Acton reviewed The Mars Room by Rachel Kushner
Review of 'The Mars Room' on 'Goodreads'
5 stars
...My first dabble in it was morphine, a pill that someone else melted in a spoon and helped me inject, a guy named Bill and I hadn't thought much about him or what the drug would be like but the careful way he tied off my arm and found my vein, the way the needle went in, so thin and delicate, the whole experience of this random guy I never saw again shooting me up in an abandoned house was exactly what a young girl dreams love can be...
Two things about Romy Hall that fascinated me were her intelligence and her reality. She was amazingly cognizant about her life and the factors in her life that were dragging her down. She also knew that her childhood's surroundings and neglect were not normal. That someone, anyone, can be reduced to working in a strip club for rent, food, and drugs--with …
...My first dabble in it was morphine, a pill that someone else melted in a spoon and helped me inject, a guy named Bill and I hadn't thought much about him or what the drug would be like but the careful way he tied off my arm and found my vein, the way the needle went in, so thin and delicate, the whole experience of this random guy I never saw again shooting me up in an abandoned house was exactly what a young girl dreams love can be...
Two things about Romy Hall that fascinated me were her intelligence and her reality. She was amazingly cognizant about her life and the factors in her life that were dragging her down. She also knew that her childhood's surroundings and neglect were not normal. That someone, anyone, can be reduced to working in a strip club for rent, food, and drugs--with no hope of ever doing anything better, no regard for the future--is an urgent statement about how important it is to receive love and encouragement early on. Romy's San Francisco is one tourists and middle-class people don't see.
The reader knows, at the start, that Romy is in prison, and her story is told in a series of flashbacks. These flashbacks, along with the stories of the other women she meets in prison, form a sobering look at who goes to prison, what happens to people with no money or connections, and the absurd rules and harshness of prison life. There is some humor, though most of it is dark.
This beautifully written novel introduces a smogasbord of issues that are ripe for discussion, involving morality, gender, and class.
Bravo! I recommend it.
