Room by Emma Donoghue

I am not quite a fan of novels narrated in a kid’s perspective. They are interesting but they tend to be a bit too simplistic, so the novel must be very good for me to like it. Room is one of the few books that are narrated in kid’s perspective which I liked. Here’s the book trailer:

In the first half of the novel, the author tries to create a strong mother who’s love for Jack has allowed her to raise him under almost impossible conditions. The second half of the novel is about Jack getting used to the world.

I really liked Ma in the novel because she shows us what a mother is like. She tries to protect Jack from all the ugliness in the world, and she sets rules like making sure that he watches T.V. for only a certain period of time. But she is not a saint. Like all mothers she gets tired, there are days when she doesn’t want to get up and cook for Jack, but nevertheless Jack is her top priority in life even though she doesn’t show it sometimes. And that’s what makes mothers great!

This novel is really thought-provoking. Does stories like this only happen in books and not in real life because no one proved that there are indeed real life examples of this? Does miracles only happen in movies and T.V.? Lack of evidence to something does not necessarily make the contrary true. This book is not perfect, but it did make me think and see the world in a different way:

“But the things is, slavery is not a new invention. And solitary confinement — did you know, in America we’ve got more than twenty-five thousand prisoners in isolation cells? Some of them for more than twenty years.’ Her hand is pointing at the puffy-hair woman. ‘As for kids — there’s places where babies lie in orphanages five to a cot with pacifers taped into their mouths, kids getting raped by Daddy every night kids in prisons, whatever, making carpets till they go blind — ”