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    House

    House

    Diane Keaton

    (0 Ratings) Rate It

    Book

    A luxurious, graphically compelling vision for contemporary domestic living, as observed and...

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ClareR (5642 KP) rated The Mars Room: A Novel in Books

Jul 30, 2018  
The Mars Room: A Novel
The Mars Room: A Novel
Rachel Kushner | 2018 | Thriller
8
6.3 (3 Ratings)
Book Rating
A stunning debut.
Romy Hall has been given 2 consecutive life sentences for the murder of her stalker. This novel follows her arrival at prison, and reveals the story of her life in the lead up and at the start of her incarceration. We also meet some of the women who she lives with during this time.
I can see why this book has been nominated for The Man Booker Prize 2018 - it clearly shows how a childhood of poverty and benign neglect can lead to drug addiction and crime. It also shows the awful conditions of the prison that Romy is kept in and the hatred of the guards towards their charges. This isn't an environment of rehabilitation, it's an environment of harsh punishment. Which probably explains the high rates of reoffending.
It's a frustrating book to read, because I think the reader really does start to care about the people that they read about (at least I did), even though the writing doesn't actually invite us to feel for the characters. In fact it's all written in quite a detached way. They are more than just the crime they committed, and this book shows that.