ROOM by Emma Donoghue – Spoiler Discussion by the Bookies

You know the drill – everything discussed here is fair game – spoilers are allowed so go wild: 

You should only continue reading if you have read ROOM.

In May 2011 the Bookies book club read and reviewed ROOM.  Here is the discussion we had.  Please feel free to add your thoughts about this book as well.

The Bookies book club enjoyed ROOM as an average plus read.  Part of our discussion was about how we felt Jack was stunted by growing up in ROOM.  We found that he had depth perception issues, had not built up an immune system, sunlight sensitivity…. who knew that not being out in the world could cause so many issues?

If we were ma what would we miss most about the outside world?

I quickly said Starbucks.  😀  It was also mentioned interaction with people, family, fresh air, walks, smells….

We wondered why Old Nick was such a background character and then decided as the story was told from Jack’s perspective -that he had to be as Jack hardly knew him or seen him.  Knowing Old Nick could possibly have made him sympathetic, and for sure would have taken away from the story.

We discussed what we would have asked for for Sunday treat and had fun with this one.

Lori P quickly said the key.  😉

We followed up with – the code, a hatchet, a camera.. later we got smarter with this question and came up with answers like – a dictionary (as Ma was losing her own vocabulary), board games – to educate both her and Jack.

It was discussed that is Ma had never had Jack she probably would not still be living.  Trapped in a ROOM alone for 7+ years… the depression.  She may have gone insane.

Of course, we had to discuss the breast-feeding which was my big point in my own spoiler page of this book…. we discussed why she did it, how we understood but still found it a little creepy.  On the creep factor 1- 10… many of us rated it a 10…

We discussed what we would have done if we were Ma.  Could we have rolled jack up in hops of his escape in RUG?  We knew that she could not fake sick as that would leave Jack alone in the ROOM.  It had to be Jack – he was the only hope.

 

We found it very believable that Ma got in a car with a stranger at the age of 19 and shared stories of our own stupid getting in a car with stranger stories….

What did you think of ROOM?  Do you have anything to add to our discussion?