Book Review: Spare by Prince Harry
The story of someone’s life has always been complicated.
Pressed with ups and downs, trials and tribulations despite being born into a royal ancient family—or indeed because of it—Prince Harry’s memoir Spare is a painful, open, and honest rendition of a life explicitly lived under the public eye. Dysfunction abounds in the most startling ways wherein family feeds family head first into the scathing articles of tabloids, his marriage gives rise to falsity, rumors, and racism, which culminates to drive an irrevocable wedge between brother to brother, father to son—blood against blood.
Well-paced and engaging, the memoir is read by the author in its audiobook format, which is how I listened to Prince Harry’s story. Historical in nature due to his lineage, I came to understand Harry’s world in a rare peek behind the curtain, guided by his own words. How does a prince view the world? What is a prince in the modern world? What is the British monarchy? Likening his life to a zoo wherein he lives in a bubble within a bubble, so far removed from normalcy that he is aware that his relatability to the average person could be equaled to a cartoon character—Harry’s perspective and high self-awareness is conveyed with light-hearted humor, at times tortured frustration and above all, directness.
It is the directness of a former military member. The honesty of a man who has grown tired of watching others speak for him. Who seeks instead to make his own opinions of his life known to the world—the mistakes he has made, the lessons he has learned, and the trajectory he has taken in life. Intelligent, brave, and at times poetic, the author guides the reader from his childhood to adulthood, his bachelor years to married life, his love and his triumphs, his sorrows and duty in war, his service to the British crown and country, and above all, his relationship with life and death, beginning with his beloved mother, Princess Diana.
Opening with his harried childhood and bitter relationship with school, Harry unflinchingly makes clear his position in life and the hierarchical undertones of rank and precedent in the British royal family. He is the spare, not the heir. A backup and second choice, projected to be part of a deviating cadet line supporting the British crown’s main bloodline. His story is one of overt and covert gaslighting, plausible deniability which rises in waves from courtiers and family members, and worst of all, the hounding and never-ending media frenzy from the British press.
The media, as the unmitigated and seemingly lawless source for trauma stemming as the cause of his mother’s death, only serves to agitate further and flare Harry’s tenuous situation—his plaguing grief for the loss of his mother, the reminding enforcement of his secondary hierarchical position in the royal caste and the ceaseless baiting of the media wherein his every move, mistake and growing pains are plastered on news headlines for the entire world to see. It is a horrendous life and existence that he was born into, which is not sympathized with by the public, who, blinded by his high royal status, privileges, birth rights, and historical position, is goaded to envy rather than emphasize the unperceived consequences that he cannot ever escape, only perpetually endure.
Bringing his wife, Meghan Markle, later into the picture, Harry rises to the challenge to protect his love, making definite choices in an unfolding external power struggle with the press enabled by the internal green light and sleight of hand by his own family to make the couple the target of the media. It is many difficult steps toward a life set apart from the spotlight and one where financial and individual independence is achieved. While the story is limited to one narrative, framed by Harry’s words alone, it cannot be doubted that his is a life—although controlled, stifled, and cloistered by careful measures of orchestrated institutional dependency—is one to be respected, honored and saluted for having the bravery and courage to stand up for oneself and one’s family against the tide of the mob who would otherwise desire to run his life. Meghan Markle is right to have stated that he “is a man, not a spare.” I respect Prince Harry’s values and integrity in to say “no” when warranted and having the courage to defend his wife and children against all odds and notions of whatever the media has to say.
Hello! We’re D.J. Hoskins
We are Davena and Jason Hoskins, co-authors of 30+ books and siblings who write under the pseudonym D.J. Hoskins. Three years apart and in our twenties, we have been fascinated by stories from a young age. Davena is a student attending Princeton University, and Jason attends Georgetown University.
