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Room A Novel Emma Donoghue Books

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Room A Novel Emma Donoghue Books

I went into this book knowing absolutely nothing about it, which is how I would recommended others to do when considering reading this book.
This story is heavy, intense, and remarkable. It tells the story of 5 year old Jack and his Ma, who are trapped inside of an 11x11 ft room. It is told in Jack's point of view, and how he is learning about the world outside, which he doesn't believe is real.
There is so much more detail that I could go into for a summary of this amazing novel, but I don't want to give anything away. I read ROOM over a course of two days, staying up very late at night to finish the last couple of pages. ROOM is now my favorite book of all time, and if you are wanting to read an emotional rollercoaster of a novel that deals with a heavy topic, ROOM is definitely the one for you
WARNINGS: This book deals with kidnapping, sexual assault, and depression. Foul language and mature themes are explicitly used throughout this novel


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Room A Novel Emma Donoghue Books Reviews

Wow, what a story! I hadn't seen the film or even heard of the book and was recommended to read it by several friends when I asked in my annual book list suggestions for holidays. I found the style at first hard going but then I just couldn't put this book down. It's one of those books that made me think as a mother, could I really do what she did? At some points, I was too anxious to carry on reading for fear it wouldn't go the way I wanted and very few books I've read have done that to me!! It had me thinking long after I had finished the book and that to me, is a sign of a great book.
Try to imagine a life so bleak and impoverished that becoming a common street prostitute is actually a step up in the world, an improvement over starvation, hard work and the color and smell of dust. Imagine that because of some very good fortune you are a young woman who can read and figure -- but because you are a woman these talents will never amount to much. You'll never get a job as a clerk or a shopkeeper. Men get all those chances. As a poor woman, your destiny is quite limited. You can marry someone of your own class and take your chances with that, you can perhaps sew piecework for pence and shillings -- a mean and exhausting life that might keep you from absolute starvation, or you can be a whore.

In most of the historical fiction books I've read, the beautiful real life heroine rises from impoverished or modest beginnings to become the concubine or even the wife of noble man. Nell Gwyn was one of those who went from the gutter to a king's bed and whose children were written about in history books. But the life of a typical ambitious young woman between the 16th -- 19th centuries looked nothing like the lives of the exceptional women glorified in popular books. Most ambitious women of those times had it very hard. Some were beaten down till they had no spirit left in them. Others, who refused to accept their difficult lot in life, might have ended up like Mary Saunders --swinging from the end of a rope. What makes Slammerkin an incredible novel and an extremely hard book to put down is that it is about the real truth. It is about the hard and limited lives of women in the 18th century. It about the squalor and smelliness and blood and cruelty of that time, and it is about how people actually thought and felt. Some people who have reviewed this book found it difficult to relate to Mary Saunders. I'm not surprised at that. The modern reader has empathy, compassion for others, imagination, and usually some hope and optimism. We are capable of projecting our thoughts outside our circumstances even when they are limited. We can't possibly know what it is like to grow up in Mary's time, when love was fragile and fleeting, most bellies were empty and most people were riddled with disease. But Donoghue puts her readers right into that and then she gives us insight into how a woman of that time might think and act -- particularly if she desperately wanted something more than what she had. What would you enjoy if you lived in a time where going to a public hanging was considered good entertainment? Who would you be? What if the only color you ever saw came from the tawdry apparel of prostitutes in the street? What if your only joy came from the bottom of a gin bottle?

Mary isn't a repulsive person. She's very human, very determined and very smart. When it comes to survival, she's just about an expert. She's constantly alive to the possibilities and doing whatever she can to make them work for her. The trouble with her life is that there are few possibilities and none of these are quite what she thinks she needs or wants. What I most often felt for Mary was compassion. I knew that if I had lived her life I might have been very much like her. I saw some of my own weaknesses -- naivete, fear, passion, inability to project into the future -- and I knew that I might have gone just as crazy, been just as foolish. I might have thrown my whole life away in desperation, just as she did. She's ignorant and we can see miles ahead even when she can't. That makes it a difficult book to read. You want to reach into the story and create a happy ending for her. But for every person who succeeded in her circumstances there were dozens -- hundreds -- who failed and died.

I take this novel as a memorial to all the people of preceding centuries who were dealt a losing hand, who tried with all their might to change their lives, and failed.
Slammerkin tells the story of teenaged Mary Saunders in 18th century London, who resorts to a life of selling her body in an effort to move past her working class, poverty stricken upbringing. The first thing I want to say is that Emma Donoghue is such a talented writer. I hadn’t read anything by her beforehand, but most will know her from Room. Donoghue excels in explaining details in unique, particular, and beautiful ways. I didn’t find any of the same old tired turning of phrases or plot points in this book. I had an idea of what Slammerkin would be about, and then it took me to a place I actually did not expect. If you’re a fan of the Hulu show Harlots, you’ll love Act 1 of this book as Mary learns the ropes of London whoring from Doll, the carpe diem-rough around the edges-boozing-beautiful in her own way-lady of the night. Mary not only lives with Doll, but looks to the older girl (about 10 years older, I think) as a role model. The intriguing thing about Mary throughout this book is that she doesn’t necessarily have strict ideas about what is good and what is evil, she simply does in order to get something or improve her lot in life. For example, it is seeing Doll with colorful clothing and a glossy red ribbon in her hair that “inspires” Mary to leave her poverty stricken existence behind. Mary sees the toil of her mother–making next to nothing doing little sewing jobs and knows that if she doesn’t do something drastically different, that that empty existence will be her fate. What’s interesting is that Mary chooses this life as a means to elevate her quality of life, and despite its harshness the reader can’t necessarily blame her for it given the miserable alternative. Young though she is, Mary owns her new life as a doxy and even seems to take pride in it.

It’s not until a series of unfortunate events that Mary flees London for her native Monmouth, on the Welsh border. It is here that Mary takes up employment with the Jones family–Mrs. Jones having been a childhood friend of Mary’s mother. Mary presents herself as an innocent charity case to the Jones family, fabricating a story of her being orphaned with no where else to turn.

Although she chafes against small town life at first, Mary comes to find comfort in the “family” she’s ingratiated herself with. Mr. Jones, the one-legged stay maker, Mrs. Jones, the dressmaker, Hetta, their daughter, and Abi the household “maid of all work” aka slave. I found the tenuous friendship between Abi and Mary interesting in that Abi was understandably standoffish at first, while Mary was interested in and quite forward about learning Abi’s origins. Mary very much acts like both a girl of her time and a girl of her age in regards to Abi’s plight. She encourages Abi to run away, yet is unwilling to lend her any money to do so. Although she is not in the book at this point, Doll is ever the influence on Mary–her voice chiming in like a devil on her shoulder, “every girl for herself!” But for all her roughness, Doll very much acted the older sister to Mary.

Mary continually makes choices that will surprise and confound the reader, yet at the same time Donoghue writes her story in such a way that we understand her and root for her. Mary isn’t exactly likable, but she is complex and compelling in her actions. It is she who pushes the plot forward, not the other way around, which makes Slammerkin very much character-driven. The story of Mary Saunders comes from real life events, which I found very interesting. It reminded me of both Alias Grace (the book and the historical figure) and 18th century moral tales a la Pamela (but gone wrong in the end.) Slammerkin makes us examine the thought that maybe not every action has a profound reasoning behind it, and that maybe there is more gray in life than we’d care to admit.

Donoghue’s unique descriptions and complex characters make for a compelling, entertaining, and thought-provoking read.
I went into this book knowing absolutely nothing about it, which is how I would recommended others to do when considering reading this book.
This story is heavy, intense, and remarkable. It tells the story of 5 year old Jack and his Ma, who are trapped inside of an 11x11 ft room. It is told in Jack's point of view, and how he is learning about the world outside, which he doesn't believe is real.
There is so much more detail that I could go into for a summary of this amazing novel, but I don't want to give anything away. I read ROOM over a course of two days, staying up very late at night to finish the last couple of pages. ROOM is now my favorite book of all time, and if you are wanting to read an emotional rollercoaster of a novel that deals with a heavy topic, ROOM is definitely the one for you
WARNINGS This book deals with kidnapping, sexual assault, and depression. Foul language and mature themes are explicitly used throughout this novel