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Helen Garner

The Spare Room: A Novel Paperback – February 2, 2010

by Helen Garner (Author)

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In her first novel in fifteen years, Helen Garner writes about the joys and limits of female friendship under the transforming pressure of illness. "The clear-eyed grace of her prose" in this darkly funny and unsparing novel has been hailed by Peter Carey as "the work of a great writer." Garlanded with awards, dazzling reviewers around the globe, The Spare Room is destined to be a modern literary classic.

Print length

175 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Picador
Publication date

February 2, 2010
Dimensions

5.5 x 0.43 x 8.5 inches
ISBN-10

0312428170
ISBN-13

978-0312428174
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Editorial Reviews

Review

“My favorite discovery of the year.” ―Anne Enright

“Luminous. . . It reminds us that literature not only can, but must, address the most important subjects, because it does so in ways no other form can.” ―Claire Messud, Newsweek

“Garner is perhaps most easily introduced to new American readers as the Joan Didion of Australia--a person who writes with a diamond drill, depicting human relationships with such brutal clarity they seem to be rendered for the first time.” ―April Smith, Los Angeles Times

“A Molotov cocktail of a book. . . Her voice is full of unexpected humor.” ―Emily Carter, Minneapolis Star-Tribune

“A book so sensitive, sad, funny, and alive that it surely deserves an honored place on many shelves.” ―Diana Athill, The Daily Telegraph (UK)

“Two women who have known each other for fifteen years, spending three weeks together with the weight of one crushing disease. How do we calculate what's important in our lives? Highly recommended.” ―Bette-Lee Fox, Library Journal (starred review)

“Only great fiction demands us to reset our moral compass and look at our value coordinates all over again. The Spare Room achieves this.” ―Neel Mukherjee, The Times (UK)

About the Author

Helen Garner was born in Geelong, Australia, in 1942. Her award-winning books, including The Spare Room, Monkey Grip, The First Stone, and Joe Cinque’s Consolation, include novels, stories, screenplays, and works of nonfiction. She lives in Australia.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Picador; First edition (February 2, 2010)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 175 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0312428170
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0312428174
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 8.8 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.5 x 0.43 x 8.5 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #1,033,892 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #9,530 in Women's Friendship Fiction
- #33,836 in Contemporary Women Fiction
- #56,471 in Literary Fiction (Books)

Customer Reviews:
441 ratings

About the author

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Helen Garner

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Helen Garner was born in 1942 in Geelong, and was educated there and at Melbourne University. She taught in Victorian secondary schools until 1972, when she was dismissed for answering her students’ questions about sex, and had to start writing journalism for a living.

Her first novel, Monkey Grip, came out in 1977, won the 1978 National Book Council Award, and was adapted for film in 1981. Since then she has published novels, short stories, essays, and feature journalism. Her screenplay The Last Days of Chez Nous was filmed in 1990. Garner has won many prizes, among them a Walkley Award for her 1993 article about the murder of two-year-old Daniel Valerio. In 1995 she published The First Stone, a controversial account of a Melbourne University sexual harassment case. Joe Cinque’s Consolation (2004) was a non-fiction study of two murder trials in Canberra.

In 2006 Helen Garner received the inaugural Melbourne Prize for Literature. Her most recent novel, The Spare Room (2008), won the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for Fiction, the Queensland Premier’s Award for Fiction and the Barbara Jefferis Award, and has been translated into many languages.

Helen Garner lives in Melbourne.

Customer reviews

5 star		57%
4 star		27%
3 star		8%
2 star		5%
1 star		3%

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Top reviews from the United States

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Lynne M. Spreen

Caregiver's Journey

Reviewed in the United States on September 1, 2015

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This is the story of two women in their sixties. Helen, the narrator, is thriving, with work, family, and a nice homelife. Nicola, her friend, is a charismatic narcissist who is dying. In her manic efforts to thwart death with every crackpot “cure” available, Nicola becomes a black hole who sucks out the energy of everyone who loves her. This book is a chronicle of that journey.

The good: The book is well-paced and interesting. Garner is a talented writer, and she describes beautifully the reality of caregiving. Here are some examples:

“We led (Nicola) into the spare room and she sat shivering on the edge of the bed. I banged down the window and switched on the oil heater. No, thank you—she didn’t want to drink, or eat, or wash, or go to the toilet. She was silent. Her head hung forward, as if a tiny fascinating scene were being enacted on her lap.”

Bessie, age five, who is denied attention due to Nicola’s needs, “...hesitated, glaring at me over her shoulder, long enough for me to see her pearly skin, the vital luster of her pouting lower lip.”

Description of a quack clinic: “The room within was painted a strange yellow, the color of controlled panic.”

At the realization she’d have no choice but to offer up the next few weeks to continuing Nicola’s care: “My heart was full of holes. Everything strong and purposeful was draining out of me. When my coffee came I could hardly lift the cup. I drove home. My desk was buried under sliding heaps of unread and unanswered mail. I had lost control of my life.”

I also enjoyed the vernacular of urban Australia. The story is set largely in Melbourne, and their everyday language is different from what I'm used to. That added another layer of interest.

The not-so-great: this is a chronicle of a debilitating and wondrous period in the author’s life. It’s really interesting to the reader, like driving past a wreck, but I like to see character growth. In that sense, the ending was a bit unsatisfying. Helen and all the other caregivers continue sacrificing themselves for Nicola right up until the last page. No changes.

However, the story contained two powerful reminders. One, to appreciate my life, in spite of the fact that I can no longer leap tall buildings. Spare Room imparts gratitude for the joy of relative health and independence. Two, to do everything in my power NOT to let caregiving mow me down, the next time I’m in that situation. So thanks to Helen Garner for sharing her story with us. I recommend this book.

5 people found this helpful

Helpful

Alison

Terminal Friendship

Reviewed in the United States on February 9, 2010

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I enjoyed this short novel; the topics were emotive and challenging. Garner tackles the difficult story of Nicola, a woman in her early 60s who is in the late stages of cancer, who comes to stay with her friend Helen for a few weeks while she explores alternative therapies to try and cure her cancer. Garner covers the almost taboo issues that people close to a terminally ill person must suffer: frustration and other negative feelings about the person they are caring for. The book is about friendship, anger, relationships, anguish and the tensions that terminal illness brings.

My only disappointment was the feeling of a rushed ending. A period of time is condensed into one chapter. As it is not a long book, I wanted this to have been lengthened, although I can understand why Garner would not want to - as it stands the book is a close look at the short period of time where Nicola and Helen are together.

I thought it was well written and portrayed the difficulties of such a friendship well. Recommended.

3 people found this helpful

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Alley2000

Preparing to die

Reviewed in the United States on October 2, 2011

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This is a story about 2 friends. Nicola,a journalist from Melbourne has cancer and comes to stay with close friend, Helen in Sydney for 3 weeks while she receives an "alternative" treatment for her disease. It is obvious from the moment that Nicola arrives, despite an overly optimistic attitude, that she is dying and in worse shape than she is ready to admit.

The book centres on the emotional aspects surrounding death. How hard it is for some to "give up" and accept death, how hard it is for those around those dying, the burden of it and the range of emotions experienced - sadness, anger, loss, tiredness,helplessness and finally the guilt of relief. The feeling while being beside death of being on the outside of everyday life.

Told in a straightforward and honest manner, it is a good read.

One person found this helpful

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Cannane Richard

Splashes of an Aussie 'Beaches' - with its own quiet drama and soundtrack

Reviewed in the United States on November 26, 2014

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Several reviews mention the perfect symmetry of this book and as a huge fan of Helen Garner's work i completely agree. There is nothing wasted and each page is savoured for its contributions to the inevitable conclusion, so much so that one can't help but wonder if the characters are all real.

I disagree with the Publisher's Weekly review which mentions that "Garner paints Nicola's unflinching optimism with a heavy hand, and her grand naïveté is unconvincing" - unconvincing? This made me laugh out loud. I know that we're all expected to deal with terminal illness with iron wit and stoic resolve. But from personal experience there is nothing that can prepare anyone for the reactions to terminal illness that one will face. And from this perspective I was happy to read something so ludicrous and far-fetched in Nicola's reactions... and the humour was definitely realistic!

Highly recommended.

6 people found this helpful

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Christine Klein

2nd time around - still loved it

Reviewed in the United States on November 17, 2012

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This is the the second time I've read this novel. Couldn't put it down. Although it is a morbid subject, cancer, the story itself wasn't. Always think the sign of a good book is when you get so angry and frustrated with the character. In this case Nicola. And I did!! I felt the frustration Helen had with her friend who stayed in her "spare room". Why couldn't Nicola see the cancer treatments were a sham. Everyone else could, and was suffering, in someways more than the cancer victim. They (her friends) all wanted to shake her. And these so called specialists - the sad thing is I'm sure there are "quacks" like the ones pictured in this book that are out in our communities.
It was a book that at times was quite a funny , but of course the underlying sadness could not be ignored, however that did not take over the tone of the book.
It was a very easy read, not a big book. I will probably pick it up again.
Am keen to read more of Helen Garners books.

5 people found this helpful

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Top reviews from other countries

Bobbie

the hype is on the money for once

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 2, 2021

Verified Purchase

A woman in her sixties welcomes an old friend into her spare room in Melbourne. The friend is visiting from Sydney for a course of alternative treatment for stage 4 cancer. I heard this discussed on Radio 4’s A Good Read, chosen by the presenter, Harriett Gilbert. The rash of rave reviews before the title page for once are not hype – I agree with them. One of them says, “This demands to be read at a sitting”, and I tore through it in a day. I can do no better than quote other reviews. “This is no mere cancer memoir. Rather it is a complex examination of the limits of friendship and of the problems of remaining single.” “A brilliant dissection of grief, anger and denial that is all the more eloquent for its brevity and lean, unfussy prose.” “Poignant and sharply funny in its honesty.” I’ve nothing to add, except to warn that it is not for the fainthearted and the end is a bit rushed and glossed over.

K. Millin

Wow so moving and briantly written

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 22, 2020

Verified Purchase

I had no idea what to expect, but this book has blown me away. It is the story of two friends, Nicola who has cancer comes to stay with her friend while having alternative treatments. It is blunt about how hard living with cancer is on the person with it and her friends/ supporters/ carers. It is also very much about friends and family.

JO

Gripping tale of caring for a dying friend

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 20, 2020

Verified Purchase

A desperate attempt at a crazy cure - trying to look after her friend and remain sane. I understand that it was based on real events so it really rang true. It ended rather suddenly.

One person found this helpful

Chris Rayner

A touching tale of friendship overburdened

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 1, 2020

Verified Purchase

The true tale of the author’s attempt to care for her dying friend who fails to accept her fate. In the course of the episode the writer discovers her painful limits as a nurse, and the cruelty of disease. Overshadowing both is the cynical rapacity of a quack cancer clinic.

W. Jack

Sensitively handled

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 1, 2010

Verified Purchase

I thought, given the nature of the topic, ie, a woman dying of cancer, that I wouldn't like it. Why then would I want to read it? It had a good write up and I had nothing to read at the time so I decided to "give it a go". I was very surprised at how good it was -- well written and very entertaining in parts. The subject of the story, ie, the patient, was a one-off feisty woman who, up to the end, was determined not to let the illness beat her, even though she probably new she was dying. One had to admire her, at the same time being apalled by her blatant disregard for the friends and family who cared for her. Most people would have fled from the responsibility but somehow she kept their loyalty. It will linger in my memory for a long time while other books will have been forgotten

3 people found this helpful

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