Room

I picked up Room by Emma Donoghue because there is a lot of buzz about it lately and the book has recently been shortlisted for the Man Booker prize. Although it is easy to read, the premise is intense and was inspired by the Josef Fritz case where a man locked his daughter in a basement for 24 years. Room is about a young woman, kidnapped and held captive for 7 years in a modified tool shed where she gives birth to a boy she names Jack. It is through his perspective that the book is told. As the book opens, he is five years old and has spent his entire life inside this room.

His voice is unique and one you will also find either endearing and poignant or irritating. Personally, it took me a chapter or two before I absorbed the full impact and cleverness of this approach, it softens the blow of a very disturbing topic and provides a fresh unbiased view on reality and life as we know it. The book's primary focus is Jack's limited understanding of the world outside the room. Without giving away any of the book, let me say it is an intimate portrait of a mother's love for her son and the challenges of adapting to one's environment. The book is original, thought provoking and evokes a bevy of emotions.

The award winning bestseller that became one of the most talked about and memorable novels of the decade, Room is "utterly gripping . . . a heart stopping novel" (San Francisco Chronicle). Held captive for years in a small shed, a woman and her precocious young son finally gain their freedom, and the boy experiences the outside world for the first time.

To five year old Jack, Room is the world. It is where he was born, it is where he and his Ma eat and sleep and play and learn. At night, his Ma shuts him safely in the wardrobe, where he is meant to be asleep when Old Nick visits.

Room is home to Jack, but to Ma it is the prison where she has been held for seven years. Through her fierce love for her son, she has created a life for him in this eleven by eleven foot space. But with Jack's curiosity building alongside her own desperation, she knows that Room cannot contain either much longer.

Room is a tale at once shocking, riveting, exhilarating - a story of unconquerable love in harrowing circumstances, and of the diamond hard bond between a mother and her child.

1. Why do you think the entire book is told in Jack's voice? Do you think it is effective?

2. What are some of the ways in which Jack's development has been stunted by growing up in Room? How has he benefited?

3. If you were Ma, what would you miss most about the outside world?

4. What would you do differently if you were Jack's parent? Would you tell Jack about the outside world from the start?

5. If Ma had never given birth to Jack, what would her situation in Room be like?

6. What would you ask for, for Sunday treat, if you were Jack? If you were Ma?

7. Describe the dynamic between Old Nick and Ma. Why does the author choose not to tell us Old Nick's story?

8. What does joining the outside world do to Jack? To Ma?

9. What role do you think the media play in the novel?

10. In a similar situation, how would you teach a child the difference between the real world and what they watch on television?

11. Why are we so fascinated by stories of long term confinement?

12. What were you most affected by in the novel?

I cannot stop thinking about the discipline and strength it took the young mother to provide a nurturing environment for her five year old. She gives new meaning to the concept of sole provider. It is also striking that Jack was happy living in one room because he knew nothing else, while his mother was not. Conversations about the Stockholm syndrome and women who are powerless are a natural extension of any group discussion about this book, and there is much debate about using the voice of a five year old to narrate the story.