Book Review: Room by Emma Donaghue

I’ve wanted to read this book ever since the buzz broke about it, even before it became shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 2011. 

One reads many of these news items about women and young girls being held captive for years on end and even forced to bear the children of their tormentors. I skim over these articles usually, as I cannot bear to think about the ordeal these women suffer. 

However, I steeled myself to read this book. Its USP, as you might know by now, is that it is narrated by a five-year-old boy called Jack. Incorrect usage of words pepper the story. Plenty of instances of ‘I runned’ just like my daughter says. I like how he refers to his mother as Ma throughout and we never know her real name. He simply refers to her name as ‘her other name’. 

I squirmed while reading the parts where the captor visits her in the night and Jack sits in the cupboard and counts the creaks of the bed. Equally tension-inducing were the parts where they planned their escape. 

Jennifer Weiner conducted an interview with the author which made for very interesting reading. Overall, the book is as brilliant as it is promised to be, and very thought-provoking. 

Now that Room is off my reading list, I still have the following gems to tackle: 

My TBR Pile:
Pigeon English by Stephen Kelman
There but for the by Ali Smith
Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes
Corduroy Mansions by Alexander McCall Smith
Meltdown by Ben Elton
Shades of Grey by Jasper Fforde
The Dog who came in from the Cold by Alexander McCall Smith

What books have you read recently?