Room by Emma Donoghue

Synopsis :

To five-year-old-Jack, Room is the world....

Told in the inventive, funny, and poignant voice of Jack, Room is a celebration of resilience—and a powerful story of a mother and son whose love lets them survive the impossible.

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.


This is what I say :

The novel, Room by Emma Donoghue was published 10 years ago and was a bestseller.  It has always been my intention to get hold of a copy and when I managed to find it during a book fair about two years ago, I was extremely pleased. Moreover, this particular copy is still very new.

After sitting on my shelf for more than a year, I suddenly decided to read it during MCO recently.  It took me 2 days to complete it and it was a wonderful read.

It was sad, but wasn't that sad.  At times I was pretty angry wot Ma but at time I felt like giving Jack a smack too but then I guess we have to remember that being only five years old, he's feeling scared with what's happening and he is certainly lacking social interaction since birth.

It is quite clever of the author to write the book from his perspective and did it quite well too, in my opinion.  And not just any five years old but, a very different five years old.

It's a book that once you start, you can't really stop and to be honest, I read it till late into the night but that's just between you and me. haha..  I actually do not mind reading this again sometimes in the future.

Right after reading, I watched the movie adaptation.  The gist was there and it was a good and satisfying movie.