Gwendolyn Scherer

Spare is an engrossing look at the life of an individual whose birth placed him in a position that, from the beginning, was going to be under a microscope. Prince Harry has been as honest as he can in telling HIS story, HIS way. Perhaps others claim he got some things incorrect but it doesn’t matter. This book isn’t about them and their perceived inaccuracies. It’s about a man who lived that life and, in my opinion, is the only person who can comment on his recollections. It is shameful that the British press is still trying to write this man’s life for him, and it is unforgivable that people still do not understand what “privacy” means. There have been countless books written about Harry, none with his cooperation except for perhaps one, Omid Scobie’s book. Yet we have all these so-called experts whose never interviewed Harry, and in fact, never met him, who relied mainly on gossip and leaking. None of them are qualified and many have spent years attempting to verify what they have written. But none know Harry like he knows himself. The rawness of some of his memories will bring tears to your eyes ( his mother’s death, his wife’s pain, the miscarriage). You will feel his confusion and pain of rejection, just as you will feel his joy and happiness in finding his mate, a woman unlike any of the royals, and whose capabilities far outshone them. His obvious love for his family is so blatantly unreserved and clear. I can feel his pain over what his wife has been and still is subjected to, managed and produced by a tabloid press whose writings are so very reprehensible. They forget they wrote years before that Harry wanted to leave the royal life. The horrific attempts on his and his family’s lives made that wish a reality. Even today, people have no idea how much and how long Harry and Meghan were subjected to death threats. Some are still talking about removing titles, and are ignorant enough to think that Harry’s leaving working as a senior royal as “high treason” and therefore can be used to take away his titles. I am amazed at the ignorance. This is not a book outlining his accomplishments, though they may be many. This book looks at his disillusion with the royal life, his pain in understanding that he was a part of an institution that fight for supremacy among themselves, the suppressed grief from his mother’s death, and his acceptance that, like her, it was not the way he wanted to live. SPARE, spares us very little about Harry’s emotions and feelings. It tells us some things about what cemented his need to leave, besides the death threats that is. The orchestrated attack on his wife, a confused brother who wanted deference and always thought Harry would “be there” besides him, a somewhat distant father who loves him, but allows himself to fall right back into his behavior towards Diana; envy and jealousy over Harry and Meghan’s popularity. Instead of harnessing that charisma and using it to gain popularity for the RF, it was thrown away like a person who mistake’s really gold for fool’s gold and casts it away, or pays an astronomical sum for a glittering Swarosky crystal, overlooking the smaller perfect diamond of inestimable value. I just hope that one day he releases the other 400 pages. I will be right there placing my order.