Emma Donoghue’s ‘Room’ poignant, heart-wrenching

Today I’m five. I was four last night going to sleep in Wardrobe, but when I wake up in Bed in the dark I’m changed to five, abracadabra.

Five-year-old Jack has lived his life in Room. He sleeps in Wardrobe when Old Nick comes into Room. His ma puts him in Bed with her after Old Nick leaves.

Jack’s content in Room, as it’s the only home he has known. But to his mom, it’s a cage, where she has been held since being kidnapped at 19. She has been a captive for seven years, repeatedly raped. Jack is her light and she tries to entertain, educate and love him as best she can in 11-by-11-foot Room.

Jack loves TV. Especially “Dora the Explorer." But Ma won’t let him watch too much because she says it’ll rot his brain. Jack likes talking to Dora and helping her during her adventures. His isolation leaves him uneducated about the outside world, unable to differentiate between reality and fantasy.

Dora is a drawing in TV but she’s my real friend, that’s confusing. Jeep is actually real, I can feel him with my fingers. Superman is just TV. Trees are TV but Plant is real. ... Skateboards are TV and so are girls and boys except Ma says they’re actual, how can they be when they’re so flat?

As Jack’s curiosity grows, his mom knows she’s got to tell him the truth, something he’ll barely be able to comprehend. She also knows she and her son must escape, and Jack will play a pivotal role in their exit.

Emma Donoghue’s “Room” would seem an implausible story if not for the very real people to whom this scenario has happened. Particularly similar is the case of Jaycee Dugard, who was kidnapped at age 11 and held captive for 18 years by a man who raped her and fathered her two children.

“Room” explores how emotionally shocking entering the world would be after such isolation. Jack emotes resilience as he comes to terms with his changing circumstances, but what has been done to him and his mother breaks the reader’s heart.

With “Room,” Donoghue paints a dark but realistic portrait of abuse that’s sure to stir compassion in readers. Jack’s young voice recounts a heart-wrenching yet touching story of a mother’s love for her son, but also of the absolute horrific violence people are capable of unleashing.