The Spare Room

{{Short description|2008 novel by Helen Garner}} {{For|the 1932 film|The Spare Room (film)}} {{Use Australian English|date=February 2015}} {{Use dmy dates|date=May 2026}} {{Infobox book |  | name = The Spare Room | title_orig = | translator = | image = Spare room cover.JPG | caption = First hardback edition cover | author = Helen Garner | illustrator = | cover_artist = W. H. Chong | country = Australia | language = English | series = | subject =  | genre = Novel | publisher = Text Publishing | release_date = 7 April 2008<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.doubleday.com.au/cm2/Products.aspx?Catalog=AU%20DD%20CM%20Base%20Catalog&ProductID=29660_5(DD%20Base%20Catalog)|title=2008 Doubleday Book and Music Clubs|publisher=Doubleday Australia}}</ref> | english_release_date = | media_type = Print | pages = 195 pp | isbn = 978-1-921351-39-6 | preceded_by = Cosmo Cosmolino | followed_by = | awards= Barbara Jefferis Award }}

'''''The Spare Room''''' is a 2008 novel by Australian writer Helen Garner, set over the course of three weeks while the narrator, Helen, cares for a friend dying of bowel cancer.

==Plot summary==

The novel is told from the first person perspective of a woman, Helen, who lives in Melbourne near her family. A friend Nicola, who is ill with bowel cancer, comes to stay with Helen in order to pursue alternative therapy for her disease. The cancer is considered terminal by her doctors. Helen is suspicious of the treatment and becomes more so as she sees its deleterious health effects. As the three weeks of the novel progress Helen becomes increasingly angry with Nicola for denying the seriousness of her illness, forcing those around her to do emotional work on her behalf in confronting her death, and in making light of them for doing so. At the end of the novel, Nicola returns to mainstream oncology treatment, and the doctors find that some of her symptoms are due to cancer having destroyed part of her vertebrae. The novel flashes forward to the months ahead, where Nicola returns to Sydney and eventually dies. A number of friends and family, including Helen, take turns as her caretaker. Nicola only truly embraces her death when a Buddhist friend tells her that in dying, she has something to teach them.

The novel draws heavily on both events and details from Garner's life. The narrator Helen lives next door to her daughter Eva and Eva's children, as Garner does with her daughter Alice Garner and her children, and plays the ukulele as Garner does. The events in the novel are based on Garner's spending a period caring for her friend Jenya Osborne when Osborne was dying. Garner chose to use her own first name for the narrator character as she wanted to admit to the least attractive or acceptable emotions that she felt as her friend died.<ref name="Legge">{{cite news|last=Legge|first=Kate|title=Truly Helen|date=2008-03-29|url=http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23458847-5012694,00.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080406000658/http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23458847-5012694,00.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=6 April 2008|work=The Australian|publisher=News Limited|accessdate=2008-04-16}}</ref>

== Critical response ==

The publication of ''The Spare Room'' received considerable media coverage and the novel was favourably reviewed in several major Australian metropolitan newspapers. Points of interest included: Garner's simple and powerful prose style;<ref name="Dooley">{{cite web |hdl=2328/1791 |title=Review of 'The Spare Room' by Helen Garner|last=Dooley |first=Gillian |date=2008-04-05 |work=Writers Radio |publisher=Radio Adelaide| url = http://dspace.flinders.edu.au/xmlui/bitstream/handle/2328/1791/Spare%20Room.pdf?sequence=3 }}</ref> Garner's return to fiction after the sixteen years since her last novel;<ref name="Lehmann">{{cite news|last=Lehmann|first=Geoffrey|title=Tale of a fight against mortality|url=http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23429021-5003900,00.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090519013013/http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23429021-5003900,00.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=19 May 2009|date=2008-03-29|accessdate=2008-04-16|publisher=News Limited|work=The Australian}}</ref> and praise for her treatment of illness, mortality and the unattractive emotions it involves.<ref name="Dooley"/><ref name="Buchanan">{{cite news|last=Buchanan|first=Rachel|title=Opening up the spare room|url=http://www.theage.com.au/news/books/opening-up-the-spare-room/2008/03/27/1206207298343.html|publisher=Fairfax Media|work=The Sydney Morning Herald|date=2008-03-29|accessdate=2008-04-16}}</ref> Some reviewers found the strong similarities with Garner's life distracting.<ref name="Legge"/><ref name="Buchanan"/> One noted some of the advantages of fiction, in that Garner was able to resolve the story in the novel in a way she could not in her major non-fiction works ''The First Stone'' and ''Joe Cinque's Consolation''.<ref name="Lehmann"/> Robert Dessaix wrote an extended review that although favourable argued that ''The Spare Room'' is not a novel, but closer to a piece of journalism or a report from a metaphorical battle front, particularly as the novel is highly focused on Helen's point of view and never on Nicola's interior experience.<ref name="Dessaix">{{cite news | last = Dessaix | first = Robert | title = Kitchen-Table Candour | work = The Monthly | pages = 58–60 | publisher = Morry Schwartz | date = April 2008 | url = http://www.themonthly.com.au/tm/node/869 | accessdate = 2008-04-16}}</ref> James Wood listed it in his ''New Yorker'' column for the Best Books of 2009.<ref>{{cite book|title=A Writing Life: Helen Garner and Her Work|first=Bernadette|last=Brennan|publisher=Text Publishing|year=2017|page=244|isbn=978-1-925-41039-6}}</ref>

== Awards == {| class="wikitable sortable" !Year !Award !Category !Result !{{Abbr|Ref|Reference}} |- ! rowspan="2" |2008 |Queensland Premier's Literary Awards |Fiction Book |{{Won}} |<ref name=":0" /> |- |Victorian Premier's Literary Awards |Vance Palmer Prize for Fiction |{{Won}} |<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |last= |date=2008-09-16 |title=Queensland Premier's Literary Award winners announced |url=https://www.booksandpublishing.com.au/articles/2008/09/16/9527/queensland-premiers-literary-award-winners-announced-2/ |access-date=2021-04-25 |website=Books+Publishing |language=en-AU}}</ref> |- !2009 |Barbara Jefferis Award |—||{{Won}} |<ref>{{Cite web |last= |date=2009-03-31 |title='The Spare Room' wins ASA Barbara Jefferis Award |url=https://www.booksandpublishing.com.au/articles/2009/03/31/11486/the-spare-room-wins-asa-barbara-jefferis-award/ |access-date=2021-04-25 |website=Books+Publishing |language=en-AU}}</ref> |}

== References == {{Reflist}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Spare Room, The}} Category:2008 Australian novels Category:2008 English-language novels Category:Novels by Helen Garner Category:Novels set in Melbourne