The spare room by Helen Garner
Date: 17 July 2009
Coping with a terminally ill friend may not be everyone’s idea for the theme of a book, but this is written with humour and honesty, and is anything but gloomy. The reader finds that there is great empathy with the friend, who has been coerced into looking after her ill, but at times infuriating friend, who is bent on beating the cancer using outrageous alternative methods, which result in huge stress for her friend. Cancer is not a nice subject but this book helps to put it into perspective as part of the reality of life.
AS