Read: January 9, 2012
Summary: From the perspective of a five-year-old, we view Jack’s world in a room. The room is his birthplace and where he eats, sleep, play, learn, and lives with his Ma. Old Nick “takes care of” Ma and Jack by providing food, electricity, and Sunday gifts in exchange for visits at night with Ma. During Old Nick’s visits, Jack is safely shut away in the wardrobe, where he is meant to be asleep.
As much as room is home to Jack, Ma views it as a prison that she is meant to escape after a seven year captivity. Out of protection and love for her son, Ma created a life for Jack in this eleven-by-eleven-foot space. With Jack’s fifth birthday, his curiosity begins to question what is on the outside and Ma knows that Room cannot contain Jack’s curiosity and her desperation much longer.
My thoughts: It was an interesting story for a novel but not very well executed. I actually would have preferred a different perspective other than the view of a five year old. If Jack was an adult reminiscing about his time in the room, his escape, and then adjustment to the outside, the story could have been more descriptive and the language would be more consistent. In some areas of the novel, there was inconsistencies in the language and writing style. It appeared that the story teller sometimes forgot that he was five years old. It was hard to believe that five year old was ‘writing’ the book as mature subjects and thoughts would appear. The mature subjects, I thought, were not realistic for a young child, especially for one that also happened to be sheltered.
