Library Director’s NotebookOctober, 2011 October is the month of...

Fri, 09/30/2011 - 1:42pm -- KChin




Library Director’s Notebook
October, 2011

October is the month of ghosts and goblins and spooky things that go bump in the night.  It’s the month I like to read ghost stories or mysteries or slightly spooky books.  I’ve just finished a book that seems to fall into a class of its own, so haunting and disturbing is it, yet there are no ghosts, no goblins and nothing paranormal about it.  In fact, Room by Emma Donoghue is frightening just because it is of this world, rather than of some supernatural world.  The crimes that happen in Room can happen to people, and in fact, have happened, distressing as it is to contemplate.

To five year old Jack, the entire world is Room.  Since the moment of his birth in Room, he has never, even for a second, been outside.  He knows nothing but what is found in Room, which includes his young mother , who is also kept locked up in Room.  Jack sees television shows, reads books, and learns a variety of things from his mother.  But to Jack “real” is only what exists in Room; everything else is pretend or imaginary.

Jack and his mother are not victims of some rare auto-immune disease that keeps them locked away from the germ infested world “outside”.  They are victims of a man Jack refers to as “Old Nick” who comes each night to visit his mother.  Although Old Nick knows of Jack’s existence, Jack’s mother feels it is best to have her son be out of sight in a closet when Old Nick comes to call.  Their very existence depends on Old Nick, to give them food, heat, water, electricity, clothing, and any other basic necessity they might need.  Old Nick doles these necessities out grudgingly, expecting warm gratitude from his captives.

It is obvious from the very beginning of Room that Jack’s mother is coming to the end of her rope.  She has been a captive in Room for seven  years and although she tries desperately to make Jack’s life “normal”, she knows it is only a matter of time before Jack will begin to insist on explanations to questions she dare not answer

 

Room raises the question:  how do we know what we know?  If our lives are narrowed to a space of  11 square  feet ,and we are never allowed beyond those small confines, how much can we really comprehend, outside of our actual experiences?  Though Jack’s mother understands the horror of their confinement, at five years old, having known nothing else, their prison seems “normal “ to Jack.

Even in this seemingly bleak situation, there lurks the slimmest chance for escape.  But it will all depend on little Jack whose courage and resourcefulness will be tested to the limit in a dangerous game of hide and seek.

This is a book to race through with pounding heart and bated breath, hoping against hope that it will work out for Jack.  And in a final unpredictable twist, it may be that the world outside Room is not what a little boy might hope for.

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