ROOM

Well, Allison here. I think it's funny when we tell our audience who's writing the blog in that fashion. It sounds antiquated. It reminds me of a Sesame Street character, but I can't quite put my finger on the name of that mysterious moppet.

In May, our book club selected ROOM by Emma Donoghue. I will give you enough detail about the book to get you interested- telling you more than that could potentially ruin the book. Though, I suppose that's the case with most fictional works. The story is told from the perspective of 5-year-old Jack. Jack lives with his mother in a room and has never been fortunate enough to see anything outside of those walls since his birth. Of course, the reader's main goal then revolves around finding out the circumstances surrounding Jack and his mother's confinement. The language Donoghue uses to describe the inner thoughts of Jack clearly portrays her excellent skills as a writer. Because Jack has never experienced life in the "real world", the small details of his daily existence maintain much significance. Jack refers to each object in the room as though they were friends - Bed, Sink, Rug, Lamp - rather than giving them status as a lowly common noun. His mother does her best to provide for Jack through creative daily activities, but as he discovers more about his current situation and his mother's past, Room no longer seems appropriate for the development of the mother/son duo.

For knowing very little about this book, we were all fairly impressed. It was especially interesting to see how well it tied with previous books we've read. Though challenging at first to read a story from a 5-year-old's perspective, we all grew to enjoy the writing style. Once the reader gets past the first few chapters, the pacing of the story really picks up and continues through the rest of the novel. The ending provides a great deal of closure and prevents the reader from throwing the book against the wall out of frustration due to loose ends. Donoghue wraps the whole story up in a nice, neat little package while giving the reader a great deal to ponder.

Ratings:
Sarah -9.8
Allison - 9
Kristin - 9
Stacey - 9
Erin - 9
Camille - 8

For the book club meeting, I ushered each of my guests into my bedroom and forced them to to stay there for appetizers and dinner. I labeled several of the objects in my room as proper nouns to keep with the theme. We did enjoy a lovely dessert spread of Central Market delights upon the escape from Room. Some of us chose to reenact some of the events in the story, so you will likely not understand every picture. BUT you will "get it" after you read the book - which you should definitely do!

Look out for Camille's post in July about The Girl's Guide to Homelessness!