The Room Of Lost Things
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By Stella Duffy
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1 review
Under his railway arch in Loughborough Junction, South London, Robert Sutton is taking leave of a lifetime of hard work. His dry-cleaning shop lies at the heart of a lively community, a fixed point in a changing world. And, as he explains to his successor, young East Londoner Akeel, it is also the resting place for the contents of his customers’ pockets – and for their secrets and lies. As he helps Akeel to make a new life out of his old one, Robert also hands on all he knows of his world: the dirty dip of the Thames; the parks, rare green oases in a desert of high-rises and decaying mansion blocks; and the varied lives that converge at the junction. Humming with life, packed tight with detail, The Room of Lost Things is a hymn of love to a great and overflowing city, and a profoundly human story that holds us in its grip from the first sentence until the last.
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'The Room of Lost Things' examines in great detail lives of people living around or passing by a busy junction in South London. The book was evocative in its descriptions of daily activities in the area and focusses on changes in lives (and life) as viewed from the interior of a dry-cleaning business.
The main character, Robert Sutton, seems a very accepting character in the manner in which he outwardly copes with all that comes his way. He observes changes in things that are happening around him and he has a greater insight into other lives than would be expected due to the items that are left in the pockets of clothes left with him to be dry-cleaned.
Robert Sutton's character is contrasted with that of Akeel and it is interesting seeing the challenges of wishing to keep business and friendship separate in life.
There was a large number of minor characters in this book and initially I found it difficult to keep all of the disparate strands in my head. The humdrum nature of everyday life came across, albeit dotted with secrets, but I wanted the 'Room' to have more significance. When I reached the last page I did not find the ending satisfying, it seemed more of a cop-out and left me feeling frustrated with the book.
