Book Review - Spare

Published on Wednesday, 24 May 2023.
At 428 words, this article should take about 2 minutes to read.

Some choose great literature and some have great literature thrust upon them. In this case, Spare - the ghost-written "auto-biography" of Prince Harry is neither great nor literature but it was definitely thrust upon me.

I haven't made it to the end yet; I'm just at the whinging about how difficult the no expenses spared wedding to his one true love is, but I care so very little for this that I'm shitting this review out early. Nothing that can happen between now and the end can possibly change my opinion of this "book".

I will caveat this by saying I've been listening to the audiobook on the kitchen speaker whilst cooking. It has not had my full attention and may be significantly better as the written word instead of listening to it oozing smugly out of my Google Home. I doubt it.

I'll start by announcing my known biases; I am not a monarchist and I am not a fan of "celebrity gossip". I do, however, live in England and have access to the news so I have been aware of Prince Harry and many of his whizzer japes.

I will say I feel this is a very ill-advised book. I get the impression he's been told a lot of these anecdotes will make him vulnerable and therefore relatable. But it doesn't work; at least on me. He's so entitled and privileged it actually hurts when he complains. Yes, yes, intersectionality^↗ but come on!

He seem thoroughly incapable of accepting his part in any wrongdoing; to the point it seems that it's everyone else's fault for the above mentioned Naxi outfit debacle. His brother said it would be funny and, when he asked all of his friends, they thought it was a good idea.

Given, as outlined in the book several times, the disinclination of the Royal Family to speak out on news stories, it would appear Haz (don't ask) has taken the liberty of reframing every single encounter with anyone so that he is a fabulous erudite witty thoughtful heroic yet loveable scamp and a rogue full of bon homie and everyone else… is a twat.

This starts out really blatant and rapidly becomes a parody of itself.

"He's got to be aware right...? Right...?"

He put both of his hands into a pair of rubber gloves

Some of it sounds/reads like whoever wrote it (definitely not The Hazmeister General^↗) was being paid by the word… 🤔

Anyway, I've spent far too long writing about this indulgent, self-congratulatory whingefest - time to read a real book.