The Mars Room by Rachel Kushner
In the Central Valley of California, at the Stanville Women’s Correctional Facility, Romy Hall is beginning the first of two consecutive life terms. Outside is the world she has been cut off from, including her young son Jackson and the San Francisco of her youth. A new reality is revealed inside: thousands of women scraping by on the barest necessities for survival; the bluffing, theatrics, and casual acts of violence committed by both guards and inmates; and the bleak absurdities of institutional life, which Kushner paints with great wit and deftness.
The Mars Room is a stunning and impersonal piece that reveals new depths and degrees of Kushner’s talent. It is bold and terrible, frantic and yet exquisitely elegant.
The Mars Room by Rachel Kushner
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The main character, Romy, age 29, used to work at the San Francisco strip club known as The Mars Room. She like it because it allowed her to earn good money, buy drugs, get high, and support her son Jackson (who is now seven). Romy won’t be able to see him though since she is now serving two life sentences plus six additional years. Romy’s life in prison, her thoughts, the cramped existence she now leads, and her fragmentary memories of life before are mostly the focus of this story. Even though she had a life filled with crimes and misdemeanours, she still received a raw deal.
Romy is a smart woman who has never taken a break. but also didn’t really look for one. Although she missed her chances and shot low, you may sympathize with her. She is so human and shouldn’t be treated as an animal simply because she previously led an animal existence and didn’t spend much time engaging in important activities. She did have both a horrible stalker and a boyfriend. She reveals bits and pieces of her life, but it all fills in between the scars and gaps.
Romy ruminates about San Francisco, the beautiful, dynamic, and enjoyable city that outsiders deem to be. But it isn’t for Romy. She and her mother were raised here, yet she lacks sentiment.
This book takes place in a women’s prison, an area of contemporary life that is alien to most of us. Of course, there will be a lot of female characters in a prison for women. A few men are significant to the plot, notably the one for whose murder the 29-year-old single mother and protagonist Romy Hall is serving time.
Romy is a fascinating person. She has performed sex work. Drugs have caused her problems (as well as pleasure). She has engaged in violent behaviour with guys. Though not in a way that is incongruous with realism—with the idea that someone in her situation might truly have those thoughts—she is fairly intelligent and intellectually sophisticated. A highly educated author will occasionally create a character who hasn’t attended college. She is a well-developed character with a convincing voice and knowledge of the kinds of things that someone in her situation would know.
