The Soft Room

by Karen Heuler

Fiction. Karen Heuler's first novel, THE SOFT ROOM, is the tale of Abby and Meg, nearly identical twins, differentiated by the rare disease that has rendered Meg impervious to physical pain. When hit with hard economic times by their father's cancer, the family is forced to submit Meg to paying medical research. "THE SOFT ROOM starts with a provocative premise and twists its way into unexpected territory. Exploring the meaning of pain and duality, her characters end up in a weirdly life-affirming landscape-the shape morality takes when faced with cruelty and senseless harm. [Heuler] has a gift for the oblique, a quirky take on things that flows through the narrative like the atmosphere of a planet almost like our own. THE SOFT ROOM is a pleasure to read, fitting for a novel about sensation, and it also rewards the reader with memorable characters and ideas about important themes of our time"--Sally George

Genres: Fiction

253 pages, Paperback

First published May 10, 2002

About the author

Karen Heuler’s stories have appeared in over 100 literary and speculative journals and anthologies, such as F&SF and Asimov's and Conjunctions. She has won an O. Henry award, been nominated for Pushcart and Best American Short Story awards, and was a finalist for the Bellwether Award and the Shirley Jackson Award. The New York Times called her first collection, "The Other Door," “haunting and quirky.” Her short-story collection, "The Inner City," was listed as one of Publishers Weekly's Best Books of 2013. Her novels include "Glorious Plague," about a beautiful apocalypse. Her last book, "The Splendid City," from Angry Robot Books, exiles a novice witch and the man she illegally turned into a cat to Liberty (formerly known as Texas), where constant parades and missing water make life interesting. Her newest collection, "A Slice of the Dark," messes up reality a bit--just a bit--maybe a little more than a bit--with strange tales that might explain a lot.

Reviews

[Steve Shilstone · Rating 3 out of 5]

Twins bump against each other. One can feel no physical pain. Mind game ballet.

[Barbara Cryer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Peculiar topic. It could have been good.

[Rachel T. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Karen Heuler
The Soft Room
Livingston: Livingston Press, 2004
253 pp. $14.95
1-931982-32-5

Twins are similar, yet so different. Twins Abby and Meg, in Karen Heuler’s novel “The Soft Room,” share many traits, but the main difference between the two is that Abby can feel physical pain while Meg cannot. Meg’s rare condition, analgia, becomes an emotional barrier between her and a society who understands and experiences pain.
Because Meg cannot feel pain, she cannot sympathize with the humans who do, and often portray an air of disdain and arrogance, believing that she is above others in that she is invincible. When Meg jumps off a tree and breaks her leg, she comes back stating proudly how she “ripped every muscle and tendon,” (59) setting a record. She cannot understand how pain can cause immense distress and hurting herself is perfectly fine since the pain cannot cripple her. Most people fear death because they believe it will be tortuous and painful. However, because Meg has analgia, she does not fear death, even believing herself to be above death.
Often, Meg shows cruelty to nature, mostly because she cannot understand how pain feels. Meg once stomps “down on the ant- but not the whole ant” (Heuler 25). She calculates her movements so that the ant would be alive but writhing with pain. Abby does not like how Meg tortures the ants, and often reprimands her for being so cruel.
Growing up, Meg has trouble trying to connect with her peers because of her inability to feel pain. This disease psychologically, emotionally, and physically affects Meg and causes tension between her and society’s view on ethics.

[Logophile · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the story of twins, one of whom is born with a rare neurological disorder that makes her unable to feel pain. The pain-free twin grows up with a sense of invulnerability and superiority over mere fearful mortals, while the "normal" twin, who is forced to monitor her sister's well-being since she could be seriously injured without being aware of it, has an overdeveloped sense of responsibility. It was a little disappointing in that the ethical and psychological ramifications were not explored as deeply as they could have been. But it was quite a page-turner, and having myself a slightly older sister with an overdeveloped sense of responsibility, I found enough food for thought to make it worthwhile reading.

[Jesika · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not sure how to rate this..I feel so much was missing that should have been there. I'm not a fan of characters given minimal to close to no physial descriptions.
There was a lack of emotional depth through out this story. But the thing that keptme going was that I wanted to seehow these messed up twins, would wind up. I do love the ironies found in this story. I feel this story had alot of potential that wasn't quite reached.

[Joy · Rating 4 out of 5]

this book is about two twins; Meg and Abby. they were both born healthy, but there is one twist... Meg cannot feel pain. The book takes the reader through the life of meg, abby, and there parents. I thought this novel was very exciting. it always kept me wanting to change the page.

[Lorna · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a really different book about twins. One of the twins has a medical condidtion where she cannot feel pain.