Behind the Franzen furor that marked the beginning of the month lurked the slow burn of another anticipated fall release: Emma Donoghue’s Room. This subtle, affecting story of parental love, which we excerpted here, is on the Booker Prize longlist and was one of our featured books for September, right alongside Freedom. After our thought-provoking interview with Donoghue, we asked her to share a little more about the writing process in a behind the book essay.
Behind the Book: The dark corners of research that inspired ‘Room’
I always knew I wanted my novel Room to work on two levels: as a universal, almost fairy-tale story about love between mother and son, and as a totally realistic child’s-eye account of being raised in a locked room that measures 11 foot by 11. To get the second bit right, I didn’t just read up on experiences similar to the one in my story—the roughly half-dozen young women who have survived lengthy, secret confinement, mostly famously in Austria and the US but also in Belgium, Japan and Russia. I followed my nose in many directions to understand, as deeply as I could, every aspect of what Ma and Jack might go through, both inside and outside their prison.
For my previous historical novels, I’ve mostly worked in university libraries; this time, my library was the Internet.
We’re giving away two copies of Room to lucky Book Case readers. Here’s how to enter to win: read the piece and come back and comment about what you think Donoghue’s most gruesome bit of research was before this Friday, September 17.
I would think going thru the cases on the ferel children website would be the hardest. Particularly since she is a mother herself.
I would have a very difficult time reading about kids born in concentration camps.
I think that Donoghue’s research on abused and/or neglected children was the most gruesome aspect of her research. Donoghue specifically mentions a site, “Feral Children”, that she came across. The name sends chills up and down my spine. It implies children who are alone, brutalized, abandoned, neglected, abused, terrorized, frightened and who’ve become like a “wild” animal because of how they’ve been treated by other people. It’s heart-breaking and disgusting the way some parents or guardians treat children. I am sure many of the accounts of child abuse & neglect Donoghue read about are the stuff of nightmares.
~ Amy
Aimala127@gmail.com
Donoghue said:
“I found a site called Feral Children and forced
myself to read through all its cases of children
raised in confined or abusive settings.”
I’m the one who has to take a break from a book or movie that becomes too ‘real’. I think most people believe an author gets an idea for a book and then just sits down and writes. This article puts a whole new light on the subject.
Emma’s comments remind me of the television show “Criminal Minds”. It’s not getting into the mind of an evil person as making your way back out. It’s difficult as a mother to think of anyone doing this to a child as the girl was when she was abducted. What kind of person does this to his child. But Ma strives to give Jack as “normal” an experience as possible under extreme circumstances. Powerful!
I agree with the other comments, the website about “Ferel Children”
the info about the ferel children is so intense
The images she may have seen from the web site of Feral Children may never leave her mind.That sounded most disturbing to me.
I think Ms. Donoghue must have had a lot of courage to write this novel. Maybe it will be able to help someone out there in a bad situation.
Certainly the research was all difficult; but I would imagine creating the room on the homedecor site, pulling her in further to the minds of the abusers, may have been at least as difficult.
Some readers won’t read even a novel about an abused child because the idea is so troubling, so I would think researching any abuse of children, especially by a parent, would have been very difficult.
I would imagine the most gruesome aspect of Ms Donoghue’s research had to have been studying the Feral Children website…it never ceases to amaze and sadden me to know that there are children who live such dreadful, terrible lives.
The Feral Children website must have been the most gruesome.
I’m going to go with reading Feral Children – I can’t imagine. Loved the column. Thanks!
Her in-depth research with children born in concentration camps would be heartrending and difficult.
It all sounds pretty horrific to me but personally the research on children born in concentration camps would be the most difficult. To have been a mother who would have had a “normal” life and then know you would give birth to a child who would most likely be immediately taken from you and killed would be heart wrenching.
Figuring out “exactly what children can and can’t survive…”
I don’t know if I could even write such a book if I had to read so much about the suffering of children. Thanks.
As difficult as the research was I think rolling her own son up in a rug must have been an experience she would not be able to forget.
definitely what she researched about children =( heartbreaking!
From what the author herself says about it and from what I can only imagine the experience was like, I’d agree with so many of the other people commenting here that working her way through the Feral Children website was probably the most gruesome (and grueling) aspect of her research.
When I read about this book on book-a-day I immediately put it on hold at my library. At first reading I of course believe reading about the feral children had to be the hardest. But when I read about her “playing” with her own son and wrapping him in the rug to see if he would get out had to be pretty awful. I’m sure she made it fun for her son but to imagine your child for one minute in such circumstances is probably the worst for a parent.
When it comes to devastating experiences concerning children, in my opinion, each bit of research, all the reading and conversations peel away the emotions. The very concept of feral children, children confined in concentration camps, children at risk in any way, (your own or others) takes anyone with a heart/conscience into another realm. On the other side of the coin, a book like this shows the author’s courage and desire to bring light to a critical issue.
I don’t think I could have stood looking at the Feral Children website for more than a few seconds. What strength it took to watch such horrible things.
Flowers in the Attic immediately come to mind when I saw the new book title ROOM. I will never forget how that book of child abuse affected my mother when she read it – in the 80′s. She always made comments about it and even before she died in ’97…she would say what a lasting impression that story made on her.
Hi Sheila — you’re the winner! We’ll be in touch.
This reminds me of the true story ‘A Child Called It’. I read this story a few years ago & while it was very difficult to read it was also mesmerizing!
Please enter me, thanks.
I studied cases like Genie’s (you can read her story on the Feral Children website) in a college psychology class and it has never left me. It is truly horrendous what those poor children go through. I’ll be looking forward to reading this book and hearing the author’s perspective.
It definitely had to be reading through the Feral Children website. I read through a couple of the stories myself and they are horrendous.
Reading about the torture of children must have been the most gruesome aspect of her research. Starvation and neglect would be difficult enough to read about, but the torture aspect takes the whole scenario a huge step beyond into what is unimaginable for most of us.
Please, enter me in the competition.
I think the most gruesome thing was surely that she had to read through all those cases described on the Feral Children site.
Her research in how children are abused and tortured by their own parents. Parents who are susposed to love and care for them.
It is one thing to think about what these captive situations would be like and totally another to read about what they HAVE actually been like for those who have been lucky enough to escape or be released from these type of situations. Being a Mom and then reading about children being held captive and abused or seeing/hearing their mother being abused must have been heart breaking. I must say I am very curious about the book.
I think it must have been doing the research on the website “Feral Children” knowing these were actual children’s stories and not something made up. Even learning of this websites’s existence by reading this author interview gives me the creeps and I do not know if I will have the courage to visit it myself. I will absolutely read Room but not before bedtime when I usually read.
I THINK THE RESEARCH ON FERAL CHILDREN WAS THE HARDEST. READING THE STORIES, HAVING A YOUNG CHILD, FEELING SOME OF WHAT OTHER MOTHERS FELT. LOOKING INTO THE EYES OF YOUR CHILD AND SAYING THERE BY THE GRACE OF GOD GO I. I WOULD LOVE TO WIN A COPY OF THE BOOK.
Even the words “tunnels” and “dungeons” gave me chills.
The research on Feral Children was hard but also the children born in concentration camps… choosing one of these two research sources, probably impossible as both scenarios are very gruesome. Donoghue is much more courageous than I… the all too real and very gruesome research would have been too much for me.
I think that the stories about the children being abused and tortured would be the most gruesome to research.
Such intense research on such a heart-rending subject. I wonder how many sleepless nights followed going onto those websites, particularly the feral children one. I’m anxious to read the book.
Feral Children just because it would be so astounding to hear how many children are treated so badly
Like so many of the other responders, I’d have to say probably the most gruesome research was from the Feral Children website. This would especially be true because when something disturbs you deeply, namely when pictures have been painted in your mind, it is hard NOT to continue to see these pictures in your mind. It is beyond your control to stop thinking about it.
Definitely her research into cases of child confinement, abuse and neglect. Gut wrenching stuff.
Definitely her research on Feral Children about children being tortured. I just cannot imagine.
While the feral children website in general must have been horrifying to look at, I think that the specific cases on that site of children being tortured and neglected by their own parents/caregivers must have been the most gruesome. To think that the person who is supposed to protect a child from anything and everything is actually the one inflicting unspeakable horrors makes my skin crawl. And makes me want to return to vigilante justice….
I agree with all the other comments that Donoghue’s research on abused, tortured, and feral children must have been horrific. But I got the worst twinge reading that she researched children conceived through rapes. I’ve often wondered what it must be like for those kids, and their mothers, when they both know no love was involved in their conception, just violence.
Donoghue’s research which required going through cases of abuse and neglect of children is what I’d consider most gruesome because I know I couldn’t stomach reading through all of it without it affecting me.
The most difficult research would be of extreme torture on children,to me the most interesting would be about women who have been raped and have their children.
I have a friend who worked in the Intake Department of the County Child Abuse Unit. She had to leave the job and go to another (she is a psychologist) because of the burnout of what she saw and had to deal with on a daily basis. She only lasted at the job for 5 years. She was telling me that the it is much more common than people would believe, having children locked up in rooms or abusive husbands locking up wives and children. I am surprised that the author did not have burnout especially after researching the site “feral children” and looking at the pictures and reading the case histories knowing they were real….I cannot wait to read this book. Call it a morbid curiosity but I want to read about what it was like to be locked up like that with her child and continually raped in front of the child….how do you explain to the child, let alone survive yourself and protect your child.. There is nothing more aggressive than a mother bear protecting her cub; same for human mothers.
I would imagine that the “feral children” were the hardest thing to research. When a child’s home is not a place of comfort but of horror, that is the hardest thing to grasp as a mother.
I “feel” the hardest research would be the exposure to “feelings” on a consistant basis. Reading the news reports and blogs and the instant reaction feelings of the writers plus experiencing her own feelings as a mother and writer to the content of her research findings.
Reading the cases on the Feral Children website hadto have been the most gruesome part of her research. I*t’s very hard to read about such cases, especially for a mother.