Room

This is my second reading of Room after reading it last year for the Man Booker project.

I still think it's a wonderful book: Jack's compelling voice and distinctive perceptions; the division of the narrative into two parts either side of an exciting piece of action writing; the exploration of a number of quite serious themes handled with a light touch.

But knowing the story already, some of the things that don't work that well seem more apparent which means that, although I still find it clever and touching, it didn't seem quite as wonderful second time round.

I have now read all six books and thoroughly enjoyed them all. The overall standard seems to me to be as high as the Booker shortlist, if not better.

I've just started The Lacuna (this month's book club choice), so it will be interesting to compare last year's Orange winner with this year's contenders.