Review: Spare

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It was one of the most searing images of the twentieth century: two young boys, two princes, walking behind their mother's coffin as the world watched in sorrow-and horror. As Princess Diana was laid to rest, billions wondered what Prince William and Prince Harry must be thinking and feeling-and how their lives would play out from that point on. For Harry, this is that story at last. Before losing his mother, twelve-year-old Prince Harry was known as the carefree one, the happy-go-lucky Spare to the more serious Heir. Grief changed everything. He struggled at school, struggled with anger, with loneliness-and, because he blamed the press for his mother's death, he struggled to accept life in the spotlight. At twenty-one, he joined the British Army. The discipline gave him structure, and two combat tours made him a hero at home. But he soon felt more lost than ever, suffering from post-traumatic stress and prone to crippling panic attacks. Above all, he couldn't find true love. Then he met Meghan. The world was swept away by the couple's cinematic romance and rejoiced in their fairy-tale wedding. But from the beginning, Harry and Meghan were preyed upon by the press, subjected to waves of abuse, racism, and lies. Watching his wife suffer, their safety and mental health at risk, Harry saw no other way to prevent the tragedy of history repeating itself but to flee his mother country. Over the centuries, leaving the Royal Family was an act few had dared. The last to try, in fact, had been his mother. . . . For the first time, Prince Harry tells his own story, chronicling his journey with raw, unflinching honesty. A landmark publication, Spare is full of insight, revelation, self-examination, and hard-won wisdom about the eternal power of love over grief.

Genre: non-fiction

Publication date: January 2023

Mature content: no

Review: Having read a lot about this book in the press over the last few weeks, I wanted to find out by myself what all the hype was about, especially since I much prefer to form my own opinions instead of going by everyone else's.

I found that Spare is surprisingly well written, especially the first two thirds of the book, Harry's recollections of youth and his Army career. The last part of the book is a bit more muddled and less structured. It may be due to all the stress surrounding his marriage and the move across the Atlantic, or to the fact that until then the tone was more focused on self-criticism and in the final third of the book there's a lot more criticism of others. Those last pages of the book felt a bit rushed, truth be told, jumping from scene to scene, from location to location without less of a logical sequence. 

 

 

 

 

I will not pass judgment on the content itself. This is supposed to be a biography, or a memoir. I have never met Prince Harry and certainly did not see and feel what he saw and felt. But I certainly enjoyed reading Spare - even more than I expected beforehand.

 

Happy readings!

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