Room - by Emma Donoghue

The Room is a book you will actually keep thinking about long after you have finished it. The book feels so real the characters are so life like that you immediately connect to them and are moved by the things happening in their life. It is actually a story of a son and his mother and how they survive in a room till he is 5 years of age. There is so much to learn from this book. This book is about how a mother can go to great lengths to make his son safe and happy. How she will do whatever is in her power so that her child sees a beautiful world around him. This is also about how a mother just knows how to be a mother the moment she knows of a life growing inside her .The story is told by the son how he sees the happening through his eyes and understands the world and the changes happening around him. For me the story was very uplifting yet depressing at the same time.

The room is story of Jack who has just turning 5.As he starts off telling about himself and his mama you can immediately see there is something wrong about what he is telling .As you learn more about his life you come to know that he is kept captive in a small room along with his 'Ma'. Yet his days are all filled up and he gives charming details of his day to day life. Jack does not know of the world that exists beyond the room and thinks whatever comes in TV is just all make believe. But one day his whole understanding goes topsy turvy when his 'Ma' admits that she lied to him and things in TV are real. This off course comes as a big shock to Jack because for one his 'Ma' lied to him and then to make out how much of TV is really real. And what happens once he starts to come to terms with the fact that 'outside'(as he calls everything out of the room) exists ?This is definitely a must read for everybody !!

When I was searching for this books review I came to know this book is actually based on the real life story of Elizabeth whose father, Josef Fritzl, locked her in underground caller of his house for 24 years. She gave birth to 7 children 3 of whom lived with her in the cellar with her and rest with Fritzl and his wife. She got released only when her elder daughter fell severely ill and had to be taken out of cellar by Fritzl to a hospital where police got suspicious. It is so shocking and heart wrenching to know such things really exists.

Read full story here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fritzl_case

Rebecca

Rebeeca is a classic mystery novel (published in 1938) and considered by many as one of the best mystery novel ever written.Though it is a mystery novel but unlike mystery novel ,it does not start with a problem like murder and then tracing who killed the person a-la- Agatha Cristie or Shakespere.Reading this novel you will feel rather irrie and haunted thoughout ,till you come to know there indeed is a mystry or surprize element present.One very queer part of this novel is that the main protagonist of the novel is not named but still you will not miss her name throughout the novel.The novel is quite aptly written without her name coming even once

The story:
This story is of not just of its characters but also of the place where it takes place, Manderley.The place Manderley is vividly described and it forms a life of its own in the novel.The story starts in Monte Carlo where the young female protagonist (who is a orphan) works as a companion for wealthy and dominating Edythe Van Hopper.Since she is quite young and quite bossed about by Edythe Van Hopper,she has lost her confidence and is at ill at ease with other people.But when she meets Maxim it all starts to change.Everybody knows who Maximilian de Winter is .Maxim is the owner of a majestic place called Manderley.His history precedes him where ever he goes .He was married earlier to Rebecca who had died a year ago due a to storm in sea.Rebecca's death has shattered Maxim and from which he is not able to recover.The young protagonist does not think Maxim will ever be interested in her yet Maxim asks her out and proposes to the her eventually.Maxim is all that she could have asked for in a husband but as they head out to Manderley after their honeymoon, things starts to change.Maxim is not the same anymore.He seems to feel so far off and aloof once they are back.Also as new Mrs de Winters and head of big Manderley she finds herself totally out of place.She could feel herself being compared to Rebecca its previous mistress.Wherevern she goes in Manderley she is haunted by Rebecc's memory.To add to her misery she has to keep in inteacting with the head housekeeper, Mrs. Danvers who had taken care of Rebecca since childhood.Mrs Danvers does not misses any chance to compare the new bride with Rebecca.So what happens next ?

Review :
First time I had heard about this book was from my mother when she was watching a old Hindi movie based on the book.The climax of that movie is actually different from the book.It even has a Academy award movie based on this novel.Most of book is in flashback.It starts off with protagonist explaining her dream which she had seen last night.Then she starts off by explaining her present day to day living and then moves back to the past.
When the novel starts I was quite at a loss to figure out what the protagonist is talking about .It is only when she steps into her past you start to get a clear picture.Both the parts -past and present are quite disjoint and you need to read the complete book before you attach the present from the past.The starting is slow and its difficult to keep interest but once its moves to past it becomes quite engaging.The novel traces the anguish and emotional turmoil of the protagonist as a young second bride who is constanly been compared to deceased first wife. The mystery in the end comes quite unexpetedly and only then you understand everything clearly.I thought the end was a big stretched yet the end itself is quite surprising in itself.