Because Ideas Matter...
The faculty and staff of Butler University's College of Liberal
Arts and Sciences presents
Recommended Readings
Room: A Novel
by Emma Donoghue, Little, Brown, and Company, 2010
Reviewed by Judi Morrel
What if you had been confined with your
child since before his birth in an 11 by 11 foot shed, held captive
by a man who brought only basic necessities to you? How would you
explain things to your son, who has never seen the outside? That's
the starting point of Emma Donoghue's novel Room: A Novel,
short-listed for the Booker prize in 2010. Told entirely from the
point of view of the energetic and perceptive five-year-old boy
Jack, the story is alternately terrifying and hopeful. Jack, who
has never been outside the confines of what he calls Room, does
many things a typical boy would do - plays games, reads books (only
a few), watches a bit of television on a snowy screen. His mother
tries her best to create a "normal" life for Jack, having taught
him to read and helped him develop a large vocabulary, but she
comes to realize that what she can do within the shed is not
enough. After pulling off a desperate and daring escape, Jack and
his Ma face significant challenges of adjustment for him and
readjustment for her. Full of originality, replete with moments of
both hope and beauty, Room is a book that will haunt readers for a
while, starting with the question, "What are the most important
elements of rearing a child?"
- Judi Morrel is Professor of Mathematics and Director of the
Center for High Achievement and Scholarly Engagement (CHASE) at
Butler University.