Reviews

The Spare Room by Helen Garner

jesscondell's review

2.0

Audio book.
Struggled to finish.

macfarla's review

4.0

Worth rereading. So many times I stopped and marvelled at her unexpected yet somehow perfect choice of words.

judyrigby's review

5.0

Helen prepares her spare room to host her sick friend who is coming to Melbourne from Sydney to undergo alternative cancer treatment. The three weeks that Nicola stays with her turn Helen's world upside down, test their friendship and challenge everything Helen thinks she knows about herself.

If anyone else but Helen Garner had written this book, I would have put it back on the shelf. But trusting in Helen's ability to write about the tough subject (having read This House of Grief), I took a deep breath and dived in. I'm glad I did.

The Spare Room is a meditation on friendship, dying and living with the dying. It is brutally honest as it ranges across the complex emotions that arise for everybody when facing cancer. It is a brutal disease and the treatments are brutal. Everyone is vulnerable and it brings out the best and the worst in patients, carers and medical practitioners alike.

Helen struggles with Nicola's approach, but as the palliative care nurse tells her, 'that's one way of doing it'. Likewise, this book is one way of exploring the subject - brutally honest and in places, unexpectedly funny.

reachant's review

3.0

The friendship and commitment written into this book was very good because it was not afraid to state the frustration and anger that was being felt, but it showed the characters to be highly flawed, which is I suppose what we all really are. It was not necessarily a good news story either, which again is closer to reality than most. I didn't really enjoy this book.

l_kistemaker's review against another edition

emotional funny reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No

3.0

The book at times is so funny and so painful at the same time. It had me  laughing and cringing and hurting from one moment to the next. 
I loved the outburst scene when Helen confronts Nicola at last but after that I felt like the pacing was just a bit of. We were working up to that moment for the whole book and then after it just kind of fell flat for me I suppose.  

el_36's review

emotional relaxing sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

peter_fischer's review

4.0

This highly interesting and masterfully written book explores friendship and to what extent it entitles and compels those involved.

rainbow_janebow's review

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

richardms1967's review

4.0

I agree with the blurb on the back of the book. The writing is precise and clean, there's not a wasted word in its 190+ pages. Garner deals with a difficult subject sensitively yet the emotions exhibited still feel raw and cutting.

It reminded me a little of Philip Roth's Everyman in tone though the writing was a little more sparce.

A remarkable and very moving novel, the first I've read by Garner. I doubt it'll be the last.

kmk42's review

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.25