Books We're Reading - Room

 

 

Room is not the sort of book I'd ever pick out. Instead it must have received some high praise or an award at some point, and this led me to add it to my Kindle. It remained there, unread, probably for almost a year before I needed something to read on the train. Then, seeing the title and associating it immediately with both In a Strange Room and A Room of One's Own, I selected it for my next piece of reading. What a journey I was in for.

The book is told entirely in the first person, and in this instance that person is a five year old boy. A five year old boy named Jack with a small world and objects he personifies and addresses by their name (Table, Wardrobe, Bed and Rug are all key characters in his world). At times this is exactly as tedious as it sounds. You can only read along as a boy narrates about his "bouncy bounces" and how much he hates green beans so many times before yearning for adult perspective. If you're patient that perspective does come, and usually at the most haunting times.

Jack and his Ma are visited nightly by a man they call Old Nick, and when he comes into Room the boy hides in Wardrobe and counts his teeth and the creaks of Bed until he falls asleep or Old Nick leaves. Slowly you learn that Jack has never left Room, and that he believes the things he sees on TV happen on other planets.

You can tell right away that something is not right, and your instincts warn you that the entire situation is terribly wrong. I don't want to say any more because anyone vaguely intrigued by the concept should read the book. The ideas are fascinating, and the moral and societal questions that the novel raises are insightful and heart wrenching. Eventually the scope of the novel broadens, and Jack's perspective is no longer a hindrance but a brilliant lens through which you may experience the world we all take for granted anew.