Room

I'm not surprised that Emma Donoghue's novel Room just won the Hughes Hughes Novel of the Year prize. It's an excellent book, a compelling book, an I-can't-put-it-down-until-I-finish-it book. Positive reviews can be found all over the Internet: The New York Times, The Observer, The Washington Post, and many others.

Room is told from the viewpoint of five-year-old Jack, to whom an eleven-foot square room—actually a fortified garden shed—is the only world he's ever known. He was born there. He calls the place "Room;" inside Room are Bed, Rug, Wardrobe, and other furnishings important to Jack. He shares the room with Ma, who was kidnapped by "Old Nick" when she was a 19-year-old college student. Jack hides in Wardrobe when Old Nick makes his nightly visits to Ma.

  This article summarizes the plot (and tells about Donoghue winning the award), but the book trailer below gives you the feel of the book:



A video of Emma Donoghue discussing—and reading a bit—from Room:



I found the above video, and much more about Room, here: http://www.emmadonoghue.com/samples.htm.

One of my favorite passages from Room is this from page 287, after Jack and Ma have been out in the world for a few weeks:

In the world I notice persons are nearly always stressed and have no time. Even Grandma often says that, but she and Steppa don't have jobs, so I don't know how persons with jobs do the jobs and all the living as well. In Room me and Ma had time for everything. I guess the time gets spread very thin like butter all over the world, the roads and houses and stores, so there's only a smear of time on each place, then everyone has to hurry on to the next bit.

One of the best sites about Room is Room: The Book, in which you can explore an interactive diagram of Jack and Ma's room: http://www.roomthebook.com.

A few days ago, I thought The Help was the best book I've read this year—and, granted, it was a doggone good book.

  Room, however, is even better.

~