I was so looking forward to this one. But, it did not gel for me at all. Meanwhile, I am reading another netgalley book, A Little Piece of Light by Donna Hylton, which is a non-fiction memoir about a woman in prison which is much more readable and I am liking better - in great part because it is true.

“The Mars Room” by Rachel Kushner centers around Romy Hall who is serving a life sentence for murder. The book skips back and forth between her life before incarnation and her present in Stanville Prison.

Though I enjoyed the characters and the writing, I found this book a bit depresssing. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC.

I was blown away by The Mars Room. Reading this was akin to watching a modern day "human circus" from a front row seat.

The main character, Romy. is a “street smart”, hustling, “do what you gotta do” straight up kind of woman. Romy is someone I’d want to know, talk to, observe. She is a survivor who has been living on the fringes of society for most of her life. All her choices have been her own - including working as a lap dancer at a sleazy San Francisco dive named The Mars Room. She makes no apologies for her chosen profession, nor how she lives her life. It is what it is .

We meet Romy as she’s headed to prison to serve two consecutive life sentences. Her story of “life Before Prison” and “Life Now in Prison” unfolds. Romy sees her absurd reality with absolute clarity and insight. She is able to find sanity, humor even, in all the madness surrounding her. From one situation to the next - past or present - Romy’s words to describe are select, precise. The ensemble of characters are uniquely unforgettable. There is nothing “cute” or “candy-colored” about The Mars Room but there is something deeply human and compassionate to be found.

Thank you NetGalley , Scribner and Jessica Yu for the advance digital galley!

First off – full disclosure – from the time that I first happened upon “Telex from Cuba” in 2008, I have been infatuated by Rachel Kushner as a person and a writer. I think that she is a genius. “The Mars Room” reaffirms my admiration.

My work requires me to understand and assist victims of poverty and social injustice. I’m not sure how Ms. Kushner got there, (I am looking forward to her upcoming interviews and book tours), but she “gets it”. Each of the characters in “The Mars Room” is simultaneously plausible and unbelievable.

But, what most strikes me, as always with Rachel Kushner’s work, is the use of language and cadence. Her sentences are straight and to the point. Each one seems simple and sort of matter of fact. Taken together they are powerful and unexpected.

I hope that this work has an impact both in the literary world and the broader community. We need to find ways to decrease incarceration of all sorts in the county. The only way to do that is to create conditions for everyone that are conducive to living a life that is affordable and full of hope rather than despair.

Thank you Scribner and NetGalley for the Advanced Reader’s Copy.

Wanted to like this more. A bit disjointed, not flowing story.
Thanks to author, publisher and NetGalley for the chance to read. While I got the book for free it had no bearing on the rating I gave it.

DNF. Couldn't get into this book no matter how hard I tried. The pace was glacial. I had high hopes, but it just didn't work, and I tried for weeks.

I was thrilled to be approved to read "The Mars Room" and even more thrilled to read it. The story is immediately engaging, each character is bright and immediate, and you crave learning more.

Romy Hall is sentenced to life in prison for killing a man who has stalked her since she was giving lap dances in a San Francisco "Gentleman's Club" called the Mars Room. Romy has had a rough life with an uninterested mother, occasional sex work and the lifestyle that goes with that. Romy is not stupid. She has made changes since she had her little boy, and one of those changes is to move to LA while her stalker is on vacation.

What hit me hardest is how completely powerless people who have no money or no one outside to run interference for them are in the justice system. Romy falls into both categories. She goes to prison and she has no way to communicate with her son or know what happened to him. Her lawyer does such a crappy job that even he feels bad about it. The other women she encounters in prison are similarly abandoned with no visitors and no one to even put a few bucks in their commissary so they can buy a bottle of liquid, rather than powdered, shampoo.

No more for fear of spoilers. This is a fine, strong novel that will hold you from first page to the last.

I really enjoyed reading this book but I don’t feel like it was particularly well written. Maybe my expectations were too high. In particular it was far too reminiscent of orange is in the new black, for obvious reasons. The topic of u.s. prisons is not one that is frequently thrown around in the u.s. the few representations of prisoners, especially female prisoners tend to stick out. The story itself in the mars room was captivating. I genuinely wanted to discover what would happen next but I was rarely surprised by the motivations or behavior of the characters. They behaved in a manner to be expected. There were a couple of chapters which seemed misplaced and disrupted the narrative flow.