2008 SEMESTER 1 WK 12:BOOK REVIEW
THE SPARE ROOM
By Kathryn Lomer
Tasmanian poet and novelist, Kathryn Lomer’s fictional novel for young adults, The Spare Room, published in 2004, is a 2nd person narrative in the voice of a 19 year old Japanese boy, Akira. The Tasmanian writer is better renowned for her poetry collection The Extraction of Arrows rather than her fictional novels. There are many obvious reasons for the lack of attention given to The Spare Room.
The Tasmanian writer’s protagonist, Akira is writing the story to his deceased friend, Satoshi which is unconvincing in itself. Who would write a letter that long without a break? He is telling Satoshi about his experience of Australia; where he was sent by his father to improve his English language skills, in order to eventually take over the family business. Akira is dealing with the grief of Satoshi’s suicide which was committed because of similar parental pressures. When Akira describes his stay with a dysfunctional Australian family, the Moffats, we eventually find out that the family is dealing with their own grief of the death of the eldest son, Joey, who was killed in a motorcycle accident. They deal with the grief by pretending he never existed. That is, until Akira comes along to serve as doppelganger to Joey.
The sensory imagery at the beginning of the book seemed a little bit forced to me. Lomer’s attempt to draw the reader into the setting seemed far too contrived. She appeal to the five different senses of the reader; one after the other, using irrelevant stimuli to do so, like the fish soup Akira’s mother has prepared for him to eat, to appeal to our sense of taste. This all occurs between page 3 and 8 so immediately I could not connect with Akira’s setting because the author’s aims were coming through too strong.
The plot was also a let down. Although Lomer’s main plot of Akira’s experience with the family and their dealing with grief was captivating, she has thrown in some irrelevant events and sub-plots, seemingly, in an attempt to add excitement. Akira finding out that his Japanese friend, Chisuko, is a lesbian as are her home stay parents was irrelevant. It is as though she was trying to add themes to fit into the bold genre of young adult fiction. He also saves his Greek Australian friend’s father by performing CPR on him when he has a heart attack. These events had no significance to the main story and would have been better left omitted as they clutter the main plot and distance the reader from what is at the very heart of the novel. It seemed she lacked confidence in her main idea for the story which was more than deep enough to be the substance of the whole novel.
The ending was far too meat to have much value for young people. After Daisy runs away and then is found the whole family grieves together. Then in the very next chapter, they are out on a sunny afternoon, drinking champagne and celebrating the completion of the boat that Akira and Alex have built. It seemed so unrealistic that this family who has only just accepted that their son has died and have finally started to grieve openly, would be straight out celebrating a boat. The ending seems very implausible and forced by Lomer’s apparent need for a happy ending. Lomer should have stopped at the end of the previous chapter, where the family start to mourn. I think that by including this happy ending chapter, young adult readers are left with no scope for imagination or hypothesis because everything has been neatly tied together for them by Lomer.
The climax of the novel is when Akira turns up on his new motorbike and his home stay mother, Jess, mistakes him for her dead son. Throughout the novel, Akira takes the position of the dead son’s doppelganger, being male and roughly the same age as Joey and most of all staying in “the spare room” which was occupied by Joey before his accident. So Akira experiences first hand the different ways in which each family member is dealing with the grief of Joey’s death. This scene is well-written and a vivid image of a grieving mother crying and embracing her dead son is created. Lomer has the ability to create emotional scenes which really draw the reader in. Although the climax is toward the end of the book, readers will not be able to put the nook down because of Lomer’s ability to make everyday occurrences interesting and funny through her descriptive language and, above all, humour.
Lomer’s humouris her greatest attribute. She knows how to pick at the minor difficulties of learning a new language and culture. For example, when Akira goes into his favourite deli with Stolly and orders “six of those chicken tits” and Stolly erupts into laughter and he has no idea what Stolly and the cashiers find so funny. After Stolly explains the many words for breasts and the appropriate times to use them, he reflects that he must have gone in there “a dozen times” and ordered “chicken tits” from the women. Lomer’s own experiences of teaching in Japan for two years and travelling around Europe must be where the inspiration for this type of humour originated.
In Akira, Lomer has created a very likeable protagonist. Akira is a funny, compassionate character with whom readers can empathise through his experiences of Australia. Regardless of the many obstacles that Akira encounters, he remains optimistic throughout the novel. His philosophy on life is, “Good things happen in life, lucky things happen, at least as often as unlucky things”. Readers can relate to Akira because he is a flawed character. We can especially sympathise with him because of the unprovoked negative attitudes he attracts from other characters. For example, when he writes a gift card to Angie, the eldest daughter that he has a crush on, and asks her why she is “very angry” with him and leaves it in her bedroom. Her response is to shout down the hallway, “Because you’re an idiot!”
Lomer also does a thorough job of showing how character is dealing with the grief of the death of the family member without actually expressing their thoughts, as everything is seen through the eyes of Akira, the narrator. Lomer cleverly expresses the emotions of each family member throught their reactions to Akira, Joey’s doppelganger.
Lomer’s development pf many of the other characters, however, was unsatisfactory. Satoshi, to whom Akira is writing the story, is extremely under-developed. The reader feels no connection between Akira and Satoshi and wonders why Akira is even telling Satoshi the story. This also limits the reader’s ability to sympathise with Akira’s grief over the death of satoshi.
Another aspect of the novel that Lomer executes brilliantly is the experience of learning a new language. Her inclusion of idioms like “What’s your poison?” to confuse Akira are very clever. Also his reflection on his inability to express himself and reveal his personality due to a lack of vocabulary is a common experience of people learning a second language and such readers will definitely be able to relate to Lomer’s descriptions.
The “Aussie flavour” of the book was probably my favourite aspect. Set in Hobart, Akira’sappreciation of the fauna and the natural landscape as well as other aspects of Australian culture, like meat pies, vegemite, the pub life and Australian landmarks like the Harbour Bridge and the Opera House are all a great way of developing and reinforcing Australian patriotism and national pride in the youth.
In terms of language and editing, there is a bit of clumsiness and inelegance. Hen Akira is reflecting on his experience he says, “Life is never quite like a novel”. This attempt by Lomer to be clever or ironic simply serves to disconnect the reader from Akira and remind them of the author’s voice coming through.
Lomer clumsily changes from 3rd person narrative back to 2nd person narrative within one sentence. Akira says, I’ll ring Satoshi and tell you the news.” Akira is writing to Satoshi and so should not be referring to him in the 3rd person, or if Lomer is trying to express Akira’s thoughts she should have written the whole sentence in 3rd person and used “him” as the pronoun, rather than “you”. This is one of many instances of clumsiness or lack of editing in this novel. Another is when she uses a feminine pronoun for a male character. She writes, “I wondered if Alex had forgotten HER key.” Alex is male, he is the father of the Australian family. I think this would definitely confuse young readers and disorient them.
One of the weaknesses which surprised me was in her use of figurative language. In describing the natural environment of Hobart, she writes, “The river lay like a lake in the valley, blue and dotted with boats.” Being a poet, and quite a renowned one in Australia, you would think that she could have come up with a more imaginative simile for a “river” than a “lake”!
Overall, I think for a nice light piece of reading to make you laugh, definitely go for it!! But if you are looking for a book to teach to students beware of the points that I have made and be sure to correct them with your class.
Overall, it was a quite enjoyable read. Lomer really does have a great sense of humour and I believe she has great ideas and if she just has faith in her stories and stops trying to make them more interesting than they already are, she has the potential to be a great success!!
That is now more than enough!!
Toodaloo