Emma Donoghue's "Room"
When I picked up Dublin writer Man Booker longlistedÌýnovel a few weeks ago,ÌýI put it down after a few pages. I had picked up the clues dropped casually, naively,Ìýby the book's narrator. HeÌýhas, after all, just turned 5 the morning we meet him. His name isÌýJack and he lives in "Room" with "Ma". What got to me was when he saysÌýherÌýteeth are all black. He doesn't want to have teeth like her and so heÌýcounts his own teethÌýobsessively.
The rottenÌýteeth triggered something in my memory, Elizabeth Fritzl, whose father Josef imprisoned her, was said to haveÌýhad black teeth when she was found. She also had a five year old son Felix who emerged into the world, "Outside" as Jack calls it. So "Room" clicked.Ìý Room was in factÌýaÌýprison, a woman kidnapped, "Old Nick" who would visit her most nights the abductor, Jack the product of it.
ÌýIÌýput the book down.ÌýI was in Donegal on my holidays. I could hear normal life around me, my two girls downstairs, fighting over which Peppa Pig dvd to put on, I wanted to think aboutÌýwhether to cookÌýdinner or get a takeaway, whether it would stop raining and I could get the two down to the beach for air. I didn't want "Room" in my head.ÌýI went downstairs. Ìý
Back home after the break awayÌýI went back to it again. Then something happened. I fell in love, miraculously seduced. In the midst of aÌýhorror my mind was struggling to make sense of, here wasÌýa chatty, free spirited, inquisitive 5 year old. Jack told me about his day,Ìýhis favourite toys,Ìýwhy he lovedÌýto watch Dora the Explorer and why there was no one else in the world likeÌý"Ma". And through him we glimpse Ma, and what is happening to her. Ìý
And then there was no one in the world like Jack.ÌýI was hooked. So when we're brought back to reality with the "beep beep" of theÌýsteel door of their prison signalling Old Nick was there my stomach lurched and I willed Ma toÌýget Jack into the wardrobe as fast as possible. "Wardrobe" isÌýhis hiding place, Ìýso he can'tÌýsee what is happening.
But heÌýcould hear though.ÌýÌý
And then comes the escape. One reviewer said she punched the air. It is a marvellous moment.
Listen to tonight's interview here withÌýEmma DonoghueÌýon Arts Extra.
"Room" is published byÌýPicadorÌý
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