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wynne_ronareads 's review for:
The Mars Room
by Rachel Kushner
I hated Rachel Kushner's novel, "The Flamethrowers" so much I wanted to throw it in the flames. I approached "The Mars Room" with skepticism. A topic I was interested in, sure, but a book? Turns out--big yes.
Just to get it out of the way, Kushner is heavy handed in her messaging about women and incarceration. But it's the right kind of handedness to have in this subject matter, I'm afraid. Kushner never lets us forget that as a white woman who's had it so God awful, her lead Romy, would have it so much worse if she was a woman of color. Worse! It'll chill your bones.
Romy Hall is a young woman raised in San Fransisco pre-tech boom, where the Tenderloin is a cheap room with fleas and dirty needles. An absent mother leaves plenty of room for Romy to stumble through her childhood and adolescence, unsure and making poor decisions. Her unplanned pregnancy as a young woman allows her to find some direction in her son, Jackson, but by her own admission she's often too poor and distracted to be the best mother she can. But she tries. That's a strong theme in this novel, just how much the women in its pages are really trying. It never matters, they continue to be thwarted and abused and mislead and mistreated, but damn do they try for better.
When a customer at her strip club starts stalking her (the sections told from his perspective will grab you), Romy finds herself behind bars. Much of the novel takes place while she is already imprisoned. But it switches back and forth between the young man tasked with teaching the prison GED classes and several other inmates. Even the Unibomber makes several guest appearances. The novel is violent and sad, definitely not a pick me up. But it's important.
Kushner isn't making things up. The recent publication of Shane Bauer's "American Prison" and the new season of "Serial" that follows cases in a Cleveland courthouse for a consecutive year should remind us that the prison problem we have in the United States is far from righting itself. Being white is not enough to save you, the injustices run just as deep. But those facts are not to pit races and cultures against one another, rather it should remind us as a nation just how DANGEROUS it is to be a person of color, and just how inhumanely we treat people who are involved with the justice system. It is a blight on our country, without a doubt.
"The Mars Room" is heavy handed, like I said. Many will not believe that these crimes against inmates and women are really occurring. This is fiction! They'll say, all of it's made up. But it isn't. Kushner is willing to bet that more than a few readers will be curious to read more, attempt to inform themselves beyond the pages of her fiction. It's well written prose with well drawn characters, and a strong aspect of suspense and discovery--and it is inciting important conversations that we can not stop having.
I did not want to throw "The Mars Room" in the fire. Happy day!
Just to get it out of the way, Kushner is heavy handed in her messaging about women and incarceration. But it's the right kind of handedness to have in this subject matter, I'm afraid. Kushner never lets us forget that as a white woman who's had it so God awful, her lead Romy, would have it so much worse if she was a woman of color. Worse! It'll chill your bones.
Romy Hall is a young woman raised in San Fransisco pre-tech boom, where the Tenderloin is a cheap room with fleas and dirty needles. An absent mother leaves plenty of room for Romy to stumble through her childhood and adolescence, unsure and making poor decisions. Her unplanned pregnancy as a young woman allows her to find some direction in her son, Jackson, but by her own admission she's often too poor and distracted to be the best mother she can. But she tries. That's a strong theme in this novel, just how much the women in its pages are really trying. It never matters, they continue to be thwarted and abused and mislead and mistreated, but damn do they try for better.
When a customer at her strip club starts stalking her (the sections told from his perspective will grab you), Romy finds herself behind bars. Much of the novel takes place while she is already imprisoned. But it switches back and forth between the young man tasked with teaching the prison GED classes and several other inmates. Even the Unibomber makes several guest appearances. The novel is violent and sad, definitely not a pick me up. But it's important.
Kushner isn't making things up. The recent publication of Shane Bauer's "American Prison" and the new season of "Serial" that follows cases in a Cleveland courthouse for a consecutive year should remind us that the prison problem we have in the United States is far from righting itself. Being white is not enough to save you, the injustices run just as deep. But those facts are not to pit races and cultures against one another, rather it should remind us as a nation just how DANGEROUS it is to be a person of color, and just how inhumanely we treat people who are involved with the justice system. It is a blight on our country, without a doubt.
"The Mars Room" is heavy handed, like I said. Many will not believe that these crimes against inmates and women are really occurring. This is fiction! They'll say, all of it's made up. But it isn't. Kushner is willing to bet that more than a few readers will be curious to read more, attempt to inform themselves beyond the pages of her fiction. It's well written prose with well drawn characters, and a strong aspect of suspense and discovery--and it is inciting important conversations that we can not stop having.
I did not want to throw "The Mars Room" in the fire. Happy day!