Room

We meet Jack, the narrator and hero of Room by Emma Donoghue on his fifth birthday and proceed to share the next few weeks with him experiencing every corner of his life and world, Room, the 11 by 11 foot, windowless room he has called home for the entirety of his young life. Living just with his mother for company, Jack and 'Ma' learn to live within the confines of their sheltered 'home' relying on and loving each other as their very means of survival. Never having left Room, Jack and his mother exist only within the tiny space, warping Jack's very perception of the world and life itself. For him, everything in Room is real, and everything on TV is purely that - TV. There is no world, there is no Outside. There is only Room and it's occupants.

Donoghue masterfully crafts an interesting and engaging tale within the tiny space of Room, using what little possessions, interactions and events the two characters encounter within the context of confinement to weave a tale of innocence, ignorance, and innovation. Trapped within the four walls, Jack and Ma show perseverance against all odds. The bond between mother and child is explored and reinforced as the two have nothing but each other for company and support through the ins and outs of their days and nights. Those monotonous days. And yet, it is a tribute to Jack's Mother that she continues to make the most of her situation, educating her five year old son beyond his years despite the lack of schooling, exercising and implementing routine to ensure that regardless of confinement, their lives had order, purpose, and a sense of stability. The down side to this routine, though, is the fact that the reader becomes very familiar with the daily life of the characters rather quickly, and a sense of tedium or monotony may threaten to enter the story.  But just when the reader was feeling the events too repetative, Donoghue expands the imaginations and events of the two characters through vivid dreams and aspiritions for the future, providing a turn of events in the story which re-awaken's reader's investment in the young character's lives, disposing of the 'familiar-to-the-point-of-dull nature that can creep in to confined tales.

The true strength of this novel is it's voice and style. Being narrated by the five year old Jack, the narrative voice has both a simplicity, and a beautiful honesty that can only really be seen through the eyes of a child. The unique look into the activities of his life highlight not only the bliss he holds in his ignorance, and the crafty fashion in which the author makes issues known to the reader that are beyond Jack's understanding, but the balance is perfectly written, and allows for a beautiful relation between character and reader as he moves through his days, painting, albeit vaguely and in pieces, the larger picture of his life within Room. Likewise, it is Jack's pure joy and inability to grasp what he is missing that is both tragic and hopeful for the reader as we witness the melee of emotions of both characters through the turmoil of modern imprisonment. Difficult though it can be to capture the nature of a the world through a child's eyes, Donoghue grasps the very syntax that is evident in a young boys mind, cause the thoughts of the child narrator not only to ring true to any age of reader, but to grab hold of their emotions and fill the gaps which may be lacking (in a grammatical or verbal sense) from Jack's vocabulary. The result is a wonderful concoction of words and rhythm that permeated my own way of thinking and speaking for days after reading.

As the novel progresses and comes to its conclusion, issues of social justice, public danger and modern slavery are addressed through the platform of human frailty and emotion, woven within the complex styling of Donoghue's narrative voice. All in all, it is an interesting tale of a simple life in dire and complicated circumstances,which hones in on how the love between a mother and child can prove to be a bond both more powerful and more vulnerable than any other.