Book Ninety Three
Oct. 21st, 2010 11:04 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
spooky_missBook Ninety Three - Room by Emma Donoghue
This is close to becoming my book of the year. I have not read a book this good for months! The last one was "The Road" I think, in around April. The level of tension in the story is at the same high level for the whole book, just as you think its going get a little less exciting - something else happens! I want to write about this book, but please don't read this until you've read it - you don't want to ruin it for yourself! It took me about 3 hours in total to read, so its a quick read, but a brilliant one.
"Room" tells the story of a boy and his mother, who are imprisoned in a room which is only 11ft by 11ft. It describes how they live their life there, how they formulate their escape, and what happens to their lives once they escape. It is written from the point of view of the boy, Jack, who is age 5, and the style is just brilliant. The way he sees the world is only from what they have inside the room, and through TV. One day his mother tells him that what he sees on the TV is actually real, its Outside. Jack at first cannot believe this, but then when she tells him the story of how they came to be in the room (she was abducted by a man Jack calls "Old Nick", and had given birth to two children while in the room, one of which died) he starts to realise that she is telling the truth. The book isn't in chapters really, just different sections corresponding to where they are. The chapter about the escape, when she pretends that Jack is dead so that "Old Nick" will take him out of the room, put across so clearly how Jack is feeling - he has never been out of "Room" before, so doesn't understand anything about it, he has never even worn shoes before, for example. After this bit I thought it would lose some of the tension, but it really didn't, the next chapter about their adjusting to Outside is excellent too. Jack learns so much in such a short period of time, although his mother finds it a lot harder to cope. He meets his grandparents and other family for the first time. He realises that theres are many more things in the world than he even thought possible! Its just a brilliant book, it really should have won the Booker Prize, in my opinion. 10 / 10 :) :)
I seem to have read lots of books about dysfunctional people and families recently - I'm currently reading Running with Scissors by Augusten Burroughs, which is excellent, but the people in it are just weird! - so after my current book I think I'll read something a bit "nicer" and more "normal" - I've got the choice of either Revelation by CJ Sansom (historical crime), a book about Jim Morrison (non-fiction) or Mansfield Park by Jane Austen...I think I'll go for Mansfield Park :)
This is close to becoming my book of the year. I have not read a book this good for months! The last one was "The Road" I think, in around April. The level of tension in the story is at the same high level for the whole book, just as you think its going get a little less exciting - something else happens! I want to write about this book, but please don't read this until you've read it - you don't want to ruin it for yourself! It took me about 3 hours in total to read, so its a quick read, but a brilliant one.
"Room" tells the story of a boy and his mother, who are imprisoned in a room which is only 11ft by 11ft. It describes how they live their life there, how they formulate their escape, and what happens to their lives once they escape. It is written from the point of view of the boy, Jack, who is age 5, and the style is just brilliant. The way he sees the world is only from what they have inside the room, and through TV. One day his mother tells him that what he sees on the TV is actually real, its Outside. Jack at first cannot believe this, but then when she tells him the story of how they came to be in the room (she was abducted by a man Jack calls "Old Nick", and had given birth to two children while in the room, one of which died) he starts to realise that she is telling the truth. The book isn't in chapters really, just different sections corresponding to where they are. The chapter about the escape, when she pretends that Jack is dead so that "Old Nick" will take him out of the room, put across so clearly how Jack is feeling - he has never been out of "Room" before, so doesn't understand anything about it, he has never even worn shoes before, for example. After this bit I thought it would lose some of the tension, but it really didn't, the next chapter about their adjusting to Outside is excellent too. Jack learns so much in such a short period of time, although his mother finds it a lot harder to cope. He meets his grandparents and other family for the first time. He realises that theres are many more things in the world than he even thought possible! Its just a brilliant book, it really should have won the Booker Prize, in my opinion. 10 / 10 :) :)
I seem to have read lots of books about dysfunctional people and families recently - I'm currently reading Running with Scissors by Augusten Burroughs, which is excellent, but the people in it are just weird! - so after my current book I think I'll read something a bit "nicer" and more "normal" - I've got the choice of either Revelation by CJ Sansom (historical crime), a book about Jim Morrison (non-fiction) or Mansfield Park by Jane Austen...I think I'll go for Mansfield Park :)
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Date: 2010-10-21 05:56 pm (UTC)