![]() ![]() ![]() Where Garner moves beyond this simple dichotomy and gets to the heart of the matter is in her depiction of how such situations can bring out the strangest of battles between people who felt they knew each other…and find out they don’t. ![]() Nicola, the new-age optimist (or is it fantasist?), has another. Helen, the pragmatist, has one world view. The scene is set for a ideological clash between traditional and alternative medicines, between facing the truth and clinging onto hope no matter what the cost, between the needs of the “cared for” and the needs of the carer. ![]() Nicola has no children and is determined to stay with Helen whilst undergoing some dubious treatment at a clinic nearby. The spare room of the title belongs to the protagonist (also called Helen) who, as the book opens, is preparing it for the arrival of Nicola, Helen’s dear (and dying) friend, who is coming to stay for some weeks. Most people who have faced someone close to them going through this situation will surely recognise Garner’s clear-eyed depiction of the emotions and tensions involved. About how all of us cling to certain values for comfort, how none of us can really give each other what we want and need. About the appalling strains that are put on the living in the face of terminal illness about how people cope about how people lie to themselves and to others, determined to cling onto life no matter what. ![]()
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