From a very young age I have always wanted to read for pleasure. However, I also have a tendency to get distracted very easily. I sit down to read a chapter and before long my focus is elsewhere. My lack of reading for pleasure has, in my opinion, had a great impact on my confidence in my abilities as a reader as I now tremble at the thought of reading aloud. However, after being prescribed the compulsory text “Room” by Emma Donoghue I knew this was firstly, a book I would read for cover to cover as it was part of my coursework and secondly, a book I would enjoy as I do typically enjoy books based on real life events. I was aware before reading the novel that Donoghue had based the plot largely on the Josef Fritzl case and so was excited to read the novel. Although, much to my dismay, I did not enjoy the novel at first. Had this been a book I sought to read purely for pleasure I would have given up within the first hundred pages. This is due to the main character’s poor spoken English. I found myself becoming incredibly frustrated and attempting to correct the way in which the book was written.
After taking a break from the novel and realising the book was clearly written in such way to convey a particular message I picked the book up once more and persevered. I was so relieved I did as I soon came the point in the novel with the night of Jack’s escape. I found myself furiously flicking through the pages, I felt as if I was there watching everything unfold and from that moment on I was hooked. As the book continued I became less interested in Jack’s illiteracies and more interested in the characters.
I would recommend Room to someone who hasn’t read it before as, overall, I feel it was a worthwhile read. I would also advise them to keep reading as it is certainly worth it. The novel is unique in a number of ways: drawing upon a real life event, the language of Jack and the way in which Donoghue approaches sensitive subjects.
The novel certainly challenged me as a reader. Having the narrator of the novel be a five-year-old boy with an underdeveloped vocabulary presents challenges I think most readers will have difficulty understanding at some point in the novel. I also feel that this was the perfect time for me to read this novel as I enjoyed being able to relate Jack’s language to concepts discussed in both my ‘Literacy for Understanding’ and ‘Situated Communication’ modules.
