Room

I've just finished Room by Emma Donoghue. It was ghoulish. I don't like the genre of really nasty stuff in lots of detail at all. Once I read one of Martina Cole's novels when I was pregnant and we were travelling through Spain which seemed to accentuate my reaction. It was all about a pimp and drug dealer and the women he seduced and then exploited. I had nightmares. For the record, at the time of these nightmares stemming from reading a novel, I was 30 years old. Last night I started Room and couldn't stop until Jack and Ma were out of the room (prison) and I even cheated and read bits at the back to make sure they would get out sometime in this novel, preferably early.

I'm not even attempting to write more about capitalism and socialism and alienation and social isolation and racism and the UK riot court verdicts having echoes of Victorian England only this time there are no colonies to send people to only ooops lots of the people who were arrested for looting were indeed from the very colonies which 'Great' Britain looted and plundered and made people already there feel like foreigners in their own country.

Today we had snow. Not as much as most of the rest of the country, but still enough to make the house very cold and me not care at all about global warming and pollution because I love the heat that coal creates on days like these. I walk round the garden each day watching for signs of spring. So far, we have an iris, a crocus, the new polyanthus and pansies I planted, the tat soi and some of the kale getting ready to go to seed and quite a lot of broad bean flowers. Every year I don't much like broad beans and every winter I plant or sow some anyway because planting in winter is such a rare and wonderful treat. Movement on the asparagus, purple sprouting broccoli and green broccoli fronts is what I really want.

The chooks seem happy, but haven't laid any eggs yet. I just looked back on my old blog to read about our first lot of chooks back in 2008. Seems like I was gardening all the time then. They started laying after two weeks with us. We have had our new chooks for two weeks and two days.

This is what I have just ordered from Kings Seeds:
Basil Sweet Genovese

Coriander Slowbolt
Rocket
Sunflower Incredible Dwarf
Carrot Rainbow Blend
Mesclun Organic
Bergamot Bee Balm
Beetroot Colour Blend
Sage White
Stock Perfumed Giants
Aquilegia Shady Garden Scatter
Cowslip
Sunflower Ikarus
Tomato Suncherry F1
I wanted marshmallow as well but they had run out. No kale as in late summer the white butteflies are such a nuisance that it is easier to buy it as seedlings from the garden centre.

Comments

Christopher said…
If you google James Wong "Grow your own Drugs" (I bought the book at the Uni books sale) you'll see that marshmallow is used with liquorce (I hate it but willing to suffer) as a relief for cough - which I am suffering at the moment!
Sandra said…
I'm going to try and source marshmallow elsewhere. The medicinal aspects do sound useful and also it sounds so suitable to my wet climate. Hope your cough gets better soon.
applepip said…
Oh no - how weird! I didn't find it ghoulish at all. I guess I loved the characters so much that the nastiness of the setting seemed incidental. I don't read anything about crime usually either, it's too nasty and I don't know why people want to think about that, but this was different to me as the mother had that fantastic ability to overcome and Jack was just so lovable I wanted to hug him. I'm reading The Book Thief now, and also loving it, but better not recommend it to you as it's also pretty bleak!
Sandra said…
Hi Pippa. I had been recommended Room by so many people that I was quite excited to get a chance to read it. The extreme oppression aspect really did dominate my reaction to the novel, even though like you say, the mother did overcome the situation in an amazing way and the voice of the little boy was effective. I started The Book Thief once and it didn't work for me, again despite lots of stunning reviews.
applepip said…
I think The Book Thief is like a poem that you either love or hate. I enjoyed the language but also can see how it could irk. And is wasn't until he clapped the two characters together about a third of the way in that I had my aha moment and began to really love it.

Must find your email again so I don't have to talk to you in comments ;-)
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