Sparing no details: Prince Harry’s ‘Spare,’ reviewed

“What was the universe trying to say to me by depriving me of both my penis and my brother — Prince Harry in Spare, confessing to suffering from a frostbitten penis.

Exactly one week ago, Spare, written by Prince Harry was released. For an entire week now, many have been “gobsmacked” by the stunning claims emerging from the memoir by Prince Harry. And it’s finally revealed why and when Meghan made Kate cry.

“Spare” is a reference to the Duke of Sussex’s role as the monarchy’s “spare heir.”  Prince Harry (and his ghostwriter — who is almost as fascinating as you’ll learn in the review below ) set a record with his tell-all memoir, after the English language version sold more than 1.4 million copies in its first day of publication.

To put sales of Spare into context, Barack Obama’s 2020 memoir, A Promised Land, sold 887,000 copies, in all formats, on its first day in the US and Canada, Michelle Obama’s Becoming sold around 725,000 copies on her release date.

“The first full day of sales of Spare represents the largest first day sales total for any non-fiction book ever published by Penguin Random House, the world’s largest trade publisher,” Penguin Random House said. They also said the first US printing was 2 million copies and now the book has “gone back to press for additional copies to meet the demand.”

The estimated wait time for Spare at local public American libraries is just a few weeks. I’m kidding! Be prepared to wait an entire year — that’s the estimated wait time for “the lucky library card holder at the back of the line at Orange County’s public library system, whose estimated wait time for a copy is 55 weeks, as more than 700 people are on hold for its 100 or so copies.”

It is rumoured that Harry was paid a $20 million dollar advance!

Here is one of the best and most informative reviews of Spare, written by Rebecca Mead, in The New Yorker—Published in the print edition of the January 23, 2023, issue, with the headline “The Royal Me.”

“The unlettered Prince has gained in life what Hamlet achieved only in death: his own story shaped on his own terms, thanks to the intervention of a skillful Horatio. You might almost call it Harry’s crowning achievement.”

And for the Coles Notes version of Spare, CNN shared the key takeaways (i.e. the juiciest details) in this article, including Harry’s first time meeting “the other woman” in their father’s life (awkward!), Meghan referring to Kate’s “baby brain,” (rude!) and Harry experimenting with drugs in his youth (fun!). Find the full rundown here.