![]() ![]() ![]() Ma keeps him hidden in Wardrobe when Old Nick visits and Jack counts Old Nick’s panting breaths the way other children count sheep Old Nick is always gone when Jack wakes up. ![]() I was expecting the abuse to be a primary factor in the story but Jack is never exposed to it. ![]() Ma has even hidden her absolute disgust of the place, her pain, and her nightmare. Ma has protected him so thoroughly that their 11×11 foot cell is Jack’s fairyland, his home, his sanctuary. Jack, our narrator, is completely unharmed. I’ve read Lolita, Bastard Out of Carolina, and a dozen other stories about abused women, and even abused children, but this story is completely unique among them. The innocence of children, their ability to see the world as unique, beautiful and inspiring, is precisely what one needs to stomach an abuse story. Room immediately appealed to me because it was a child narrator in an extremely unusual situation: the child is the product of a mother, who has been sealed in a shed, by a sexual abuser. I read a lot and I find myself predicting things when they aren’t innovative (this could be a moment for a 50 Shades of Grey rant, but we’ll wait, shall we?). I am always on the hunt for a new narrative-not new as in recent, new as in different. ![]()
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