Review: Room

Room by Emma Donoghue
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Minimalistický román s maximálním přesahem. Velmi úzký vztah matky a dítěte, kteří jsou odkázání na život mezi čtyřmi zdmi je neskutečně intenzivní, plný emocí, trýzně, lásky a zoufalství. Příběh vyprávění z pozice sotva pětiletého dítěte je sice místy až dotěrně otravný, ale o to nejspíš i autentičtější. A to především poté, co se dostane do světa a začne ho postupně objevovat. A s ním začínáte prozírat i vy. Banality se mění v očích malého dítěte v dobrodružství, které se bohužel snadno může zvrhnout v hysterii a beznaděj. Svět je zkrátka najednou až moc velký, plný zvuků, lidí, věcí, neznámého...

Ukázka z knihy (čteno v angličtině):

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. Before that I was three, then two, then one, then zero. "Was I minus numbers?"

"Hmm?" Ma does a big stretch.

"Up in Heaven. Was I minus one, minus two, minus three--?"

"Nah, the numbers didn't start till you zoomed down."

"Through Skylight. You were all sad till I happened in your tummy."

"You said it." Ma leans out of Bed to switch on Lamp, he makes everything light up whoosh.

I shut my eyes just in time, then open one a crack, then both.

"I cried till I didn't have any tears left," she tells me. "I just lay here counting seconds."

"How many seconds?" I ask her.

"Millions and millions of them."

"No, but how many exactly?"

"I lost count," says Ma.

"Then you wished and wished on your egg till you got fat."

She grins. "I could feel you kicking."

"What was I kicking?"

"Me, of course."

I always laugh at that bit.

"From the inside, boom boom." Ma lifts her sleep T-shirt and makes her tummy jump. "I thought, Jack's on his way. First thing in the morning, you slid out onto the rug with your eyes wide open."

I look down at Rug with her red and brown and black all zigging around each other. There's the stain I spilled by mistake getting born. "You cutted the cord and I was free," I tell Ma. "Then I turned into a boy."



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