Picador, 401 pgs., 2010
I can already tell that the hardest part of this challenge is going to be the blog write-ups. Room is every bit as hard for me to write about as The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea, though for completely different reasons. It's an easy read, without much to interpret, but my initial reaction to it could be summed up as "Meh." Just as "It's just wrong!" didn't suffice as a grammar explanation when I first began copy editing, though (my writers certainly didn't like it much, anyway), "Meh" won't cut it for a review or in-house memo, especially when many reviewers seem to be raving about the book (it was even shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize). I became a much stronger copy editor when I learned to verbalize why something wasn't working grammatically. Working that muscle.
Room is told through the eyes of Jack, a five-year-old boy who lives with his Ma in a single, locked room. Unlike some of the more negative Amazon reviewers, I wasn't bothered by Jack's childish narrative voice (he talks about "hotting" the thermostat and measuring his "heavy"), but neither was I particularly impressed by it. Nor was I a fan of the constant references to Dora, Spongebob, et al--I suppose it does lend an air of realism to things, but it doesn't seem to serve any real purpose, unlike in the works of say, Lois-Ann Yamanaka, where junk mainland pop culture is a metaphor for the mainstream's cultural domination over Hawaii. The subject matter gives the book some artificial suspense, but so many pages are devoted to Jack and Ma's daily routines in Room that it becomes dull very quickly. I thought the idea behind Room--a young girl abducted and isolated, a boy born and raised in confinement, the bond they form and the readjustment they must go through after their escape--was compelling, but there was so much more the author could have done with it. Overall, disappointing.
I'm about a week ahead of schedule, so I'm going for something slightly more ambitious this time. Next up: Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond
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