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There are currently 19 member reviews
for The Spare Room
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Lee (Wentzville MO)
The Spare Room
Helen Garner has written a sensitive novel about friendship and death. She cleverly knits them together and writes a profound and gratifying book.
Her setting is Australia, and Helen, who lives in Melbourne, is expecting an acquaintance Nicole, from Sydney, to come and visit for a few weeks. What ensues in these weeks is occasionally funny, but always thought provoking and enjoyable.
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Marion (Issaquah WA)
Could You Do This?
"The Spare Room" is told by Helen, whose friend, Nicola, suffering from late-stage cancer, asks to stay in her home for three weeks. Nicola has come to Helen's city to seek help through alternative medicine: deplorable and absurd practices which horrify Helen.
What a difficult situation in which to find oneself--and as you read this beautifully written book, you ask yourself how you personally would handle things. Could you be supportive and tolerant? Could you retain your love for a once-vibrant friend as she loses so much? This is a challenging book to read, but it is not without humor and irony, and love and honesty do triumph.
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Eileen (Danvers MA)
The Spare Room is short but very sweet
While I read this book in an afternoon it was a wonderful read. Helen Garner writes eloquently and, at times, humorously, about friendship, fear, self preservation, and dying. She is able to articulate what so many of us go through when someone we love is sick.
The story moves quickly and the characters are vibrant and three dimensional. I identified with this book on many levels, which to me is the mark of a well written story.
This book will resonate with anyone who loves their friends, but at times wonder what the heck they are thinking as they make decisions in their lives, and struggle mightily to support them anyway.
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Jeanne (Richmond Heights OH)
Facing cancer with hope and realism...
This novel is concise and competently explores the tenuous hope given by, as well as the inevitable pitfalls of, alternative cancer treatments. The interactions between the two main characters are presented realistically and directly. Some of the physical details of one character's suffering from terminal cancer might be a little too graphic for the squeamish reader, but the novel's sense of place (Melbourne, Australia) adds interest and variety. Definitely a worthwhile book.
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Carole (Willow Street PA)
A spare but not sparse read - The Spare Room
In the hands of a lesser writer the theme of this novel -- a woman who takes into her home an in-denial, dying friend -- could slip into the maudlin, mawkish, or morose. In the capable hands of Helen Garner, it never does. While emotions of fear, frustration, anger and hurt are laid brutally bare, the humor and wit sparkle. Throughout the book I was moved from empathy to anger to laughing out loud.
This is a fine book written by a first-rate author. On a personal note, I lost two long-time friends to cancer this past year. Although I was not the care giver to either, these experiences are, perhaps, another reason that this spare book spoke volumes to my heart.
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Phoebe (Sacramento CA)
A compassionate yet accurate presentation on caregiving
Having recently been in care taking for a dear friend who underwent horrible chemotherapy followed by two months of intense depression, the experiences of Helen in caring for Nicola rang so true. Before taking it on who would think the 24 hour care of feeding, sheet changing, transporting, companionship while keeping ones feelings to self could be so exhausting in such a short period of time. And this with the conflicting feeling of what it does to ones own life and relationships. Yet you would not want to be any where else doing anything else.
It may be fiction but it rang so true to my experience.
For a story based on ultimate sadness, it is a tribute to friendship, what we will do for our friends who really are our family.
Highly recommend this short easy read.
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Mary Beth (Hillsborough NC)
Outstanding
"The Spare Room" is a spare, heartbreaking, beautifully crafted novel. Helen is a woman in her 60s who lives alone when she offers a room to her long-time friend, Nicola, who is receiving alternative treatments for terminal cancer. What follows is a magnificent story that about life's big issues, including the limits of friendship, coming to terms with our mortality, and the responsibility we have to loved ones. This is one of the best works of fiction I've read in a long time.
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