Then begins the painful process of adaptation. But hopefully, we end up in a better place than where we began, and all the pain and struggle was worth it.

Room is about all of this, but above all, it is about the indomitable human spirit. That part of us that refuses to give up even under the darkest of circumstances. For this reason, I think Room isn`t nearly as dark as it may very well have been. You will laugh and you will cry as you read it… But you definitely won`t regret your purchase.