Comments on: “Room” by Emma Donoghue

By: martin

martin — Wed, 09 Feb 2011 10:17:54 +0000

Loved this book… Easy but very powerful read. I especially like the boy character.

By: Amy

Amy — Mon, 07 Feb 2011 20:16:15 +0000

Also, I was so relieved that someone other than Jodi Picoult tackled this story.

By: Amy

Amy — Mon, 07 Feb 2011 20:10:27 +0000

Interesting. I had no trouble with Ma’s suicide attempt, especially after she was criticized in that media interview for having kept Jack in the room with her. And I bought her keeping him there–I felt he was her link to sanity. I didn’t see her as perfect, though; she had those hours or days when she was so overwhelmed with depression that she just closed down. I think the routines with Jack were the only things that kept her going, and even they didn’t work all the time.

By: Steph

Steph — Mon, 07 Feb 2011 20:01:05 +0000

I think I only know of one person other than myself who did not like this book, but I really did not. I wouldn’t say it was the worst book I read last year but it was close. I found Jack’s voice to be so inane, and yes, I get that five-year-olds are going to focus on things most of us find mundane but I just couldn’t get over how bored by his story I was… which made me feel terrible, yes, but for me there was very little suspense at all. I almost gave up about 50 pages in, until friends convinced me it got better… I am not sure that it did, but I guess the author started to explore more interesting questions, though I think she did so in a really superficial manner. I just felt like that as interesting a choice as Jack was for a narrator, he was ultimately very limiting and it felt gimmicky to me.