The Mars Room - Rachel Kushner

Rachel Kushner's 'The Mars Room' was such an interesting, comical and gripping portrayal of life behind bars, and I really enjoyed it. The novel was published in 2018 and follows the central character of Romy Hall, who is at the start of two consecutive life sentences in Stanville Women's Correctional Facility, after committing the crime of murder. But it's not quite as black and white as you initially think - her victim was her stalker. Her world outside the prison involved her young son, Jackson, and earning a living as a dancer at strip club 'The Mars Room'. During her time as a stripper she received excessive and unwanted attention from a certain client, who begins to turn up wherever she goes. Kushner's writing style is accessible and easy-going, and you find yourself completely lost in the story.

During her time in prison, Romy meets many interesting women who she forms relationships with, who are all fighting hard to scrape together the bare essentials to live - she learns about passing objects through the toilets, bargaining and trading for soap and shampoo, and the casual violence of the guards. The novel is written through a series of flashbacks to Romy's old life, and also from the perspective of Doc - a former police officer who's serving time for murder and is on death row in the same prison as Romy. The novel also assumes the third-person for some of its chapters, and we learn about Gordon Hauser who works as a teacher in the facility and helps inmates to finish their education. This variation of voices and perspectives makes the novel super dynamic and keeps you really engaged throughout. 

The novel really makes you think about the bigger questions regarding the morality of prison sentences, and what is the right amount of time to serve for various crimes. Some women in the novel are cold-blooded murderers, and others have committed much more minor offences and yet serve similar sentences. Romy's situation is such a grey area because she murdered someone who was making her feel that her life, and the life of her son, was in danger - should she be serving two life sentences for what could be argued to be self-defence? Was she right to do what she did?

The moral issue is that Kurt Kennedy, her stalker, was known as an upstanding citizen, as well as being disabled and therefore considered less able to defend himself. He followed her and her young son across the country, staked out her house and followed her every move. On the other hand, Romy Hall was a stripper and living in a fairly poverty-stricken area - not hard to see why she didn't stand much of a chance with the justice system. I liked the novel's focus on a woman in prison, and the general focus on a women's facility and the dynamics which played out there. It was enjoyable, gripping and refreshing to read!