Room Book

Room is the only place five year old Jack has ever known. Despite its limitations: its smallness; no windows - just small skylight; limited food and toys and only a TV and Ma for companionship, Jack is content within room. Jack doesn't know any different and the relationship with his mother is one of mutual dependence and unquestionable love.
The reasons why Jack and his Ma have remained confined in Room become apparent to Jack after his fifth birthday, and without spoiling the plot events take an exciting and dramatic change. The story is about maternal bonds and adaptation to new circumstances and is told in an absolutely fascinating way, through the voice of five year old Jack.
There is much to like about this story. Despite the abnormal circumstances, it is a very plausible narrative. I was utterly absorbed until about half way through and found the characters of Jack and Ma and thier intimacy, as well as the day to day constructs of their life together very well considered. Brilliant! My only criticism is that the voice of Jack is inconsistent, seeming to be like a five year old at times and at other more adult. Perhaps using artistic licence to give Jack adult literacy would have been acceptable. I am saying that I liked the premise of the story being told through Jack but the delivery in child speak doesn't always work. It is a terribly sad story at times, with clear inferences to the Joseph Friztl case. That said, Jacks voice seems to act as a halo of light and left me feeling better for having read it. I am not convinced it is a Booker Prize winner but was one of the easiest of the shortlisted books to engage with.

It's Jack's birthday and he's excited about turning five. Jack lives with his Ma in Room which has a locked door and a skylight and measures 11 feet by 11 feet. He loves watching TV and the cartoon characters he calls friends but he knows that nothing he sees on screen is truly real only him Ma and the things in Room. Until the day Ma admits that there's a world outside ...Told in Jack's voice Room is the story of a mother and son whose love lets them survive the impossible. Unsentimental and sometimes funny devastating yet uplifting Room is a novel like no other. 'Emma Donoghue's writing is superb alchemy changing innocence into horror and horror into tenderness. Room is a book to read in one sitting. When it's over you look up: the world looks the same but you are somehow different and that feeling lingers for days' Audrey Niffenegger 'Room is one of the most profoundly affecting books I've read in a long time. Jack moved me greatly. His voice his story his innocence his love for Ma combine to create something very unusual and I think something very important ...Room deserves to reach the widest possible audience' John Boyne 'I loved Room.Such incredible imagination and dazzling use of language. And with all this an entirely credible endearing little boy. It's unlike anything I've ever read before' Anita Shreve

The story of a mother, her son, a locked room and the outside world It's Jack's birthday, and he's excited about turning five. Jack lives with his Ma in Room, which has a locked door and a skylight, and measures 11 feet by 11 feet. He loves...