SPARE to the Crown

Prince Harry's memoir proves to be overly revealing

by Sara Miyake-Singer

After “telling his truth” by doing an interview with Oprah, an Apple TV+ series, a Netfix documentary series and more interviews with Anderson Cooper, Stephen Colbert, Michael Strahan and Tom Bradby, Prince Harry “tells his truth” yet again via his novel “Spare.” Well, more 400-page-drunk-text than novel.

The book, ghost written by J.R. Moehringer, is made up of three parts each with 80+ short anecdotes written as chapters. This results in an incoherent mixture of Harry’s thoughts and experiences, which culminate to create the most bizarre book I’ve ever read.

Some of it was good. Brief passages about his time in the military (though a bit boring to read about), his experiences meeting people from around the world through royal charity work and his occasional refection on his out-of-touchness all provide thoughtful introspection and were compelling.

I also found the book’s central themes-the efects of tragically and publically losing his mother at an early age, his deep hatred for the press and his struggles being the “spare” to his brother's heir while living in a rigid, trapping environment for all to see-- to be very interesting. I’ve heard many complaints that because Harry is a prince, his problems are irrational. But I disagree. Although constantly hearing about them is wearisome, I think these dilemmas are very valid since living in a “gilded cage,” as he calls it, seems ex- cruciating, and it was fascinating to read. These elements of the book made for a decent read, and I felt that if the book was solely focused on this and about his growth from his experiences, it could have been much better. But, I don’t think he is in the right state of mind to write such a book. So, instead, these good elements of the book were superseded by countless odd and annoying chapters, which, unfortunately, make up the majority of the book.

A lot of them feature TMI and unnecessary details. I have no idea what compelled the release of factoids such as Harry fnding the book’s opening quote on Brainyquote.com, Ginger Spice’s relatability as she also has red hair, he and his wife singing to seals because they could be Scottish mermaids, his doing hallucinogens at Courteney Cox’s house and imagining a toilet speaking to him and many passages that I cannot repeat for a school audience (they’re infamous on TikTok if you REALLY want to know), but they’re all there, and numerous. They certainly enhanced my strange reading experience as they elicited multiple eye rolls and fts of laughter. They made the book worse in the sense of an actual deep reading experience, but better in the sense of pointless entertainment.

As if reading those passages wasn’t cringe-worthy enough, I found myself feeling even more second-hand embarrassment when reading the parts focused on Meghan Markle in relation to Princess Diana. Even though I previously mentioned enjoying his refection on his mother, I found parts of it unsettling as the grief and idolization he reserved for his mother are transferred to his wife. Details of it come across as creepy and a somewhat unhealthy way to process his trauma.

This weirdness, however, isn’t just reserved for talking about the female members of his family but for the male members, specifcally his brother “Willy” and his monarch-father “Pa.” The chapters referencing them are flled with recollections of, seemingly, the most humiliating, mundane and odd details about the two that are interlaced with petty complaints. Some are completely justifable such as “Willy” pushing Harry into a dog bowl and Charles and William’s horrible complacency in allowing their stafs to leak negative stories about Harry to make themselves look better (the irony and self-righteousness from Harry is astounding.) However, I am under the impression that Harry chooses to memorialize some facts and random, petty conversations/ arguments just to antagonize the two.

Yet, what struck me most when reading passages of Harry’s relationship with his nuclear family was how uncomfortable I felt. Harry doesn’t shy away from transcribing exact conversations he had with his brother and some of them are so personal that I feel that no matter what happened, they shouldn’t have been shared. Although, according to Harry’s account, they do seem to have wronged him, his father and brother seem to deeply care about him and the unnecessary revelation of these moments is hurtful to them in a way I don’t feel they deserve. In an interview, Harry claimed to want reconciliation with the two, but I’m not sure how true that is based on these leakings. So, what was the purpose of sharing such personal informaiton? Well, according to Harry, it was so his father, brother and the world could understand why he left. Speaking for myself, I 100% do. The British press and his family’s toxicity make leaving seem perfectly reasonable, but I already formed this opinion four interviews ago. As for his brother and father, I can only speculate, although I imagine we won’t see a reunion soon. I really do wish the best for Prince Harry. I hope he fnds happiness, but I don’t think this book was the way to do it.