TIME’S #1 FICTION TITLE OF THE YEAR • NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK OF 2018 FINALIST for the MAN BOOKER PRIZE and the NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD LONGLISTED for the ANDREW CARNEGIE MEDAL An instant New York Times bestseller from two-time National Book Award finalist Rachel Kushner, The Mars Room earned tweets from Margaret Atwood—“gritty, empathic, finely rendered, no sugar toppings, and a … tweets from Margaret Atwood—“gritty, empathic, finely rendered, no sugar toppings, and a lot of punches, none of them pulled”—and from Stephen King—“The Mars Room is the real deal, jarring, horrible, compassionate, funny.”
It’s 2003 and Romy Hall, named after a German actress, is at the start of two consecutive life sentences at Stanville Women’s Correctional Facility, deep in California’s Central Valley. Outside is the world from which she has been severed: her young son, Jackson, and the San Francisco of her youth. Inside is a new reality: thousands of women hustling for the bare essentials needed to survive; the bluffing and pageantry and casual acts of violence by guards and prisoners alike; and the deadpan absurdities of institutional living, portrayed with great humor and precision.
Stunning and unsentimental, The Mars Room is “wholly authentic…profound…luminous” (The Wall Street Journal), “one of those books that enrage you even as they break your heart” (The New York Times Book Review, cover review)—a spectacularly compelling, heart-stopping novel about a life gone off the rails in contemporary America. It is audacious and tragic, propulsive and yet beautifully refined and “affirms Rachel Kushner as one of our best novelists” (Entertainment Weekly).
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I think that American culture is often at its best when shining a light on America at its worst, and this is a beautifully rendered version of exactly that. A beautiful book about things that are far from beautiful.
Romy Hall is a young woman serving two consecutive life sentences at Stanford Women’s Correctional Facility in California. Outside, in the free world is her mother and her seven-year-old son. Inside, is a world where she has no rights, where hustling to survive is the norm and boredom is rife. Her upbringing by her single mother was less than ideal and she does what she can to escape the cycle of poverty which was pre-ordained from her childhood. Working in various jobs, dabbling in drugs, she ends up as a dancer in a strip club where a man stalks her and that’s where the trouble begins.
The Mars Room, short listed for the Booker in 2018 is the name of the strip club where Romy worked. We are in her head, observing and feeling the desperation and despair of prison life. Detail slowly unfolds until we find out the reason for her incarceration.
The legal system is frustrating and her overworked legal counsel is barely adept because she can’t afford anything better. Her side of why she did what she did wasn’t permissible and the
injustice of it all permeates.
Her lawyer explains, “Even in these unbelievable cases, where the lawyer is totally out to lunch, they (the judiciary) still side with him. One guy fell asleep during cross-examination of his client. Another was a felon himself, handing a murder case as community service, but had no experience as a trial lawyer. Think those guys were ‘ineffective’? Not according to the Supreme Court. You got a very tough deal. There’s no question, and I feel for you.”
The author takes us on a bleak ride into the gritty and raw lifestyle of people who are down and out, abused and drug addicted, and into an institutionalised system where prisoners are barely treated with any human dignity. The characters are well drawn and Kushner does a remarkable job to show not just their flaws but their vulnerability and humanity particularly fellow women prisoners. Kushner gives us brief interludes into other points of view, mostly men; Doc the corrupt detective, Hauser, the teacher and even the stalker.
I’m in two minds about this book. On one hand it’s a fascinating look at life through the eyes of a prisoner. On the other hand, it was disjointed as the chapters flipped in and out of Romy’s point of view and I found this to be a bit laboured. I think I would have preferred to see the world only through Romy’s eyes which was quite rich enough. It’s very well written and the ending was incredible stayed in my head long afterwards. It’s definitely a book worth checking out.
I picked up this book mostly because I’m writing my own prison story (well, I wasn’t in prison–I taught in prison), and I wanted Kushner’s perspective. Her characters are so tragic and real and entertaining, you just want to grab the keys and get them the hell out of there. Her commentary on the system that locks people away is subtle in some places, knocks you over the head in others. I will not say a word about the ending. I was prepared to throw the book on the wall, but I didn’t. Kudos to Kushner.
I’m not surprised The Mars Room was shortlisted for the Booker Prize. It is a beautifully written book that focusses upon a topic rarely seen in the world of fiction – women in prison. Romy Hall’s voice comes through with such clarity that it’s as if Romy was standing next to me reading her story out loud. But this was not an easy story to read. On the contrary, Romy’s life was the stuff of which nightmares are made. A kid who got off track, never found her way, and ends up in prison for life.
Fortunately, Romy’s story is not told in one exceedingly long narrative. Instead, we view bits and pieces of her past as she struggles to make it through every day life in prison. This made the story palatable, although no less heartbreaking. I found myself sympathizing with Romy and wanting to kick a guard or two in the shin. The portrayal of the guards was strikingly honest. Their lack of sympathy as well as desire to make a buck or two off the inmates hit the nail on the head.
We also get a glimpse into other lives as the novel is told from various points of view. These changes were a breath of fresh air. Each time I thought I couldn’t read one more word of Romy’s story, the chapter ends, and we switch points of view. The decision to tell the story of Romy’s crime from the victim’s point of view was nothing short of brilliant.
Kushner addresses several societal themes of modern-day society. Everything from prison reform to criminal justice reform to child care reform to traditional gender roles. Although her thoughts (disdain?) for these systems are loud and clear, she doesn’t shove her opinion into the reader’s face. This is where her brilliance shines. She shows us the situation and lets us come to our own conclusions.
The Mars Room is a breathtakingly beautiful book about an abysmal situation. I couldn’t put it down.
I can see why this was a Man Booker finalist. The author is a brilliant writer, particularly with characterization. It’s very gritty, very dark – the book starts with a woman on a prison bus, bound for prison for murder. But I was captivated with the lives that unfold in this book.
The characters have so much vitality. Utterly captivating read.
The Mars Room kept my attention. It’s well-written, a fascinating look inside the mind of inmates, as well as what life in prison might be like for those inmates. Kushner does a good job of drumming up sympathy for her prisoners, for the hopelessness of their situations and the lack of resources available to them. I’ve read reviews by others who didn’t like her style of jumping from one character to another, but I thought it served the story well–building the tension and giving an alternate view. And while most of the book made me want to lock my doors and never leave my house again, it also reminded me that humans are fragile and easily broken.
This book made no sense
Very sad commentary of “justice” and the penal system towards women
I don’t know how she wrote this book so convincingly with out being a convicted felon herself!
Amazing how the author was able to put herself in the mind of a woman who makes a bad choices and the results of those choices. It reminded me that there is a whole segment of society who live differently than the other law abiding side.
I wasn’t sure what I expected or where I thought the book would go regarding the main character, but it was always interesting and I think it ended the way it should have. Makes you happy if you’ve never been incarcerated. Paints a portrait of hopelessness for those who are, and how in some environments it’s an expected outcome.
Great writing as always. This is my favorite or her books. It was the least complex and I feel it flowed more naturally than the others because of this. Kushner can be a little disjointed in her writing. Her characters are well developed, but not very relatable.
Rambling uninteresting storyline
So much to love about this book — I opened it knowing nothing and advise the same
An amazing act of imagination. The prison world Rachel Kushner depicts is so vivid and believable, despite the fact that she has never been a prisoner as far as I know. The protagonist is both a victim and someone who thinks of herself as anything but one. And what an indictment of the entire prison system without any intervention by the narrator – all done through characters and their actions. I’ve felt compelled to read next her earlier novel, The Flame Throwers.
Through the lens of a woman sent to prison for killing her stalker, this book perfectly captures the bleak fate of so many in our relentlessly violent and degrading society for whom the odds of success are long to impossible, and the acts of resistance that are equally futile but — at least in the context of a novel — reaffirming.
One of the most well written novels of the year. This book is a true gem. It’s not often you come across such talent, but when you do it’s jaw dropping. I won’t forget these characters or their stories.
Dark, gritty and well-written. You can really feel the gritty elements of both San Francisco and Los Angeles, as well as get a real insight of the California penal system.
I still haven’t read the Flamethrowers, but I’m going to now. This is a genuinely stunning book, utterly bleak in every way … except the fire of Kushner’s prose, which reminds me of TC Boyle or possibly Paul Beatty’s The Sellout. Though the plot itself is almost non-existent, it’s about a young woman serving two life sentences for a crime that feels like self-defense, at least to her (and to me too). She is poor, abused and a sex worker, so you can imagine how well she’d fare in our criminal justice system. A couple of other characters are given a voice in a few chapters, a very crooked cop and a idealistic but disappointed teacher who gives classes in the prison. All are just as trapped as Romy, the protagonist. Her one hope is in her young son, now lost in the child protection service, whom she wants to protect. I think this book is a metaphor for America today – no-one is happy, no-one experiences any joy or flicker of happiness, the institutions are an arbitrary mess, maybe there is some small hope for the future (the son) but it’s gonna take a lot of work. There is humor in the novel – the other prisoners are a riot at times, and Kushner offers repeated profundity, often as throwaway lines. Plus, how she managed to create some narrative drive when the main character has essentially zero chance of any sort of progress or redemption is a wonder (I almost stopped reading after 70 pages or so because I didn’t think I could take 200 more of the same sordid, dreary mess – very glad I kept with it). Just a brilliant novel.