Some nights, Jack counts the number of times the bed her Ma and Old Nick’s bed creaks until “he makes that gaspy sound and stops” which lulls him to sleep. Jack was made to stay and sleep in the wardrobe until Old Nick leaves. Horror happens when the abductor visits them every night for their supplies. “Ma” is never out of fairy tales and games to entertain his son. They play exercise routines everyday despite the small space they are in. “Ma” follows a structured regimen for them. “In the world I notice persons are nearly always stressed and have no time…I don’t know how persons with jobs do the jobs and all the living as well…I guess the time gets spread very thin like butter all over the world, the roads and houses and playgrounds and stores, so there’s only a little smear of time on each place, then everyone has to hurry on to the next bit.” Their only window to the outside world is their television but to avoid confusion, “Ma” told Jack that what he sees in the television are just in TV. She animated the things in the room and created characters, from Wardrobe, Sink, Bed, Rug and Meltedy Spoon.

The mother made every possible way to entertain and teach her son despite their confinement. Donoghue is very ingenuous in creating a distinct world for the two that it so private that I as a reader felt so wrong in entering. Their limited freedom though did not become a hindrance to limit the story. Jack has no idea that there is a bigger world outside. She made it appear that their world is just in the room where they live. She made it a choice to not explain their situation to Jack. “Ma”, as Jack calls her mom (readers will never know her real name), spent the last five years taking care of his son in their tiny room while at the same time preserving her own sanity. She bore him seven children (and one miscarriage) who were also kept imprisoned until their rescue. The book was inspired by the horrifying real-life case of Elisabeth Fritzl from Austria, a woman who was kept imprisoned by her incestuous father, Josef Fritzl, in a soundproof dungeon in his basement for 24 years. It was also shortlisted for the Booker Prize that same year. After it’s release it went on to become a New York Times bestseller for Fiction and eventually made it to the newspaper’s 2010 Best Books of the Year list. Raped repeatedly since her abduction by a man they only call as Old Nick, she bore a child who is now 5 years old and she named him Jack. Written by Irish-born Canadian writer Emma Donoghue, Room is about a young woman, kidnapped when she was 19 years old and was made to stay in a 12-foot square reinforced shed for seven years. Well that is an understatement considering how many times I have to stop and feel a lot of the book’s emotionally moving sentences. Living so much to it’s hype, I enjoyed this book so much.

Room by emma donoghue full book