Room by Emma Donoghue

In noodling around on the computer at book-geek websites, I came across accounts of a big controversy in England just lately when one of the judges for the Booker Prize (England's most prestigious award for literature) said that they looked for "readability" and "the ability to zip along." Literary critics were immediately incensed, claiming that the Booker judges were ignoring "artistic achievement" in favor of popular readership.

Room was on the Short List for the Booker Prize last year, but it didn't win. If the judges were looking only for readability, this book should have won hands-down. It "zipped along" better than anything I have read this year. I couldn't put it down--it was literally a one-day read.

This is the story of a young woman imprisoned by a sexual predator in an 11' x 11' room, rearing her 5-year-old son. Sounds like it was "ripped from the headlines," doesn't it. (It was written before JaCee Dugard was found, however similar it may sound.) This could have been just a creepy, sensationalistic thriller in less capable hands, but Donoghue turns it into a moving testimony to the bonds of love between a mother and child. The second half of the book focuses on another equally touching aspect of mother-child love--the necessity of a mother's letting go to allow the child to flourish as a separate human being.

Taking a big risk, Donoghue tells her story in first-person through the voice of the child. This could have turned out badly if the voice had sounded at all wrong. But it sounds right for an intelligent child who has had constant adult companionship. This allows the author to put the emphasis of the story where she wants it to be--on the emotions of the two captives rather than on the circumstances of their captivity.

I cannot claim to have objectivity about this book, because for me (as a mother) it had such a strong emotional appeal. I don't know if men would like it nearly as much. I doubt that it can be counted as a great "artistic achievement," in the sense of being groundbreaking, innovative, or cerebral. But boy, is it a good read!

Highly recommended.