Room, By Emma Donoghue
Jack, in a box – a unique work of art
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.Jack is a five-year-old boy. Since birth, he has been trapped with his "Ma" inside an 11ft-by-11ft cell.
They have only a TV, a bed, a stove and a few tattered toys. Jack hides when their captor visits at night. To make the internment tolerable, Ma has constructed an elaborate fiction: that everything they witness on TV is a fantasy. There is no outside; the only reality lies within the room.
Emma Donoghue's Booker-shortlisted novel was inspired by the true story of Elisabeth Fritzl, who was imprisoned in her father's basement for 24 years. To use such material as the basis for imaginative writing is audacious, but Donoghue succeeds beautifully. Neither prurient nor sensationalist, her novel transfigures this darkest of stories into a revelatory, even life-affirming work of art.
The story is told from Jack's credulous perspective. Eventually, he and his Ma effect an escape. At this point the book threatens to become a heavy-handed satire of the frenzied media interest in the Fritzl case: Ma's lawyer encourages her to sell her story ("The whole living-on-less thing, it couldn't be more zeitgeisty") and she agrees to a TV interview in which she is asked a series of predictably impertinent questions.
But Donoghue's narrative soon recovers its former subtlety. Her account of Jack's adjustment to his new surroundings is exquisitely observed, and a fittingly bittersweet conclusion to a unique novel.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments