Reading Challenge update: Young voices

Three novels with young narrators

Around 18 months ago I “signed up” for the Reading Challenge on Shaz’s Jera’s Jamboree blog. It’s a way of getting out of your comfort zone of always reading the same sorts of books.

Over the course of 2016 to 2018 I am trying to tick off EVERY box in each section of the challenge. I am logging my progress here.

In this post I thought I would recommend three books I have read that are very different from each other but all narrated by young boys.

These are:
# The Goldfish Boy by Lisa Thompson (2017), about a boy with OCD who turns amateur detective, recommended on Jera’s Jamboree (here).

# Room by Emma Donoghue (2010), very loosely based on the case of Elizabeth Fritzl, held captive for 24 years and abused by her father, who gave birth to seven children by him. There have been several similar cases in the USA involving abduction by strangers, which are perhaps more relevant to Room.

# Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer (2005), about a boy looking for answers after losing his father in the 9/11 attacks on the Twin Towers.

The Goldfish Boy by Lisa Thompson

The Goldfish Boy is told from the point of view of Matthew Corbin, a 12-year-old whose behaviour is a challenge to his parents as he has a form of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and has refused to go to school for weeks.

I assume the title refers to his looking out on the world from his bedroom window as if he is in a goldfish bowl.

He passes his time watching and writing down the neighbours’ routine behaviour every day – until a visiting toddler goes missing and he finds himself turning detective to help police with their inquiries. It’s a great little whodunit.

With the new adventure luring him out of his isolation and with help from his therapist, Matthew also eventually shows signs of managing his condition and we learn about the event that triggered his obsession with cleanliness and safety.

VERDICT: It’s a short and easy read, intriguing, heartwarming and with a satisfactory ending.
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Room by Emma Donoghue

Publicity images from the movie and play adaptations of Room

Room is told from the point of view of five-year-old Jack, who is being held captive with his mother by a man called Old Nick in an outbuilding – just a single room converted into a bedsit with a basic bathroom. I don’t think it specifies, but I assume it’s set somewhere in North America as the author is an Irish-born Canadian.

His mother, Ma, was kidnapped seven years ago when she was 19 and is regularly raped by Old Nick while Jack cringes in a cupboard, trying not to hear.

Most uplifting in the story is how Ma tries to keep Jack healthy and happy with a regime of physical and mental exercise and hygiene. One or two readers may be startled when they realise Jack is still being breast-fed – but then, especially in these circumstances, why wouldn’t he be?

To Jack “Room” is the whole world and anything seen on television is not real. Although there must be some kind of outside for Old Nick to come from with occasional supplies.

Jack (Jacob Tremblay) and Ma (Brie Larson) playing with an eggshell snake in the film version of Room

As Jack celebrates his fifth birthday his mother decides she must start to tell him the truth and they must try to escape, as Old Nick has lost his job and may lose his home, which would put them in danger.

It’s a real page-turner and I couldn’t wait to find out what happened next. I found myself holding my breath during the various escape attempts.

Spoiler! It’s no less fascinating once Jack and his Ma are returned to the world outside and all its challenges.

In some ways it reminds me of science fiction stories where someone discovers they are not living in a spaceship or a bubble world but find there is a very different reality beyond.

A film was made of Room and I recorded it when it was on TV recently, but I haven’t yet had the heart to watch it. having lived inside Jack’s head for so long it will be strange to see it all pictured by someone else.

VERDICT: What wonderful, clever and resilient people are Jack and his Ma – and I’m glad the story came to some sort of closure in the end. Having said that, I didn’t want the book to end at all, as I enjoyed living in it so much.
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Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer

Thomas Horn as Oskar Schell with the father he lost, played by Tom Hanks in the movie adaptation of Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close is narrated mostly by nine-year-old Oskar Schell. A year after his father is killed in the September 11 attacks on the Twin Towers, he finds a mystery key that belonged to his father and searches New York to find answers. It keeps him busy and perhaps helps relieve his depression.

The best part of the book is the working of Oskar’s mind. He is something of a young polymath and inventor and his flights of fancy really made me “wish I’d thought of that”.

However, I found the parallel narrative in the book confusing – at first I could not work out who these other people were. Eventually the strands do come together and along the way I realised that some of these other writings are by Oskar’s grandfather, Thomas, who “lost his voice” and had “yes” and “no” tattooed on the palms of his hands. This reaction seems to have been caused by the trauma of his losing his first love, Anna, in the Dresden firebombings of World War II.

Another strand is written by Oskar’s grandmother, Anna’s younger sister, who had a stormy marriage to Thomas after he had lost the love of his life. She is still alive in New York and supportive of Oskar while his mother is herself trying to come to terms with her loss in the World Trade Center.

Eventually the strands come together, the mystery of the key is solved and there is some resolution of family difficulties.

This book has also been made into a film, but I’m not sure it appeals to me that much.

VERDICT: It felt like a long book – especially the parallel narratives. I’m sure it was all necessary to the themes of trauma, mourning and family, but I would have been quite happy just to stay in Oskar’s remarkable mind.

A common theme:
All three of these books were narrated by young boys with very bright and unusual minds. All have undergone trauma of some sort.

One has OCD – although this may be temporary. One is amazingly intelligent and adaptable despite his lifetime isolation. One is understandably depressed after losing his father but may, it is suggested, be slightly autistic.

I have no expertise in mental health matters so I can’t judge whether their portrayal is appropriate or helpful. But I did enjoy the explorations of these young and questioning minds and would recommend all three books.