Macquarie Christian Studies Institute : Articles & Ideas

"Death, Life and Friendship"

Review of The Spare Room, Helen Garner, by Kara Martin

It has been 15 years since Helen Garner has produced a work of fiction. Since Cosmo Cosmolino she has focused on non-fiction journalese, beginning with the controversial The First Stone, about a College Master charged with sexual harassment, and most recently Joe Cinque's Consolation, for which she received much acclaim.

It appeared she had given up on fiction as a writing expression, but The Spare Room cleverly fills the gap between fiction and non-fiction. Most significantly the key character is also called Helen and is living in Melbourne, a writer, intelligent and terse. The writing also is spare: she doesn't take long to say what needs to be said. And the subject matter is weighty and confrontational: a friend is dying of cancer and needs care.

However, the freedom of fiction is to put in emotion, to shape the plot to your liking, and to manipulate characters to explore points. The result is a book of complexity and accuracy and painful truth about living and dying and friendship.

Helen has been contacted by a friend, Nicola, who she knows has been receiving treatment for cancer. Nicola wants to try some experimental therapy in Melbourne and travels down from Sydney. She will be staying with Helen for three weeks. When Nicola turns up, Helen realises with a shock how advanced the disease is. The visit, which she had anticipated as full of lovely outings and conversations, becomes an exhausting period of intense nursing, and intense confrontations.

At the heart of it all are issues of friendship and dying. In terms of friendship Helen is constantly questioning the boundaries of care which Nicola cheerily expects her to provide. Should this intimate demanding care be something provided only by family members or paid professionals?

Helen is also concerned that Nicola doesn't seem to accept her death sentence. She is still clinging to life, and trying increasingly more bizarre forms of treatment to try and beat her cancer. How can Helen speak clearly about what she thinks of the treatment without removing the last of Nicola's hope?

At one point Helen realises: "A chain of metallic thoughts went clanking through my mind, like the first dropping of an anchor. Death will not be denied. To try is grandiose. It drives madness into the soul. It leaches out virtue. It injects poison into friendship, and makes a mockery of love."

The reality is that death is a terrible incursion on the way things were meant to be. We should hate death more and love God more, because he provides a way through the hopelessness of death. In the book there is some exploration of the spiritual elements of this struggle. In a pivotal moment and the face of her despair, Helen contacts her sister, the "religious one", and spontaneously asks for a blessing.

While this book sounds sad and tough and depressing, the skill of Garner is that it is also full of humour and brightness. We are familiar with the places and people, and there is a beauty in the detail such as a description of flower arranging, and the innocence of a grandchild's frank observations.

Most of us have faced the demon of cancer through a friend or family member. This book will bring back good and bad memories, and provide an opportunity for reflection. It deserves the success and acclamations it is receiving. Helen Garner, fiction author, is BACK!

KARA MARTIN is a lecturer with Macquarie Christian Studies Institute and is an avid reader and book group attendee. Kara does fiction reviews for Heart 1032's Open House (http://www.theopenhouse.net.au/).