Readers thread: what or who are you reading right now?

[Mee]

Room, by Emma Donoghue.

Not an easy read, partly because it's written from the perspective of a 5 year old. Mostly, though, because it's a (fictional) story of a young woman who is held captive by a guy for 7 years. So, it was uncomfortable in a lot of ways.

While it didn't really achieve much with that narrative, and the woman's trauma isn't dealt with even remotely well, the child's narrative was pretty amazing. Donoghue nailed the language and thought processes of a young child.

If you can get used to his frustrating inability to focus on any one thing for more than 5 seconds, and you need some help empathising with your own inner child and why they made the choices they made? It's worth persevering.

Don't read it if you need a stimulating analysis of how we adults deal with trauma. But if you want to understand how 5 year olds handle trauma? I thought it was extraordinary, finding a pretty phenomenal balance between the vulnerability and dependency of young children, and their paradoxical resilience-by-default.

I LOVED Room. The movie was nowhere near as good - it didn’t capture the acceptance the child had for the limits of his world - which is such a scary thought to translate to our own respective outlooks. I truly loved this book for that consideration alone.

 

[Sideways]

@Mee - I'd never heard of the movie. I was particularly struck by how the child seemed to understand that Old Nick was a bad guy, but was still afraid to be separated from him, constantly wanting to defer the escape plan. And yes, the acceptance of the limits of his world, and the frightening nature of good things, particularly freedom. Even his attitude to his own body was enlightening for me - it helps me understand why a child reacts to trauma the way they do. Particularly why asking children to speak out when they're being abused is such an impossible request to put on them.

I have a lot of work to do with my own inner child. Not having children of my own it's particularly hard to understand how the world is understood by a child's mind. This book has brought to my own awareness a lot of the assumptions I make about myself as a child - what I could have done, why I didn't, and the very different way that I made sense of what was going on.

 

[Mee]

This book has brought to my own awareness a lot of the assumptions I make about myself as a child - what I could have done, why I didn't, and the very different way that I made sense of what was going on.

Then it’s even more reason to love the book . I read it before PTSD but after chronic illness was isolating me somewhat and she and I used the word ‘rooming’ as a indicator of over protection or claustrophobia etc.

I think the boy knew nick was bad because of his mother’s reaction. Even his room he was not a real vacuum from influence on his opinion forming.

Room was his world. DH and I use the word this way too. To challenge our own limitations or point out to each other it’s not obstinance but inability to conceive of what is outside ‘room’ that is often going on.

 

[ChildofGod]

The Stand, by Stephen King

(not for the first time)

 

[Teasel]

Wild by Cheryl Strayed. Just finished it. Loved it. Bout a woman who walks the pacific Crest trail alone. Want to do something along those lines, though smaller prolly.

 

[Mee]

This is how it always is , Laurie Frankel. A novel about parenting a child with gender dysphoria. It’s started so gently and I’m enjoying the tender truths.

 

[Truthful_Whispers]

A: This thread..

 

[whiteraven]

The Talisman (for the 2nd time).
Grimm's Fairy Tales
When Bad Things Happen to Good People (still)
Staring at the Sun (still)

 

[NatBird]

I'm reading
I Will Destroy You, Nick Flynn, collection of poems about being after effects of being a adult growing up in dysfunction, being a partner and father. Also has buddhist air to it. He is an ACA through and through. I love his work

&
Decolonizing Trauma Work, Renee Linklater
Bloody good book for those working through trauma that do not want to use modalties and models of thinking that have been the origins of so much trauma in the world. Also interesting to learn about indigenous Canadian perspectives on healing

 

[osiris]

Commonwealth by Ann Pratchett

 

[Sweetpea76]

Just started Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick... have always meant to read it, but never got around to it.

 

[NatBird]

@Bearlinda - 1852, no no no... not too old for me. The oldest recipes I have right now are from 1900-1933... it's kinda interesting to see the changes in the ones that were published during the Great Depression.

I also have a 1910 set of 6 volume paperbacks about relationships, sex and marriage... now that's really interesting as well.

I was able to get the Judith Lewis Herman book I wanted and a compilation of -Zora Neale Hurston on inter-library loan. No telling when they'll come in but that will do me with reading for a while I expect.

Hope you enjoy the Hurston:) I have a collection of her stories and other works. One of my favourite writers