Room by Emma Donoghue

 

Ma has been in Room for seven years, taken off the street one day while walking home by Old Nick and imprisoned.  Jack has just turned five and has never known anything but Room.  Room is in a shed in Old Nick's backyard, a small room surrounded by wire mesh on all sides down into the ground and with a locked door that needs a code to enter.  Room is Jack's world.  Within it, his mother has made an entire universe for him.  The two of them play games, do art, make a snake of eggshells, watch no more than two television programs a day, read books and exercise.  At night, Ma puts Jack into Wardrobe where he stays while Old Nick comes in and bounces on the bed with Ma.  

When Ma finds out that Old Nick has lost his job, she knows that means that is a danger time for her and Jack as the house could go into foreclosure.  There is no way that Old Nick would let anyone find out about her and Jack so he would dispose of them.  Ma thinks of an audacious plan to escape and Jack is the hero of the plan.  Afterwards, she and Jack are taken to a hospital to heal and slowly enter a world that Jack could never have imagined.  

I've had this book for years but I never could bring myself to read it as I thought it would be depressing.  Instead it is life affirming.  Ma's ingenuity and ability to nurture Jack in such dire circumstances is amazing.  That a girl, taken at nineteen, could have a child by herself in imprisonment and build a life for him where he feels safe and loved is astounding.  Much of the book deals with Ma's reintroduction and Jack's introduction to the world and that is fascinating.  Emma Donoghue, an Irish writer, had a son who was five while she wrote this book and that helped her get into Jack's head.  Jack is the sole narrator of the book and we see the world through his eyes and understanding.  This book, later made into a movie, is recommended for readers of literary and women's fiction.