Q&A with Emma Donoghue, author of ‘Room’

Emma Donoghue’s latest novel Room tells the story of Jack and his Ma who live in a locked room that measures 11 foot by 11. As Jack reaches his fifth birthday, he begins to ask questions concerning their surroundings, provoking his mother to reveal to him that there is a world outside of their room.

Q: The story of Room is told from five year old Jack’s perspective. What was the inspiration for adopting a child’s voice and how did your approach compare to writing from an adult perspective?

A: I would never have tackled such a story except from the novel perspective of the child: a five-year-old’s vision seemed to me to offer possibilities for making this a really interesting story. It was really no harder than using an adult narrator, because every individual voice needs to be crafted, and every narrator has their limitations; it’s always a matter of trying to suggest more than the narrator understands.

Q: I read elsewhere in an interview with you that the story of Room came to you quite quickly. Is this always the case when it comes to your writing?

A: Sadly, no: although I often get an initial idea fast, it usually takes a lot of chewing over before I find the right shape or angle for a novel. Room was unlike any of my other works in that it really dropped into my lap and I knew at once that this was a story people would care about.

Q: Your writing has contributed to many different mediums of expression, such as novels, short stories, plays for stage, radio and screen. Do you find any of these disciplines you have turned your hand to more pleasurable, or more fascinating than the others?

A: Well, they all have their satisfactions, some (I’m thinking of literary history) quieter than others. The most exuberant times I’ve had have been with a theatre company in rehearsal, but overall fiction is my favourite, perhaps it’s because it’s the one in which I get to control everything!

Q: How does the practice, sources for inspiration and the creative process of writing novels, such as Room, compare to that of writing literary history, such as Inseparable?

A: The research for works such as Inseparable is tiring but demands less of me personally; the novels are faster but I have to put more of myself into them, they’re more of an emotional marathon. When I write fact-based historical fiction I get to wear the two hats of researcher and novelist in turn, which is great fun.

Q: The premise of Room, a mother and son locked away from the outside world, sounds disturbing and eerie on paper, yet the innocence of Jack, and the love between him and his mother suggests otherwise. What inspired you to use this notion of extreme isolation and take it down such a tender path and revelatory path?

A: The initial trigger was reading a few headlines about Felix Fritzl, who was five when he encountered the outside world for the first time. But I knew that what I wanted to write was a purely fictional story so I stepped well away from the Fritzl and other cases and came up with my own scenario which in many ways (e.g. the presence of natural light) is much less horrifying than the real ones. My aim was to simplify and ameliorate a kidnapping scenario so that the emphasis would be on the issue of freedom versus safety: the question of whether Ma can possibly give Jack what he needs for a happy childhood.

- Laura Cude

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