The Spare Room (H. Garner)

Helen Garner The Spare Room. (2008)
Text Publishing (Published in hardback in 2009 by Henry Holt & Co.)

Summary
Helen prepares her spare room for her friend Nicola, who has advanced cancer and is flying from Sydney to Melbourne for three weeks of treatment that she believes will cure her. From the moment Nicola steps off the plane, Helen becomes her nurse, her protector, her guardian angel and her stony judge. The Spare Room tells a story of compassion and rage as the two women - one sceptical, one stubbornly serene - negotiate their way through Nicola’s gruelling treatments. Garner’s dialogue is pitch perfect, her sense of pacing flawless as this novel draws to its terrible and transcendent finale.


My comments
At first glance, the book's focus is Nicola and the unorthodox treatment for cancer that she has come Melbourne to receive, but in fact the focus is how Helen is changed by the experience of caring for Nicola. Helen's warm desire as a friend to look after Nicola changes gradually into first a responsibility, then a burden; and as the treatment not only fails to cure Nicola but worsens her condition, Helen's concern for Nicola gives way to concern for herself (and for others close to Nicola). 'How are you feeling?' becomes 'How do you think I'm feeling?'

In that respect, the book reminded me of news stories about people in families who are changed by the birth of a child with a disability; and of biographies of people who are changed by having to care long-term for their partner or spouse. I feel that the book was based - at least to an extent - on Garner's own experience and that she wrote it to exonerate herself for her response to her real-life Nicola. At best, I think that it's based on the experience of someone close to her, in which case the aim is to exonerate that person.

The Spare Room is written very well, so despite its harrowing subject, I found it easy to read. (Readers whose experience of cancer is closer or more immediate may find the story a bit too close to home.) Any book is written with a readership in mind, of course, but this is a particularly parochial book - it appears to be written primarily for Melbourne's self-satisfied and inward-looking middle class. Given that it's also about that particular readership, I'm sure that they'll love it.


1. Helen Garner has a Wikipedia entry:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helen_Garner
The Spare Room has its own Wikipedia entry:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Spare_Room

2. Helen Garner was interviewed by Michael Williams for Readings Monthly, following the publication of The Spare Room:
www.readings.com.au/assets/0000/1149/Readings_Monthly__April_08.pdf
Helen Garner talks about The Spare Room:
http://us.macmillan.com/thespareroom
Helen Garner was interviewed by Ramona Koval for ABC Radio National's The Book Show, following the publication of The Spare Room:
http://www.abc.net.au/rn/bookshow/stories/2008/2208031.htm

3. Earlier books by Helen Garner
Novels
Cosmo Cosmolino (1992. McPhee Gribble [h/b])
The Children's Bach (1984. 1985 Penguin [p/b])
Monkey Grip (1977. Penguin)

Short Story Collections
My Hard Heart: Selected Fictions (1998. Penguin)
Postcards from Surfers (1985. Penguin)
Honour & Other People's Children: Two Stories (1980)

Non-Fiction
Joe Cinque's Consolation (2004. Picador)
The Feel of Steel (2001. Picador)
True Stories: Selected Non-Fiction (1996. Text Publishing)
The First Stone (1995. Picador)

Screenplays
The Last Days of Chez Nous (1992, directed by Gillian Armstrong)
Two Friends (1986, telemovie, directed by Jane Campion)
Monkey Grip (1982, directed and co-written by Ken Cameron)

4. Helen Garner's publishers
Text Publishing. Based in Melbourne, Text is an independent publisher with close links to Canongate - another independent publisher.
Henry Holt & Co. Part of the Macmillan Group, whose imprints include Macmillan, Pan, Picador, St. Martin's Press, Sidgewick & Jackson, Macquarie Dictionary Publishers.
Penguin. Owned by Pearson plc. Its own subsidiaries/imprints include Rough Guides, Puffin, Ladybird, BBC Children's books, Viking, Michael Joseph, Dorling Kindersley and Hamish Hamilton. It distributes books for other publishers, including Fremantle Press, University of Queensland Press … and Canongate and Text Press!