ROOM by Emma Donoghue

Last weekend I watched the Diane Sawyer special about Jaycee Dugard and her daunting story.   I was immediately struck about some similarities to the book Room.  I read this last winter and was very captivated by that book.  I thought I would share my thoughts about the book, since it was newly refreshed in my mind.  If you haven’t read this book yet, this may be a little bit of a spoiler, but I will try not to give away any big story plots.  However, the story has a basic premise similar to Jaycee’s experience.   Although it involves kidnapping and captivity, the author starts you at a different point and you found out more as you read along.  This was a great strategy.

When I first started, I felt unsure about what I’d gotten into.  The language reads a little different at first, and you’re not even sure what the story setting is about.   Despite this initial acclimation, I found myself intrigued to learn more about the story as it was starting to unfold.   You really get caught up in the characters – how they are managing living in this room.  I was so intrigued by their routine – it seems like they have adapted to the situation and making the best of it.  You have the sense that this is a terrible situation, and you almost don’t want to know the details. 

However, it starts to take the turn in sharing more the background of how they got into the “room” and more about the details of the situation.  At this point, you can’t put the book down because you are seeing the tone changing in their routine and attitude about the room.  Honestly, the spiral of how they make this transition was something so intense that I could not put down the book.  I was so nervous about the outcome of their decisions. 

The next phase of the book starts to slow down again and I felt myself trying to read ahead to see what might happen.  You just need to keep moving forward with the book, because the progress of the characters is really in their dialogue amongst themselves and others.  You definitely notice a change in direction on how the main characters interact with each other.  It is necessary for them to progress in their development, but you miss a little bit of the closeness they had in their relationship from the beginning.

To see the young boy grow into himself more is pleasing, but the mother continues her struggles.  The ending put you where it all started – in “Room”, a very smart choice by the author.  And the mother is now learning and leaning on her son, a switch from how the story started! 

I think it was an amazing, smartly written book.  I was intrigued from start to finish.  The concept was something new to me, I hadn’t read anything like this before! 

Finally, if you haven’t watched or read about Jaycee’s story, it would be interesting to do so along with this book.  I had read an on-line interview with the author Emma Donoghue.  She was asked if she used any of Jaycee’s story as inspiration.  As it turns out, the answer was no – there was a similar story in Austria (2008) she had heard of when developing the idea of this book.    

I was impressed with Jaycee Dugard and how she seemed to have survived with her sanity.  I am sending her prayers and good wishes in the next stage of her life!