Emma Donoghue: "Room"
http://thedianerehmshow.org/shows/2010-12-09/emma-donoghue-room
The story of a nineteen-year old girl kidnapped and held captive for seven years in a small, confined space is horrifying. But told from the point of view of her five-year old son in a novel by Irish-born writer Emma Donoghue, it becomes a hopeful story about the unwavering love between a child and a mother and the possibility of new beginnings. “Room: A Novel” was shortlisted for this year’s Mann Booker Prize and appears on many best of 2010 book lists. Emma Donoghue talks with Diane about parenthood, the resilliance of children and faith.
Guests
Emma Donoghue
a writer whose novels include Slammerkin, The Sealed Letter, Landing, Life Mask, Hood, and Stirfry. Her story collections are The Woman Who Gave Birth to Rabbits, Kissing The Witch, and Touchy Subjects. She also writes literary history, and plays for stage and radio.
Comments
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"Room" is the best book I've read in many years. I'll never again hear the words "Bye bye" without thinking of this book and the context of those words in it.
Pike Sullivan
Meadows of Dan VA
I am a PhD candidate in English literature, focusing on trauma. The thing that most struck me about Ms. Donoghue's novel is the absolute discipline with which she avoids graphic depictions of the sexual violence to which this young woman is subjected, depictions which have (unfortunately) become the norm in contemporary literature. I wonder how reviewers have reacted to this omission, and if the author has been surprised by their reactions?
Natalie Carter,
Washington DC
Am I alone in thinking that breast feeding a 5 year old is a bit "different?"
Loved, loved, loved this novel. Jack is a wonderfully captivating narrator; his mother breathtakingly human (her days of depression, for example). The book seems to be about our own condition: how do we make the most of the rooms we are in?
The controversy over breastfeeding in the book seems ludicrous; of course Jack's mother would want him to have all the nutrition she could give him.
I look forward to your next book.
Danielle Price
Windsor, Ontario
Oh please!!! With all the different marvelous aspects this book seems to have - you focus on the nursing? Get over yourself. I nursed both my children - one to the age of 3, the other to the age of 4.
Back to the novel - I can't wait to read it.
Speaking as a pediatrician, your old pediatrician had a reason for restricting your children from unnecessary contacts. Until the child is over two to three months old, the infant is at increased risk for developing meningitis due to the lack of complete development of the blood brain barrier. Because of this quirk in anatomy, if an infant less than 2-3 months develops a fever, the work up is much different than an older infant. It entails a 2 day hospitalization with IV antibiotics after blood cultures, urine cultures and spinal tap/lumbar puncture are performed. So I routinely recommend that parents limit unnecessary contacts to limit catching infections (viral or bacterial) which may cause a fever and trigger this expensive hospitalization. Fifty years ago, the recommendation was even more important because a lot of diseases that were prevalent then are less frequently seen due to modern immunizations!
Ms Donoghue,
Thank you so much for creating a character who nurses her baby through toddlerhood! I am currently nursing my third and last child; he is 2 years old and he loves the connection that we share at bedtime. I look forward to reading Room and I'm glad to see a piece of literature that normalizes full term breastfeeding.
I just wanted to comment on the breastfeeding issue that came up during the show. I think it is wonderful that Ma breastfeeds Jack still at age 5! We, as a society have got to stop seeing breasts as merely sexual objects. They are sexual, sure, but they are also the delivery device for the absolute best nutrition a baby and young child an receive-breast milk!
Thanks again for another engaging and educational show!
Perhaps the breast-feeding was a birth control method? Perhaps unintentional, but effective in this case.