Room by Emma Donoghue

Whewww.. this blog really needs some dusting!

Recently I came across this book at Popular Sunway Carnival. I was actually looking for other books but the simple cover caught my eye.. the "A Man Booker Prize Finalist" on the topmost of its cover didn't hurt either so even tho it wasn't within my budget for the day, I thought I'd spend just a bit on it..

..and it was worth it! For me la, at least ☺

The novel is narrated by a 5-year old by the name of Jack whose whole world is an eleven by eleven foot space where he lives with his Ma who sometimes gets visited by Old Nick in the middle of the night.

His daily routine is the same each day with slight variations from his Ma who wants him to lead a normal life. He has PE in this world of his by running around the room, math with his Ma who teaches him all that she knows and so on. He has never ventured out of this space and all supplies are brought to them by Old Nick and to Jack, he's content with his life as long as he has his Ma.

He doesn't like Old Nick very much coz whenever Old Nick comes to spend the night, he has to sleep in the closet but other than that, he's a happy kid.

Little does he know that he and his Ma are prisoners. His Ma was kidnapped by Old Nick when she was just starting college (if my mind serves me right) and she was locked in this soundproof, windowless shed in Old Nick's garden. Jack is a result of the 'arrangement' Old Nick made with his Ma and was born years after his Ma was kidnapped.

In the middle of the novel, Ma plans for escape. Jack is afraid coz he doesn't believe there is a world outside his room but when he realizes it would make his mother happy, he decided to be brave and go for his Ma's plan that invloves him pretending to be dead.

They were rescued, and his Ma's family who had thought she was dead was joyous at their reunion.. more so when they realize what an adorable boy Jack is.

But their problems are far from over as Ma got overcome by depression when people questioned how she could bring up a child in captive like that, though if you read the book from the start, you'd know she did quite a pretty good job at it.

Ma tried to commit suicide and was held in an instituition for a while, while Jack stayed with his Granma. They soon learnt, no harm was done to Jack's social skills even if he never had any outside contact for the first 5 years in his life.. and to make Ma proud, his reading and arithmatic skills were way beyong his peers.

When Ma got better, Ma decided they needed to learn to live on their own without expecting help from her family, not that she didn't trust them but because she craved for a normal life after living in hell for the past years.

What I like about this book is how we get to see these problems through a 5-year-olds eyes. He doesn't understand why they had to escape in the first place coz he thought he was happy in the room since his Ma made sure of that. He's naive in his perception of life but somehow, that came out as refreshing.

I truly recommend this book for long weekends without anything to do since I couldn't put down the book haha..