They call the kids gorgeous and so cute, they make the kids do the thing all over again so they can take a photo, but they don't want to actually play with them, they'd rather drink coffee talking to other adults. Sometimes there's a small kid crying and the Ma of it doesn't even hear. Now I'm in Outside but it turns out lots of it isn't real at all. It's really sad.. Because there's a lot of crazies out there. To think twice before judging anyone..
To just go hug your mom so passionately and just keep saying Thank you The strange kidnapping here was not real, but it's not totally strange from our crazy world There's even more misery in this world not just in captive This story really can make you feel something wrong Good-bye, Jack's Ma..
Good-bye, Grandma, Steppa. Good-bye, Dr. Clay, Noreen, Officer Oh :. Good-bye, Paul,Deanna, Bryanna. Good-bye, Walls.. Good-bye, Room Good-bye, Book. View all 17 comments. Room has been called "remarkable," and "sensational. How this book is anything but blither is beyond me. The reality is that the plot for this book was ripped from the headlines, based on the stories of Jaycee Dugard , Natascha Kampusch , and the Fritzl family.
Emma Donoghue wa Room has been called "remarkable," and "sensational. With cash in hand and only a plot outline, clearly no one gave a shit if the final work were good or not. What a better way to save face than to tout a piece of crap book you actually paid someone to write as a "gem. In the end, all we have is yet another author exploiting and getting rich off of the real life tragedies of others.
I suppose I wouldn't mind so much -- hey, I may even cheer it on -- if it were done well. In this case, it was done horribly. You see, if you truly do want to hear the blabbering of a 5 year-old for pages, then you immediately need to change careers and become a kindergarten teacher. It takes talent to write in the voice of a child, which is precisely why so few authors are successful at it. When a good author writes from a child's perspective, the book becomes a classic.
Think about it. As for the rest of them? The child narrator is nothing more than a laughable gimmick. Emma Donoghue falls flat on her face -- and drags us down with her -- for an entire novel with that very gimmick. I don't have patience for "silly penis is always standing up in the morning. I push him down," nor "penis floats," and especially not "my poo is hard to push out. Further, I found it odd that a child who is remarkably well-versed in the narrative would have such huge inconsistencies in his spoken English, many times sounding like a 3 year-old while at other times having perfect grammar.
Don't forget to throw in some of Donoghue's own politics for fun: our 5 year-old is still breastfeeding and he loves to tell us which boob produces the creamiest milk. Don't be disgusted. After all, it's natural! And let's not forget the most blatant and frankly, lame, self-insertion by an author into her own novel: Noreen is a kind and clever nurse who hails from merry ol' Ireland, just like our author. Forgive me for not passionately hating this book more.
Quite simply, it bored the hell out of me. I spent half the time wishing someone would throw the narrator back in the room so he'd shut the hell up. I spent the other half wanting to slap Donoghue's publishers. Suffice to say View all 58 comments. I willed myself to read this particular book in double quick time.
I won't say what happens in the end, but the ending was dependent on the second half of the book, where we got to know one of the two main characters in the book. There is Jack, and then his mother. Curiously enough, Jack is the narrator, and his POV is unique. He lends strength to his mother, he makes her shine with her patience, her fortitude, and her bravery.
I have yet to watch the movie version, but it's no coincidence that t I willed myself to read this particular book in double quick time. I have yet to watch the movie version, but it's no coincidence that the actress playing the role of Ma, Brie Larson, got the oscar for best actress this year. Jack is sometimes gullible sometimes not. Sometimes he expresses curiosity. The latter sentiment is the driving force behind a child's growth. Us adults lose something when we have understood our version of the Room.
We are not impressed by a child's sense of wonder. This book, I believe, addresses this case, among many others. Room is a must read. View all 29 comments. View all 25 comments.
The amazing introspection of a child in an exceptional situation that endures it thanks to the love of a mother and human adaptability. I do in general read mostly plot-focused books and if one is character-based, it has to be extremely popular, highly suggested or good-rated or has a unique plot and fresh ideas.
The real-world inspiration is so disturbing that it is hard to deal with it, especially when using extrapolation and probability. There are quite a few humans on the planet and many disappear, so the number of such cases is close to impossible to seriously estimate, but it could even go so far as that not just one, but many generations are living in such conditions for decades or even centuries, a kind of family tradition of incestuous underground breeding and sex slavery.
And how the victims suffer under the danger of miscarriage, having a probably disabled kid by their own brother, uncles, fathers, grandfathers, cousins,… and never seeing the light of day. The disturbed monsters who do that combine some of the worst crimes such as slavery, rape, and probably sometimes murder to satisfy whatever this perversion is and where it may come from.
From now on it gets a bit disturbing because I am adding some real-life facts that might be too hardcore for some readers. There have been many documented cases of remote societies of families going totally bonkers, but it could, of course, be, as in the real case that inspired the novel, the normal neighborhood in a peaceful suburb.
The rest is the same, there are forums, something like different amazons for anything illegal do they have free shipping? Technically highly skilled users are close to impossible to track down, as the progress in technology helps them to stay anonymous and they, just as with faking social life, have a very high motivation to become experts and have tendencies to get jobs that enable them to get skills, such as physicians like anesthetists to hold someone drugged forever or software engineers, and or to work close to humans in social jobs to get their livelong kick each time they enter a room with students or pupils or kids.
This is getting more and more serious, because with social media, not only unprincipled, greedy journalist, but each troll with some following can keep chasing the poor humans. Some of the worst example in the closer past were people who lost family members in tragedies and were haunted by online hate mobs fomented by weird influencers and online, so-called, news media or pseudo-whistle-blowing websites and video channels with dubious agenda settings run by demagogues, telling the dependants that they are a paid part of fake-news conspiracies and that nobody really died, sometimes escalating to death threat and real-life attacks.
View all 9 comments. Shelves: psychology , contemporary , setting , issue , book-club , voice. A book hasn't swallowed me whole like that in a long time.
This one will be haunting be for awhile. I wish I could tell you what it's about, but I wish I hadn't read the back cover 30 pages or so into and changed my own perception. It's best to figure it out along with the story. I will say that it's about a 5-year-old boy who has never left the room where he lives. His whole world is Room and Bed and Rug. It's a little jarring to read from his point of view and I was worried I wasn't going Wow.
It's a little jarring to read from his point of view and I was worried I wasn't going to be able to get into his story, but once I became accustomed to his voice, I couldn't put his story down. And his story wouldn't have the power it does without his perspective. We think about these type of stories from other perspectives, but never from his. Never from the child who is comfortable in his world that we know is all wrong.
The child that never wants to leave his strange circumstances when we understand why he should. Most of the time his naivete was right one, but there were occasions where Donoghue used his voice to explain something that I didn't buy into him understanding. I wish she would have trusted her reader more to see the discord of reality and his perception instead of using Jack to interpret his mother's emotions or the sequence of events.
I loved the juxtaposition of reality and his interpretation and would have liked more of them. There were also some plot twists view spoiler [ such as the Great Escape that I thought was too much for Jack to handle as smoothly as he did when he should have been shocked and overwhelmed as well as sometimes his acclimation to Outside hide spoiler ] that didn't ring entirely true, but I so believed Jack that in the end it didn't matter.
There is one point where the plot takes a turn in a different direction from Jack's perception view spoiler [where Old Nick runs away but you think he's going back to kill Ma hide spoiler ] but Jack's reality is so real, you don't even consider other options. That's when I knew I'd follow Jack anywhere. Maybe it's the unusual perspective or the strong voice. Maybe it's that I know what it's like for a child to change your world.
Maybe it's that right now I feel trapped in my own room with my own baby. Maybe it's that Jack's relationship with his mother is so different from own experience and I was both shocked and saddened by their bond. Or maybe it's that Donoghue made me think about the world in a way I never have before. But whatever it is, this book grabbed my attention and wouldn't let it go. I related to Jack's story when I couldn't possibly know what his life is like.
It's difficult to make the humdrum of ordinary life day in and day out inside an 11x11 room exciting, but Donoghue manages to keep my intense attention. Some of the things Jack made me think about were the autonomy of parents and children and how the line is different for a child than it is for parents. It's what sometimes causes conflict, things like that moment when as a parent you have to discipline where your child thinks of you as a friend. How we put our lives on hold for our children, but there is this whole other self that will eventually wake from slumber.
What a parent should share with a child and what we should keep secret. How education is a good thing, but also a little magic in the world is good too. How children are smart enough to understand honest answers, but sometimes not mature enough for complete answers. How children think of their families and circumstances as normal no matter how unusual it is.
It usually isn't until you move away that you learn that the givens of your own family aren't sacred. It makes you consider the world around you in a whole different light. The news that these stories are based on focus on the horrors of the crime and not on the adjustment afterwards. In many ways Jack was an infant encountering the world for the first time.
Donoghue takes us there. My favorite of these new moments was Jack's haircut. Jack's innocent voice saves us from the horror that this story could be. It's not about all the things lost in Outside. It's about wanting to stay in and safe. And it's about the power of maternal love.
Because of that, the story has redemption and hope and happiness. View 1 comment. View all 51 comments. Shelves: novels , book-club. This book didn't have a chance with me. It was written from the perspective of a five-year-old boy. For the first two thirds of the book the kid was annoying. The mom breastfeeds the kid a lot. I counted twelve times before I stopped counting.
The kid creeped me out by talking about which boob tasted better. Why read it? It was this month's selection for a book club I am part of. It wasn't my pick. Why two stars rather than one? Well, I'll be damned if I didn't start to feel sorry for the po This book didn't have a chance with me.
Well, I'll be damned if I didn't start to feel sorry for the poor kid and like him despite myself. A writer who can do that to me deserves an extra star. View all 62 comments. A novel narrated by a five year old? I'm not a kid person at all so do not think you need to be a mother to appreciate this story.
There is something about Jack's way of looking at Room and at Outside that is refreshing instead of irritating. It's nice to not be dragged down by all the complexities of an adult narrator for a change and I know I would have given this story less stars if it were told through his mother's eyes. This is a story that Jack needed to tell and I am very happy that he di A novel narrated by a five year old?
This is a story that Jack needed to tell and I am very happy that he did. Wow is all I can say about this book. It's told from a very smart 5 year old's perspective but it is so powerful and moving and great. Now I need to watch the movie, where I know I'll definitely cry. ROOM for improvement.
What Jack doesn't initially realise is that both he and his mum are incarcerated she, a victim of a "Is that God up there? What Jack doesn't initially realise is that both he and his mum are incarcerated she, a victim of a kidnapping; he, the product of a rape at the hands of her captor. Wonderfully told is the indestructible love of a mother for her son, borne from the helplessness of her situation. Not so good are the stark inconsistencies in the boy's grammar.
Yes, he's only five, but he's stuck with a grown-up for twenty-four hours a day, so why on earth is his dialogue so infantile? Example: "Why am I hided away like the chocolates? What five-year-old speaks like that, let alone one who exclusively converses with an adult?
You do have to suspend belief for a large part of the story. Jack's baby talk made me wish his mum would put a dummy pacifier into his mouth and the plot descended into inconceivable farce. The book sets out with good intentions, but for me it becomes tedious after a while. I applaud Donoghue for her courage in tackling such a difficult topic.
Her writing, other than Jack's dialogue, is exemplary. It could have been so much better. Everyone has talked about this book so much and no one has talked about it in 10 years and so that is all I have to say. Bottom line: It's good!
Either you've read it already or you probably aren't going to. View all 4 comments. This was a remarkable book. Obviously this concept has sprung from a real life situation, but to be based on its own merit, I think this is a piece of work to be applauded. The characteristics from this poor little boy, and the way in which his mum dealt with her limited situation was captured with, how do I say, accuracy.. I was impressed with this work and can see it had the merit to have been a short list selection for the Man Booker Prize.
How would I know This was a remarkable book. How would I know what this would be like? I loved the physical and mental exercise that mum and son did together to keep Jack's body and spirit alive.
As for the movie, I think I'd like to see it, in fact I am looking forward to it. I found the relationship between this mother and son to be lovely and real; one to be learned from. Recommended reading, which to be fair perhaps I should mention this was a book that many people did not like, and I noticed from here on GR that many gave up and did not finish.
I really did like this. Glad I slotted it in to my ever growing supply of books. I love this conundrum! Readers also enjoyed. Videos About This Book. More videos Adult Fiction. Book Club. About Emma Donoghue. Emma Donoghue. Grew up in Ireland, 20s in England doing a PhD in eighteenth-century literature, since then in Canada. Best known for my novel, film and play ROOM, also other contemporary and historical novels and short stories, non-fiction, theatre and middle-grade novels.
Books by Emma Donoghue. Room is so beautifully contrived that it never once seems contrived. But be warned: once you enter, you'll be Donoghue's willing prisoner right down to the last page. Donoghue's inventive storytelling is flawless and absorbing. She has a fantastic ability to build tension in scenes where most of the action takes place in the by room where her central characters reside. Her writing has pulse-pounding sequences that cause the reader's eyes to race over the pages to find out what happens next Room is likely to haunt readers for days, if not longer.
It is, hands down, one of the best books of the year. Jack's voice is one of the pure triumphs of the novel: in him, she has invented a child narrator who is one of the most engaging in years - his voice so pervasive I could hear him chatting away during the day when I wasn't reading the book.
Donoghue rearranges language to evoke the sweetness of a child's learning without making him coy or overly darling; Jack is lovable simply because he is lovable To buy Room. Wherever you live, PLEASE support your local indie bookstore by buying from them either directly or through an indie-friendly hub such as bookshop.
In a narrative at once delicate and vigorous — rich in psychological, sociological and political meaning — Donoghue reveals how joy and terror often dwell side by side. It presents an utterly unique way to talk about love, all the while giving us a fresh, expansive eye on the world in which we live. But what makes the emotion possible is that this book is built like a finely crafted instrument that perfectly merges art and function… Room is so beautifully contrived that it never once seems contrived.
There's a wholeness to the conclusion of "Room" that doesn't resort to false tidiness and bogus uplift. This is a novel, and a child, that will not be confined…. Emma Donoghue has stared into the abyss, honoured her sources and returned with the literary equivalent of a great Madonna and Child. This book will break your heart. Beckett's Waiting for Godot did it, of course. Donoghue has crafted a narrative that moves as breathlessly as a serial-killer thriller while convincingly portraying, with the precision of a science-fiction novel, how a boy might believe that a room is his whole world.
A gripping, moving read.
0コメント