What do you think?
Rate this book
Room for a Stranger
By the winner of the Victorian Premier's Literary Award for Fiction, 2018.
Since her sister died, Meg has been on her own. She doesn’t mind, not really—not with Atticus, her African grey parrot, to keep her company—but after her house is broken into by a knife-wielding intruder, she decides it might be good to have some company after all.
Andy’s father has lost his job, and his parents’ savings are barely enough to cover his tuition. If he wants to graduate, he’ll have to give up his student flat and find a homeshare. Living with an elderly Australian woman is harder than he’d expected, though, and soon he’s struggling with more than his studies.
’Melanie Cheng is doing the most difficult, most unfashionable thing: writing about the ordinary lives of ordinary people. Her accomplishment is catching the tremors of their uniqueness and, by underlining this, insisting that everyone is interesting. Being human is in itself extraordinary…This is an impressive and quietly significant book.’ Monthly
’My god, this was a joy to read. Every year there’s an Australian novel everyone endlessly passes around and recommends because they bloody love it so much, and this is going to be 2019’s. Room for a Stranger explores the high stakes of quiet moments, reveals the beauty of unlikely connections and shows how the antidote to shame is always compassion. After reading this impossible-to-put-down novel, Melanie Cheng is quickly becoming my favourite Australian writer.’ Benjamin Law
’Melanie Cheng is an astonishingly deft and incisive writer.’ Christos Tsiolkas
Those who enjoyed Cheng’s award-winning short story collection Australia Day will recognise similar themes at play here: the casual racism of white Australia, the human need to belong, and the complexity and compromise inherent in family relationships. Room for a Stranger is an impressive and delicately crafted novel from one of Australia’s most talented new voices.’ Books+Publishing (starred review)
’Combining these unlikely characters brings up social issues such as racism, how the elderly are perceived and valued, mental illness, and parental pressure. With such rich characterisation and beautiful prose, this is a wonderful, contemporary Australian novel.’ Readings
’This is a book with great heart and its gentle unfurling of Meg and Andy’s friendship, as well as the nuances of their characters, takes place with empathy and skill. Cheng’s real gift as a writer is in this kind of portraiture, in no small part because of her commitment to writing about people who aren’t often centred in our stories. Room for a Stranger is a tender and moving book and one that is ultimately life-affirming and full of hope and kindness.’ Saturday Paper
'[Room for a Stranger] is beautifully done. Melanie Cheng’s unaffected wisdom is just delightful. You never feel she has an axe to grind or an agenda to push. She may not set out to change the world but the warmth of her affection for lonely people will help to do just that.’ Michael McGirr, Sydney Morning Herald
220 pages, Kindle Edition
First published May 7, 2019
79 people are currently reading
1425 people want to read
About the author
Melanie Cheng
11 books139 followersI am a writer, mum and general practitioner from Melbourne, Australia. I have been published in print and online. My writing has appeared in The Age, Meanjin, Overland, Griffith REVIEW, Sleepers Almanac, The Bridport Prize Anthology, Lascaux Review, Visible Ink, Peril, The Victorian Writer and Seizure. My short story collection, Australia Day, won the 2016 Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for Unpublished Manuscript and went on to win the 2018 Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for Fiction. My latest book is the novel, Room for a Stranger. If Saul Bellow is right and “a writer is a reader moved to emulation” then I am moved by authors like Richard Yates, Alice Munro, Haruki Murakami and Christos Tsiolkas.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 228 reviews
March 21, 2020
Longlisted for the 2020 ABIA Literary Award.
Meg knows that Atticus her African Grey Parrot is no help with her growing anxiety about her safety. Months ago, Meg confronted an intruder in her house. When the police caught him, they told her he had a switchblade on him and since that day Meg has found herself worrying more and more about her safety. Paranoia’s grip tightening with each day.
Meg’s solution to the problem is to enter a home-share arrangement. The person she will be sharing the house with is Andy Chan, a twenty-one-year old Chinese, university student.
The second chapter shifts to Andy’s perspective and we find out that it was his aunt who suggested the home sharing with him. Andy is still not sure about it. Especially the huge age difference between himself and Meg. Unfortunately, economically he has no choice.
The shift in perspective becomes a regular thing and in chapter three the perspective returns to Meg. Initially she is baffled by Andy’s duffel bag and boxes. The coordinator had told her that this first meeting was just an introduction. A way to see if the two of them “hit it off” so to speak, but Andy looks ready to move in right now. When Andy meets the adorable Atticus, it seems that the parrot has shattered the icy impasse that was building between them and both Meg and Atticus are happy with Andy moving in.
Being bought up in Hong Kong, Andy has, what Meg would probably call a disorder, towards cleanliness. From growing up with the flu epidemics, Andy now cleans downs surfaces, and when he notices that Meg does not clean her hands after patting Atticus, he is nearly physically ill.
Meg applied for this home share programme so she would feel safe again. She was hoping for a young male who was quiet and kept to himself and that was exactly what she got. But as the days go by, she finds herself craving company, companionship. She wishes that Andy would talk to her more, instead of locking himself away in his room almost immediately upon arriving home.
The chapters are very short, some only a couple of pages in length and this works to draw the attention of the reader to the differences of the two characters. Apart from the obvious age and sex, there lives could not be any more different. Ethnicity and culture, even the food they eat.
They also have different problems. Meg is lonely, the last of her family still living, and with Andy moving in, she now notices her loneliness even more. Andy is anxious about his study and exams. So anxious that he is constantly on the edge of a nervous breakdown. His mother suffered from extreme anxiety after he was born and he carries the guilt around with him, the weight of it slowly grinding him down. Meg also carries guilt. The burden of her guilt comes from the accident that her sister had when they were young leaving her in a wheelchair. The tragedy is, as with many forms of guilt, both of them are carrying guilt for something they had no control over.
They also both have serious problems. One of Meg’s close friends has just died unexpectedly and Andy’s mother has been hospitalized, her anxiety out of control. Andy fearing that he will not pass his exams decides to hire somebody to sit the exams for him. Both of them are flawed and vulnerable in different ways yet neither of them are aware of the others problems.
For me the heart of this book is about the difference of cultures. You can feel the difference so clearly throughout the book. Andy refers and thinks about the myriad of differences all the time. Facts such as the size of a room, house or yard. Grass on the ground, the difference of diet. Throughout the whole book Andy has this feeling of displacement.
This sentence makes his feelings clear,
“They might share blood through his auntie, but these kids with their round eyes and floppy hair were Australian in a way Andy knew he never could be”.
Cheng has given the reader two totally different but equally fleshed out and deep wonderful characters. And this is one of those books where the characters shoulder the load. The narrative is sound and interesting, but it is the two characters that make this novel so enjoyable. Well, three if you count Atticus the delightful African grey parrot.
A wonderful debut novel that is much deeper than your first think. 4.5 Stars.
Meg knows that Atticus her African Grey Parrot is no help with her growing anxiety about her safety. Months ago, Meg confronted an intruder in her house. When the police caught him, they told her he had a switchblade on him and since that day Meg has found herself worrying more and more about her safety. Paranoia’s grip tightening with each day.
Meg’s solution to the problem is to enter a home-share arrangement. The person she will be sharing the house with is Andy Chan, a twenty-one-year old Chinese, university student.
The second chapter shifts to Andy’s perspective and we find out that it was his aunt who suggested the home sharing with him. Andy is still not sure about it. Especially the huge age difference between himself and Meg. Unfortunately, economically he has no choice.
The shift in perspective becomes a regular thing and in chapter three the perspective returns to Meg. Initially she is baffled by Andy’s duffel bag and boxes. The coordinator had told her that this first meeting was just an introduction. A way to see if the two of them “hit it off” so to speak, but Andy looks ready to move in right now. When Andy meets the adorable Atticus, it seems that the parrot has shattered the icy impasse that was building between them and both Meg and Atticus are happy with Andy moving in.
Being bought up in Hong Kong, Andy has, what Meg would probably call a disorder, towards cleanliness. From growing up with the flu epidemics, Andy now cleans downs surfaces, and when he notices that Meg does not clean her hands after patting Atticus, he is nearly physically ill.
Meg applied for this home share programme so she would feel safe again. She was hoping for a young male who was quiet and kept to himself and that was exactly what she got. But as the days go by, she finds herself craving company, companionship. She wishes that Andy would talk to her more, instead of locking himself away in his room almost immediately upon arriving home.
The chapters are very short, some only a couple of pages in length and this works to draw the attention of the reader to the differences of the two characters. Apart from the obvious age and sex, there lives could not be any more different. Ethnicity and culture, even the food they eat.
They also have different problems. Meg is lonely, the last of her family still living, and with Andy moving in, she now notices her loneliness even more. Andy is anxious about his study and exams. So anxious that he is constantly on the edge of a nervous breakdown. His mother suffered from extreme anxiety after he was born and he carries the guilt around with him, the weight of it slowly grinding him down. Meg also carries guilt. The burden of her guilt comes from the accident that her sister had when they were young leaving her in a wheelchair. The tragedy is, as with many forms of guilt, both of them are carrying guilt for something they had no control over.
They also both have serious problems. One of Meg’s close friends has just died unexpectedly and Andy’s mother has been hospitalized, her anxiety out of control. Andy fearing that he will not pass his exams decides to hire somebody to sit the exams for him. Both of them are flawed and vulnerable in different ways yet neither of them are aware of the others problems.
For me the heart of this book is about the difference of cultures. You can feel the difference so clearly throughout the book. Andy refers and thinks about the myriad of differences all the time. Facts such as the size of a room, house or yard. Grass on the ground, the difference of diet. Throughout the whole book Andy has this feeling of displacement.
This sentence makes his feelings clear,
“They might share blood through his auntie, but these kids with their round eyes and floppy hair were Australian in a way Andy knew he never could be”.
Cheng has given the reader two totally different but equally fleshed out and deep wonderful characters. And this is one of those books where the characters shoulder the load. The narrative is sound and interesting, but it is the two characters that make this novel so enjoyable. Well, three if you count Atticus the delightful African grey parrot.
A wonderful debut novel that is much deeper than your first think. 4.5 Stars.
August 28, 2021
I really enjoyed this debut novel from Melanie Cheng.
Originally from Hong Kong, Andy Chan has been studying in Australia for a couple of years. As his family's financial position has diminished, the pressure of academic performance has increased. So with his dreaded Biomedicine exams only a few months away, Andy has to give up his small flat in central Melbourne and move to the suburbs to begin a homeshare arrangement with 'Mrs Hughes'. In return for a cheaply rented bedroom, all he has to do is give her 10 hours of help around the house each week.
Meg Hughes has lived in the Rose St house for all of her 70+ years. Never married, she has been there caring for family, as one by one they have passed away; first her father, then her mother, and most recently her paraplegic sister. The only one left now is her African grey parrot, Atticus. She leads a fairly isolated, small life, brightened by her weekly coffee dates with old schoolfriends Jillian and Anne. Shaken by an incident with a home intruder, Meg specified that she wanted a male student from the homeshare program, to give her the peace of mind to sleep soundly at night.
Two very different characters, both with their own issues - you wouldn't really expect a friendship to form. But it does, in a way. And as both their lives start to spin out of control, they realise they have come to rely on each other more than they would ever have thought possible.
This is a fairly short book, but it covers such a lot of ground; friendship, ageing, family ties, racism, mental health, academic integrity, and more. So many issues that are so relevant to contemporary, everyday life. Equally sad and uplifting, I thought it was just beautiful.
Originally from Hong Kong, Andy Chan has been studying in Australia for a couple of years. As his family's financial position has diminished, the pressure of academic performance has increased. So with his dreaded Biomedicine exams only a few months away, Andy has to give up his small flat in central Melbourne and move to the suburbs to begin a homeshare arrangement with 'Mrs Hughes'. In return for a cheaply rented bedroom, all he has to do is give her 10 hours of help around the house each week.
Meg Hughes has lived in the Rose St house for all of her 70+ years. Never married, she has been there caring for family, as one by one they have passed away; first her father, then her mother, and most recently her paraplegic sister. The only one left now is her African grey parrot, Atticus. She leads a fairly isolated, small life, brightened by her weekly coffee dates with old schoolfriends Jillian and Anne. Shaken by an incident with a home intruder, Meg specified that she wanted a male student from the homeshare program, to give her the peace of mind to sleep soundly at night.
Two very different characters, both with their own issues - you wouldn't really expect a friendship to form. But it does, in a way. And as both their lives start to spin out of control, they realise they have come to rely on each other more than they would ever have thought possible.
This is a fairly short book, but it covers such a lot of ground; friendship, ageing, family ties, racism, mental health, academic integrity, and more. So many issues that are so relevant to contemporary, everyday life. Equally sad and uplifting, I thought it was just beautiful.
May 8, 2019
“Looking back now, Meg wished she had talked to people more – not small talk but proper conversations. Discussions about life and death and God and the universe. Instead she’s spent her entire life doing what everyone else seemed to be doing – what she and Helen had, in turn, spent years teaching Atticus to do. Talking without really saying anything.”
Room For A Stranger is the first novel by award-winning Australian author, Melanie Cheng. Homeshare had to be a win-win idea: Meg Hughes would provide a room for the young man, rent-free, and sleep better knowing there was someone in the house if another intruder tried to get in; with his father’s business in trouble in Hong Kong, Andy Chan needed cheap accommodation. All he had to do was ten hours of work for the old lady each week, so plenty of time to get on with his Biomedicine course at Uni.
Meg is pleased that Andy is quiet and polite and keeps to himself. Or is she? She has lived in this house all her life; has lost her father here; cared for her dying mother, and then her dying sister here; now it’s just her and Atticus, her thirty-year-old African Grey parrot. She has few friends: a product of her age and her introversion and sacrificing social life to care for family; and doesn’t seem to be connecting with her twenty-one-year-old boarder.
For Andy, this suburban house is so different from his family’s apartment in Hong Kong that it adds to the stress he’s already under. He is struggling with his course, anxious about his academic performance, and worried he won’t meet his parents’ expectations. He’s half besotted with a Japanese girl in his classes, filing notebooks with her face. His stomach turns at the thought of eating the food Meg prepares (after handling the parrot!!) and she doesn’t seem to notice how dirty everything is.
Against those odds, they eventually begin to know one another better, perhaps even to care a bit and take a step towards bridging the yawning cultural and generational divide. Maybe they connect enough to support each other when things start to unravel…
With her background as a general practitioner and her upbringing in Hong Kong, Cheng’s knowledge of her topic is extensive and immediately apparent. The mindset and behaviour of her Asian characters has a genuine feel, but she also nails it with her older characters and their prevailing concerns. Her setting is expertly rendered, too. Racism, ageing, friendship, loyalty, mixed-race marriages, and exam fraud, all feature in this moving and thought-provoking read.
Room For A Stranger is the first novel by award-winning Australian author, Melanie Cheng. Homeshare had to be a win-win idea: Meg Hughes would provide a room for the young man, rent-free, and sleep better knowing there was someone in the house if another intruder tried to get in; with his father’s business in trouble in Hong Kong, Andy Chan needed cheap accommodation. All he had to do was ten hours of work for the old lady each week, so plenty of time to get on with his Biomedicine course at Uni.
Meg is pleased that Andy is quiet and polite and keeps to himself. Or is she? She has lived in this house all her life; has lost her father here; cared for her dying mother, and then her dying sister here; now it’s just her and Atticus, her thirty-year-old African Grey parrot. She has few friends: a product of her age and her introversion and sacrificing social life to care for family; and doesn’t seem to be connecting with her twenty-one-year-old boarder.
For Andy, this suburban house is so different from his family’s apartment in Hong Kong that it adds to the stress he’s already under. He is struggling with his course, anxious about his academic performance, and worried he won’t meet his parents’ expectations. He’s half besotted with a Japanese girl in his classes, filing notebooks with her face. His stomach turns at the thought of eating the food Meg prepares (after handling the parrot!!) and she doesn’t seem to notice how dirty everything is.
Against those odds, they eventually begin to know one another better, perhaps even to care a bit and take a step towards bridging the yawning cultural and generational divide. Maybe they connect enough to support each other when things start to unravel…
With her background as a general practitioner and her upbringing in Hong Kong, Cheng’s knowledge of her topic is extensive and immediately apparent. The mindset and behaviour of her Asian characters has a genuine feel, but she also nails it with her older characters and their prevailing concerns. Her setting is expertly rendered, too. Racism, ageing, friendship, loyalty, mixed-race marriages, and exam fraud, all feature in this moving and thought-provoking read.
Read
December 11, 2020The following reviews are shared by Text Publishing – publisher of Room for a Stranger
'A tender and touching novel written with a sharp understanding of human nature.’
Who Weekly
'A smart read that highlights the joy of human relationships.’
Instyle
'Room for a Stranger touches gently on the lives of ordinary people with great dexterity and empathy.’
Harpers Bazaar
‘Combining these unlikely characters brings up social issues such as racism, how the elderly are perceived and valued, mental illness, and parental pressure. With such rich characterisation and beautiful prose, this is a wonderful, contemporary Australian novel.’
Readings
‘Melanie Cheng is doing the most difficult, most unfashionable thing: writing about the ordinary lives of ordinary people. Her accomplishment is catching the tremors of their uniqueness and, by underlining this, insisting that everyone is interesting. Being human is in itself extraordinary…This is an impressive and quietly significant book.’
Monthly
'Those who enjoyed Cheng’s award-winning short story collection Australia Day will recognise similar themes at play here: the casual racism of white Australia, the human need to belong, and the complexity and compromise inherent in family relationships. Room for a Stranger is an impressive and delicately crafted novel from one of Australia’s most talented new voices.’
Books + Publishing (starred review)
‘This is a book with great heart and its gentle unfurling of Meg and Andy’s friendship, as well as the nuances of their characters, takes place with empathy and skill. Cheng’s real gift as a writer is in this kind of portraiture, in no small part because of her commitment to writing about people who aren’t often centred in our stories. Room for a Stranger is a tender and moving book and one that is ultimately life-affirming and full of hope and kindness.’
Saturday Paper
‘I can’t think of anyone who writes human connection as beautifully as Melanie Cheng. Room for a Stranger is superb.’
Bram Presser
‘My god, this was a joy to read. Every year there’s an Australian novel everyone endlessly passes around and recommends because they bloody love it so much, and this is going to be 2019’s. Room for a Stranger explores the high stakes of quiet moments, reveals the beauty of unlikely connections and shows how the antidote to shame is always compassion. After reading this impossible-to-put-down novel, Melanie Cheng is quickly becoming my favourite Australian writer.’
Benjamin Law
‘A beautifully written novel about how the stories we tell ourselves can get us stuck and how opening our lives to others might jolt us free again. Room for a Stranger is that rare thing: a novel which stings and soothes all at once.’
Emily Maguire
‘Cheng is a writer of quiet emotion and empathy, who carves out the fine details of her characters’ lives with tender but unsentimental precision...Room For A Stranger is a contemplative and rewarding read that shines a light on our potential for connection.'
Books+Publishing
'A quiet but deeply affecting account of an unlikely friendship.’
Good Weekend
'This scrupulously written, compassionate novel delivers a surprisingly powerful emotional punch as the two characters tentatively negotiate their lives together in today’s city.’
Jason Steger, Age
‘The winner of the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for Fiction (2018), Melanie Cheng offers up a tender tale of an elderly Australian woman who takes in a boarder.’
Primer
'A tender and touching novel written with a sharp understanding of human nature.’
Who Weekly
'A smart read that highlights the joy of human relationships.’
Instyle
'Room for a Stranger touches gently on the lives of ordinary people with great dexterity and empathy.’
Harpers Bazaar
‘Combining these unlikely characters brings up social issues such as racism, how the elderly are perceived and valued, mental illness, and parental pressure. With such rich characterisation and beautiful prose, this is a wonderful, contemporary Australian novel.’
Readings
‘Melanie Cheng is doing the most difficult, most unfashionable thing: writing about the ordinary lives of ordinary people. Her accomplishment is catching the tremors of their uniqueness and, by underlining this, insisting that everyone is interesting. Being human is in itself extraordinary…This is an impressive and quietly significant book.’
Monthly
'Those who enjoyed Cheng’s award-winning short story collection Australia Day will recognise similar themes at play here: the casual racism of white Australia, the human need to belong, and the complexity and compromise inherent in family relationships. Room for a Stranger is an impressive and delicately crafted novel from one of Australia’s most talented new voices.’
Books + Publishing (starred review)
‘This is a book with great heart and its gentle unfurling of Meg and Andy’s friendship, as well as the nuances of their characters, takes place with empathy and skill. Cheng’s real gift as a writer is in this kind of portraiture, in no small part because of her commitment to writing about people who aren’t often centred in our stories. Room for a Stranger is a tender and moving book and one that is ultimately life-affirming and full of hope and kindness.’
Saturday Paper
‘I can’t think of anyone who writes human connection as beautifully as Melanie Cheng. Room for a Stranger is superb.’
Bram Presser
‘My god, this was a joy to read. Every year there’s an Australian novel everyone endlessly passes around and recommends because they bloody love it so much, and this is going to be 2019’s. Room for a Stranger explores the high stakes of quiet moments, reveals the beauty of unlikely connections and shows how the antidote to shame is always compassion. After reading this impossible-to-put-down novel, Melanie Cheng is quickly becoming my favourite Australian writer.’
Benjamin Law
‘A beautifully written novel about how the stories we tell ourselves can get us stuck and how opening our lives to others might jolt us free again. Room for a Stranger is that rare thing: a novel which stings and soothes all at once.’
Emily Maguire
‘Cheng is a writer of quiet emotion and empathy, who carves out the fine details of her characters’ lives with tender but unsentimental precision...Room For A Stranger is a contemplative and rewarding read that shines a light on our potential for connection.'
Books+Publishing
'A quiet but deeply affecting account of an unlikely friendship.’
Good Weekend
'This scrupulously written, compassionate novel delivers a surprisingly powerful emotional punch as the two characters tentatively negotiate their lives together in today’s city.’
Jason Steger, Age
‘The winner of the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for Fiction (2018), Melanie Cheng offers up a tender tale of an elderly Australian woman who takes in a boarder.’
Primer
May 18, 2019
I went to see the author's panel at Sydney Writer's Festival this year and Christos Tsiolkas, who was facilitating, praised this novel for its quiet splendour (I can't quite remember the exact phrase he used but it's something along that line) and I couldn't agree more! This little unassuming novel was so relatable; it's easy for me to relate to Andy as I was myself an overseas student but I also found myself to be able to relate to Meg, an older Australian lady.
In Room for a Stranger, we have two seemingly very different people come together and found, in the end, that they were troubled with what is essentially the same thing even if troubles came in different forms. It is very clear that the author knows her subjects well as she drew from her own personal experiences as an "overseas student" and a GP to many older patients.
While the book dealt with our protagonists going about their daily lives: Andy with his parental expectations of good results and Meg with her loneliness, it also did not shy from the hard reality of life: sickness, health, unhappy marriages, and racism (one particularly shocking scene where even I as a reader felt the shame of it and I've had my share of scenes...).
A wonderful novel about life - no matter who you are or where you are in life, it is always possible to connect with the stranger next to you.
Thanks to Text Publishing for copy of book in exchange of honest review
In Room for a Stranger, we have two seemingly very different people come together and found, in the end, that they were troubled with what is essentially the same thing even if troubles came in different forms. It is very clear that the author knows her subjects well as she drew from her own personal experiences as an "overseas student" and a GP to many older patients.
While the book dealt with our protagonists going about their daily lives: Andy with his parental expectations of good results and Meg with her loneliness, it also did not shy from the hard reality of life: sickness, health, unhappy marriages, and racism (one particularly shocking scene where even I as a reader felt the shame of it and I've had my share of scenes...).
A wonderful novel about life - no matter who you are or where you are in life, it is always possible to connect with the stranger next to you.
Thanks to Text Publishing for copy of book in exchange of honest review
May 3, 2019
In my 21 years of living (16 of those in Melbourne) this is the first accurate representation of Australia in literature I’ve ever read. Thank GOD! Can you believe it wasn’t just about the bush? And wildlife? And didn’t say mate 25,000 times? Finally a book that truly shows the beautiful mess of people, cultures, and lifestyles Australia consists of. Where the vast differences between us can sometimes make us feel like strangers, but the things that unite us make us family. Cheng effortlessly combines the stories of two complete opposite characters without sacrificing any elements of either. In truth, they each become more interesting because of the stark contrasts between them. And isn’t that what our nation is all about, anyway? Adored this read 100%. Thank you to Melanie Cheng for giving us a true Aussie read!
February 17, 2019
If you want revelations about our shared humanity and our unique difference then you need look no further than Melanie Cheng. This quietly beautiful novel about an elderly woman and the student she welcomes into her home will open you up in ways only good fiction can. I loved Cheng’s Australia Day and awarding it the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for fiction in 2018 and it’s thrilling to read her first novel. It made me smile, it made me cry and it made me think about people in all our messy complications and contradictions. It’s a book of empathy and compassion which we need now more than ever.
July 25, 2019
This is a beautifully told story about 75 year old Meg Hughes and Uni student Andy Chan.
Meg is a spinster who still lives in her family home having nursed her mother and sister through ill health. Often her only company is an African Grey parrot called Atticus who recites nursery rhymes. After an intruder frightens her one night she decides to partake in a home-share arrangement.
Andy is a biomedicine student from Hong Kong who due to financial necessity needs to find cheaper accomodation and moves in with Meg. He is taken aback by the shabbiness of the house and Meg's apparent lack of hygiene, coming from family whose business is cleaning. He has no idea how to interact with Meg or deal with the 'terrible' food that she prepares for him.
It is an awkward relationship between Meg and Andy but through them the author explores depression, racism, stereotyping, trust, expectations and disappointments.
This story has such rich characters and there is so much reality in this quiet Melbourne suburban setting. I felt like I was there.
Thank you Text Publishing for the opportunity to read this wonderful book.
Meg is a spinster who still lives in her family home having nursed her mother and sister through ill health. Often her only company is an African Grey parrot called Atticus who recites nursery rhymes. After an intruder frightens her one night she decides to partake in a home-share arrangement.
Andy is a biomedicine student from Hong Kong who due to financial necessity needs to find cheaper accomodation and moves in with Meg. He is taken aback by the shabbiness of the house and Meg's apparent lack of hygiene, coming from family whose business is cleaning. He has no idea how to interact with Meg or deal with the 'terrible' food that she prepares for him.
It is an awkward relationship between Meg and Andy but through them the author explores depression, racism, stereotyping, trust, expectations and disappointments.
This story has such rich characters and there is so much reality in this quiet Melbourne suburban setting. I felt like I was there.
Thank you Text Publishing for the opportunity to read this wonderful book.
June 13, 2019
A really lovely book about two lonely people and the small connection they find with each other. It's written simply and cleanly, but Cheng really gets inside these two slightly odd characters and brings them to life. Highly recommended.
April 13, 2020
Meh. 2.5.
October 5, 2022
Room for a Stranger is a contemporary fiction set in suburban Melbourne about the relationship between an elderly woman and her international student boarder. The author is a Chinese-Australian GP from Melbourne, who grew up in Hong Kong before returning to Australia to study medicine.
Meg is a lonely 75 year old who has lived alone in outer Melbourne since her sister died, with only Atticus the African grey parrot for company. Shaken up by a break-in Meg decides to rent her spare room to a student. Andy is from Hong Kong and studying Biomedical Science. He is forced to move out of Melbourne city centre as his parents can no longer afford the rent. There is a definite cultural and generational gap between Andy and Meg. Andy finds Meg’s hygiene practices repulsive, and Meg finds Andy uncommunicative and disengaged. Both have their issues: Meg her loneliness, and Andy his anxiety about his upcoming exams and his mother back in Hong Kong suffering ongoing mental health problems.
This was a quiet and pleasant read but nothing earth-shattering. Meg was nice enough, and should probably have created some quirky vibes typical of the elderly rebirth lit around now, but never really had enough zing to do so. Andy also never really connected as a character. While I must admit that in part I envy Cheng for her ability to produce a novel as a medical professional, she also seems unable to let this role go and is constantly adding small but irrelevant medical details like the reminder to Andy to rinse his mouth out after using his steroid puffer. I’m not quite sure why contemporary fiction feels the need to convey a myriad of tiny details and minutiae about everything in the characters’ environment, as if somehow that equates to good descriptive writing. Overall a relatively enjoyable but fairly dull book that I gave 3 stars to.
Meg is a lonely 75 year old who has lived alone in outer Melbourne since her sister died, with only Atticus the African grey parrot for company. Shaken up by a break-in Meg decides to rent her spare room to a student. Andy is from Hong Kong and studying Biomedical Science. He is forced to move out of Melbourne city centre as his parents can no longer afford the rent. There is a definite cultural and generational gap between Andy and Meg. Andy finds Meg’s hygiene practices repulsive, and Meg finds Andy uncommunicative and disengaged. Both have their issues: Meg her loneliness, and Andy his anxiety about his upcoming exams and his mother back in Hong Kong suffering ongoing mental health problems.
This was a quiet and pleasant read but nothing earth-shattering. Meg was nice enough, and should probably have created some quirky vibes typical of the elderly rebirth lit around now, but never really had enough zing to do so. Andy also never really connected as a character. While I must admit that in part I envy Cheng for her ability to produce a novel as a medical professional, she also seems unable to let this role go and is constantly adding small but irrelevant medical details like the reminder to Andy to rinse his mouth out after using his steroid puffer. I’m not quite sure why contemporary fiction feels the need to convey a myriad of tiny details and minutiae about everything in the characters’ environment, as if somehow that equates to good descriptive writing. Overall a relatively enjoyable but fairly dull book that I gave 3 stars to.
September 10, 2019
Cheng's debut novel is a touching, thoughtful reflection on the way we can never fully know another person, executed with masterful skill. While I enjoyed her short story collection, Australia Day, I loved Room for a Stranger and hope she continues to pen novels for some time to come.
When septuagenarian Meg's house is almost broken into in suburban Melbourne, she turns to a homeshare agency to find a young person to live in with her and help around the house. At the same time, international student Andy's family business in Hong Kong has collapsed, leaving him with no choice but to move out of his inner city apartment. The novel alternates between their perspectives as they experience shared living so differently, given their social, emotional and cultural contexts.
Cheng packs a lot of big ideas into this short novel, but it never feels like too much, and is done in a way that allows the reader to empathise with her protagonists. Meg's reflections on being a carer for both her parents and sister, and the loneliness of being the only surviving family member, are expertly drawn and well-balanced with the other details of her life that make her such an endearing, fully-realised character. Likewise, Andy's experience of familial pressure to succeed academically, plus his family's conflicting influences (constant presence, yet inability to speak openly, especially about mental health), paints the picture of a very real young man. Cheng also explores the awkwardness of early attraction, the experience of being subjected to racially motivated verbal abuse, and ideas of life and death that will leave any reader with a full range of emotional reactions.
The true mastery of this work is the way Cheng reveals that Meg and Andy can never fully know or appreciate one another as whole humans - i.e. the impossibility of completely comprehending the enormity of another person's life. This isn't just about the way they perceive events differently, but the way they cannot know the deeply complex nature of each others' contexts. I think Cheng's message, though, is that despite this, we all must live and interact with others, and thus kindness and compassion are essential - although this message is never so overtly delivered. These are universal human truths and it's beautiful and exciting to see them explored so cleverly in a novel.
The writing is pared back without feeling cold, or too sparse, although I suspect some readers may want more flesh to each short chapter. For me, the short chapters added propulsion to the plot in the way only short story writers can ever accomplish with such apparent ease. I flew through the story, soaking up the realistic details, be they descriptions of Meg's home from both perspectives, or of the ever important meals both characters eat.
Reading this novel satisfied a hunger I didn't realise I had - for stories about life in my country now, showing our lives as they are and feel now. I wouldn't be at all surprised to see this become a modern Australian classic.
In this novel, Cheng has given us a portrait of contemporary Australia that we can all recognise and should all reflect on. Room for a Stranger is the work of an author coming into her stride, which is a very exciting thing for Australian literature indeed.
When septuagenarian Meg's house is almost broken into in suburban Melbourne, she turns to a homeshare agency to find a young person to live in with her and help around the house. At the same time, international student Andy's family business in Hong Kong has collapsed, leaving him with no choice but to move out of his inner city apartment. The novel alternates between their perspectives as they experience shared living so differently, given their social, emotional and cultural contexts.
Cheng packs a lot of big ideas into this short novel, but it never feels like too much, and is done in a way that allows the reader to empathise with her protagonists. Meg's reflections on being a carer for both her parents and sister, and the loneliness of being the only surviving family member, are expertly drawn and well-balanced with the other details of her life that make her such an endearing, fully-realised character. Likewise, Andy's experience of familial pressure to succeed academically, plus his family's conflicting influences (constant presence, yet inability to speak openly, especially about mental health), paints the picture of a very real young man. Cheng also explores the awkwardness of early attraction, the experience of being subjected to racially motivated verbal abuse, and ideas of life and death that will leave any reader with a full range of emotional reactions.
The true mastery of this work is the way Cheng reveals that Meg and Andy can never fully know or appreciate one another as whole humans - i.e. the impossibility of completely comprehending the enormity of another person's life. This isn't just about the way they perceive events differently, but the way they cannot know the deeply complex nature of each others' contexts. I think Cheng's message, though, is that despite this, we all must live and interact with others, and thus kindness and compassion are essential - although this message is never so overtly delivered. These are universal human truths and it's beautiful and exciting to see them explored so cleverly in a novel.
The writing is pared back without feeling cold, or too sparse, although I suspect some readers may want more flesh to each short chapter. For me, the short chapters added propulsion to the plot in the way only short story writers can ever accomplish with such apparent ease. I flew through the story, soaking up the realistic details, be they descriptions of Meg's home from both perspectives, or of the ever important meals both characters eat.
Reading this novel satisfied a hunger I didn't realise I had - for stories about life in my country now, showing our lives as they are and feel now. I wouldn't be at all surprised to see this become a modern Australian classic.
In this novel, Cheng has given us a portrait of contemporary Australia that we can all recognise and should all reflect on. Room for a Stranger is the work of an author coming into her stride, which is a very exciting thing for Australian literature indeed.
June 13, 2019
I just cannot be doing with this book. It is shallow, tawdry, predictable and a host of other uninteresting things. The elderly character of Meg acts and talks as if she is an old woman of a previous era not today. I’m so bored with stories that try to sell the lovely, conservative little old lady with careful morals, shuffling round in slippers making bad spag bol while divulging a charming naive collection of memories of their sheltered unfulfilled lives. Such a cliche and it’s lazy writing. A 75 year old woman today was out in the world in the 1960s and 70s as a young person. That means they were impacted by feminism, Vietnam war, the hippy revolution, use of recreational drugs, the sexual revolution, the pill.....they didn’t live through the depression or the war, they are baby boomers who are some of the most educated, liberated, worldly women in our society.
Oh I give up. I’m cannot be doing with it. Seriously. This is little more than a first draft of an emerging writer that should never have been published. More than anything else, the story is dull. Others have more kindly referred to it as “gentle”. Nope. It’s just dull.
Oh I give up. I’m cannot be doing with it. Seriously. This is little more than a first draft of an emerging writer that should never have been published. More than anything else, the story is dull. Others have more kindly referred to it as “gentle”. Nope. It’s just dull.
November 21, 2019
‘There were so many details to be considered.’
Meg Hughes, aged 75, has been living alone since her sister Helen died. She’s living in the home of her childhood, the home she grew up in with her parents and Helen. And now there is just her, and her African grey parrot, Atticus. Meg has become accustomed to being alone, but when her home is broken into by a knife-wielding intruder, she’s afraid.
Andy Chan, aged 22, is a student from Hong Kong. His father has lost his job, and while his parents’ savings cover his tuition, he needs to find cheaper accommodation in order to graduate. Could boarding with Meg solve both their problems?
Andy moves into Meg’s house, into the room that was Helen’s, and into an entirely foreign world. The two seem to have little in common: separated by age and culture, burdened by differing expectations. Andy is carrying the weight of family expectations, while Meg carries burdens from the past.
What I enjoyed most about this novel was the contrast between assumption and experience, the fact that both Andy and Meg were struggling with the roles and expectations each had both of themselves and of each other. The contemporary modern world seems as uncomfortable to Meg as Australia is to Andy.
And the ending? I finished the novel wondering what might happen next.
Jennifer Cameron-Smith
Meg Hughes, aged 75, has been living alone since her sister Helen died. She’s living in the home of her childhood, the home she grew up in with her parents and Helen. And now there is just her, and her African grey parrot, Atticus. Meg has become accustomed to being alone, but when her home is broken into by a knife-wielding intruder, she’s afraid.
Andy Chan, aged 22, is a student from Hong Kong. His father has lost his job, and while his parents’ savings cover his tuition, he needs to find cheaper accommodation in order to graduate. Could boarding with Meg solve both their problems?
Andy moves into Meg’s house, into the room that was Helen’s, and into an entirely foreign world. The two seem to have little in common: separated by age and culture, burdened by differing expectations. Andy is carrying the weight of family expectations, while Meg carries burdens from the past.
What I enjoyed most about this novel was the contrast between assumption and experience, the fact that both Andy and Meg were struggling with the roles and expectations each had both of themselves and of each other. The contemporary modern world seems as uncomfortable to Meg as Australia is to Andy.
And the ending? I finished the novel wondering what might happen next.
Jennifer Cameron-Smith
May 31, 2019
A poignant, tenderly-observed story of loneliness, shame and connection.
Read
April 13, 2020Can’t do it anymore. I think the author was trying to write a heartwarming story, but my heart was not warmed. The writing style was pretty simplistic and not affecting.
March 31, 2020
Room For A Stranger is a touching and kind read about two lonely strangers who connect in unlikely circumstances.
Andy is an international student who rents a room from Margaret. Slowly and with some misstarts they grow closer, despite their cultural differences. Simply written, Cheng shows a mastery of character development as these two push their way into your heart and stay there. With tender insight, Cheng shows us that we can never really know a person. I liked the gentle touches of small details that lent me the ability to vividly imagine the house, and feel as thought I was a part of the story.
Andy is an international student who rents a room from Margaret. Slowly and with some misstarts they grow closer, despite their cultural differences. Simply written, Cheng shows a mastery of character development as these two push their way into your heart and stay there. With tender insight, Cheng shows us that we can never really know a person. I liked the gentle touches of small details that lent me the ability to vividly imagine the house, and feel as thought I was a part of the story.
May 26, 2019
I have been dithering about, tweaking computer settings and looking at fuel prices, instead of writing this review. Why? Because Room for a Stranger is so good that my review won’t do it justice. The cheat’s way out would be to say, “Stop reading this review and start reading this book – now”. But a potential reader might not listen to that, so let me try to convince you.
The main characters in Room for a Stranger are an elderly lady, a university student from Hong Kong, their friends and an African grey parrot. The parrot is not only a lovely distraction with his spookily relevant English but an important part of the plot. These disparate characters create a story that is about loneliness and isolation, but also about unlikely friendships. Meg has been living at home alone since the death of her sister, but an encounter with an intruder leaves her feeling vulnerable and scared. She signs up for a home share program to let out a room to a university student. That student is Andy, who is from Hong Kong, studying biomedicine in the hope of getting into medicine. Andy’s not doing too well at university and he has worries about his parents and their situation. Meg is worried too about her health, her friends and meeting Andy’s expectations. What starts as an awkward home scenario where two strangers tiptoe around each other gradually develops into the kind of bond where they can discuss their deepest fears that they can’t reveal to those closest to them.
The story is wonderfully suburban and rather Melbournian in its descriptions of possums and trams. It’s not a ‘big’ story – when I say big, I mean that it doesn’t encompass huge travels, land or generations – but works to capture a short period of time in two everyday lives. Some may say that Meg and Andy’s problems are relatively small but they are huge to them. Fear of death, illness, failure and disappointing others. Meg is worried about not keeping up with her glamourous friends (and I thought female competitiveness might get better with age!) and she’s worried about starting a new relationship. Andy doesn’t want to disappoint his parents, so goes to extreme steps to ensure he passes his exams. Both Meg and Andy meet significant challenges and make mistakes, which is what makes this story and the characters so real. They are flawed, say stupid things and mess up. It makes the story wonderfully rich.
Small details further enrich this book. Meg’s ‘famous’ spag bol (spaghetti bolognese) is a dish she’s proud of and makes often for Andy. Andy can’t stand it and will often retreat to late night snacks of instant noodles. (I tend to agree with Andy – Meg’s additions to the dish are pretty weird for this spag bol connoisseur). Later Andy introduces Meg to the wonders of instant noodles during a late night meeting. I found this so sweet, as was the ending when Andy and Meg part and all the things are said.
Overall, Room for a Stranger is a quiet, beautiful book of what happens when we open ourselves to strangers. This is a quality Australian read that won’t disappoint.
Thank you to Text Publishing for the copy of this book. My review is honest.
http://samstillreading.wordpress.com
The main characters in Room for a Stranger are an elderly lady, a university student from Hong Kong, their friends and an African grey parrot. The parrot is not only a lovely distraction with his spookily relevant English but an important part of the plot. These disparate characters create a story that is about loneliness and isolation, but also about unlikely friendships. Meg has been living at home alone since the death of her sister, but an encounter with an intruder leaves her feeling vulnerable and scared. She signs up for a home share program to let out a room to a university student. That student is Andy, who is from Hong Kong, studying biomedicine in the hope of getting into medicine. Andy’s not doing too well at university and he has worries about his parents and their situation. Meg is worried too about her health, her friends and meeting Andy’s expectations. What starts as an awkward home scenario where two strangers tiptoe around each other gradually develops into the kind of bond where they can discuss their deepest fears that they can’t reveal to those closest to them.
The story is wonderfully suburban and rather Melbournian in its descriptions of possums and trams. It’s not a ‘big’ story – when I say big, I mean that it doesn’t encompass huge travels, land or generations – but works to capture a short period of time in two everyday lives. Some may say that Meg and Andy’s problems are relatively small but they are huge to them. Fear of death, illness, failure and disappointing others. Meg is worried about not keeping up with her glamourous friends (and I thought female competitiveness might get better with age!) and she’s worried about starting a new relationship. Andy doesn’t want to disappoint his parents, so goes to extreme steps to ensure he passes his exams. Both Meg and Andy meet significant challenges and make mistakes, which is what makes this story and the characters so real. They are flawed, say stupid things and mess up. It makes the story wonderfully rich.
Small details further enrich this book. Meg’s ‘famous’ spag bol (spaghetti bolognese) is a dish she’s proud of and makes often for Andy. Andy can’t stand it and will often retreat to late night snacks of instant noodles. (I tend to agree with Andy – Meg’s additions to the dish are pretty weird for this spag bol connoisseur). Later Andy introduces Meg to the wonders of instant noodles during a late night meeting. I found this so sweet, as was the ending when Andy and Meg part and all the things are said.
Overall, Room for a Stranger is a quiet, beautiful book of what happens when we open ourselves to strangers. This is a quality Australian read that won’t disappoint.
Thank you to Text Publishing for the copy of this book. My review is honest.
http://samstillreading.wordpress.com
August 10, 2019
I wasn't sure what to expect of this book but immediately felt as if the characters were dear friends. I love seeing the world through different eyes and Andy's view of Australia is really special and at times heartbreaking. I wanted to apologies to him (even though he was a character!) for the way in which some Aussies treated him because I very much believe this kind of thing happens in real life all the time. And it shouldn't. EVER.
This is a deceptively simple story that is really so much more if you are willing to slip between its quiet pages and really soak into the words. My husband and I lived in Hong Kong for two years and there were many descriptions of Andy's home that felt so familiar and even made me a little nostalgic for the country. One thing I do remember when living abroad was that feeling of being an outsider. Of everything being so different. Of simply wanting some fish and chips or a meat pie with sauce! So when Andy talks of his favourite meals back home and that sense of longing, I could relate completely. As for noodles from a cup- gosh, I can't remember how many times they have saved me from starving when I couldn't stomach local foods in some new country I was living in. I've traveled a lot and always loved it. At the same time there is no place like home when it comes to food. At least for me.
The older lady Meg was also lovely. I felt her sense of loneliness. I did wish she would say more of what was in her head and connect more to those around her. I kept waiting for her to tell Andy her news at the end. But maybe that was just her way. It did make me sad for her though.
Melanie Cheng writes beautifully and I often caught myself studying a sentence in wonder at the simple yet perfect way she described something. She absolutely nails the subtlety of many human interactions.
All in all, a great read that I wasn't quite ready to let end!
This is a deceptively simple story that is really so much more if you are willing to slip between its quiet pages and really soak into the words. My husband and I lived in Hong Kong for two years and there were many descriptions of Andy's home that felt so familiar and even made me a little nostalgic for the country. One thing I do remember when living abroad was that feeling of being an outsider. Of everything being so different. Of simply wanting some fish and chips or a meat pie with sauce! So when Andy talks of his favourite meals back home and that sense of longing, I could relate completely. As for noodles from a cup- gosh, I can't remember how many times they have saved me from starving when I couldn't stomach local foods in some new country I was living in. I've traveled a lot and always loved it. At the same time there is no place like home when it comes to food. At least for me.
The older lady Meg was also lovely. I felt her sense of loneliness. I did wish she would say more of what was in her head and connect more to those around her. I kept waiting for her to tell Andy her news at the end. But maybe that was just her way. It did make me sad for her though.
Melanie Cheng writes beautifully and I often caught myself studying a sentence in wonder at the simple yet perfect way she described something. She absolutely nails the subtlety of many human interactions.
All in all, a great read that I wasn't quite ready to let end!
October 20, 2019
I've been thinking all day about how to write a review of this book. Melanie Cheng is an award-winning author, and her debut novel Room for a Stranger, has been very widely praised, but although I found it mildly enjoyable, I'm not at all sure that it merits being termed a modern masterpiece.
Somewhere in the plethora of reviews about the book, I saw (but now can't find) something about it being an example of the 'new sincerity movement', a repudiation, it seems, of postmodernism and irony. It is certainly written in serviceable prose, with a straightforward linear plot with just occasional flashbacks, narrated by the two main protagonists, who come from cross-cultural environments but share a deep-seated loneliness.
The story is set in ordinary suburban Melbourne, about 10km from the CBD—which puts it squarely among some now very expensive real estate. Probably not Albert Park since there are cartoonish bungalows rather than elegant terraces, perhaps out west somewhere, like Coburg or Maribyrnong or Maidstone where houses sell for $800,000+. As sole inheritor of her parents' once humble estate, the central character 75-year-old Meg Hughes is almost certainly asset-rich and could downsize to a more manageable apartment, unit or townhouse and still have money left over to live a little. But she doesn't do this because she is inhibited by fear of change, she has let inertia take over her life and she is paralysed by lifelong shyness. What finally prompts her to take a young international student into her home is a visit from a prowler. Bizarrely, she thinks that taking in a complete stranger from another culture will make her feel safer. And she thinks she would like the company.
(I know that a reader has to accept the book that's been written, but I can't help thinking how interesting this book might have been if Meg had opened up her home to one of the growing numbers of homeless older women. Or the scruffy but likeable couple I met yesterday when I called in at Launch Housing with a question. Dull respectability meets Nonconformist Attitude! I think I would like somebody to write such a book).
Anyway...
Since the writing is nothing special, this kind of character-driven novel depends entirely on the reader becoming invested in these two characters, and that is the problem that I have. I think readers will judge it differently depending on their age group. Millennials and Generation X who perhaps regard anyone over 60 as elderly and past-their-use-by date may find the dawn of a May-September cross-cultural friendship authentic and heart-warming, but I think the novel paints a distorted and very melancholy picture of an older unmarried woman. Having only very recently been reading Caroline Lodge's Older Women in Literature project at the Global Literature in Libraries Initiative I am more conscious of the way older women are portrayed, and Meg Hughes as a pathetic and lonely old women doesn't fit my experience of women in her age group at all. It won't surprise anyone my age that I have more friends living alone than in coupledom: in our age cohort there are plenty of women who've never married, or are divorced or widowed. If these women have children, these adult children are often living and working far away, some of them permanently overseas. But my friends, nearly all of them older than me and some in their 80s and 90s, would be aghast at Cheng's portrait of Meg Hughes, who at only 75 gives up on life. No volunteering or pensioner travel or U3A classes or competitive croquet for her! She loves reading, but she doesn't even hang out at her library or have any virtual bookworm friends.
(BTW please don't make the mistake of thinking that all my friends are well-educated middle-class career women with comfortable superannuation funds. That's not the case at all.)
To read the rest of my review please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2019/10/19/r...
Somewhere in the plethora of reviews about the book, I saw (but now can't find) something about it being an example of the 'new sincerity movement', a repudiation, it seems, of postmodernism and irony. It is certainly written in serviceable prose, with a straightforward linear plot with just occasional flashbacks, narrated by the two main protagonists, who come from cross-cultural environments but share a deep-seated loneliness.
The story is set in ordinary suburban Melbourne, about 10km from the CBD—which puts it squarely among some now very expensive real estate. Probably not Albert Park since there are cartoonish bungalows rather than elegant terraces, perhaps out west somewhere, like Coburg or Maribyrnong or Maidstone where houses sell for $800,000+. As sole inheritor of her parents' once humble estate, the central character 75-year-old Meg Hughes is almost certainly asset-rich and could downsize to a more manageable apartment, unit or townhouse and still have money left over to live a little. But she doesn't do this because she is inhibited by fear of change, she has let inertia take over her life and she is paralysed by lifelong shyness. What finally prompts her to take a young international student into her home is a visit from a prowler. Bizarrely, she thinks that taking in a complete stranger from another culture will make her feel safer. And she thinks she would like the company.
(I know that a reader has to accept the book that's been written, but I can't help thinking how interesting this book might have been if Meg had opened up her home to one of the growing numbers of homeless older women. Or the scruffy but likeable couple I met yesterday when I called in at Launch Housing with a question. Dull respectability meets Nonconformist Attitude! I think I would like somebody to write such a book).
Anyway...
Since the writing is nothing special, this kind of character-driven novel depends entirely on the reader becoming invested in these two characters, and that is the problem that I have. I think readers will judge it differently depending on their age group. Millennials and Generation X who perhaps regard anyone over 60 as elderly and past-their-use-by date may find the dawn of a May-September cross-cultural friendship authentic and heart-warming, but I think the novel paints a distorted and very melancholy picture of an older unmarried woman. Having only very recently been reading Caroline Lodge's Older Women in Literature project at the Global Literature in Libraries Initiative I am more conscious of the way older women are portrayed, and Meg Hughes as a pathetic and lonely old women doesn't fit my experience of women in her age group at all. It won't surprise anyone my age that I have more friends living alone than in coupledom: in our age cohort there are plenty of women who've never married, or are divorced or widowed. If these women have children, these adult children are often living and working far away, some of them permanently overseas. But my friends, nearly all of them older than me and some in their 80s and 90s, would be aghast at Cheng's portrait of Meg Hughes, who at only 75 gives up on life. No volunteering or pensioner travel or U3A classes or competitive croquet for her! She loves reading, but she doesn't even hang out at her library or have any virtual bookworm friends.
(BTW please don't make the mistake of thinking that all my friends are well-educated middle-class career women with comfortable superannuation funds. That's not the case at all.)
To read the rest of my review please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2019/10/19/r...
October 26, 2019
I'm always interested by books written by medical practitioners. A lot of them seem to have the same calm atmosphere permeating them, like the other book I recently read by an Australian doctor, The Single Ladies of Jacaranda Retirement Village. The premise of this novel felt very cheesy and doomed to go into melodrama, an Australian retelling of The Intouchables, but Cheng avoids all of that. This book feels very grounded, and the two main characters Meg and Andy, don't really interact throughout the novel. The subtle interactions between the two and the growing relationship ends up changing both of them, but not in the made-for-TV way I was expecting. Chen captures the different forms of alienation and guilt painstakingly well.
I guess in the end, I didn't really enjoy it. I didn't really connect with either character all that much which is important for a character study, and I wasn't really engaged with the depth that was revealed by each character. It all felt rather cliched and stereotypical at times, and that's not a good sign for a a character study. The writing was serviceable but didn't really take my breath away. There were no real moments of gorgeousness or sentences that sparkled with clarity. It was just there.
This book felt like I was lying in the sand, gentle waves overlapping at my feet. It's calm and soothing, but sometimes I just want to be taken away by the sea and this book never felt capable of doing that.
I guess in the end, I didn't really enjoy it. I didn't really connect with either character all that much which is important for a character study, and I wasn't really engaged with the depth that was revealed by each character. It all felt rather cliched and stereotypical at times, and that's not a good sign for a a character study. The writing was serviceable but didn't really take my breath away. There were no real moments of gorgeousness or sentences that sparkled with clarity. It was just there.
This book felt like I was lying in the sand, gentle waves overlapping at my feet. It's calm and soothing, but sometimes I just want to be taken away by the sea and this book never felt capable of doing that.
July 18, 2019
“Looking back now, Meg wished she had talked to people more - not small talk but proper conversations. Discussions about life and death and God and the universe. Instead she’d spent her entire life doing what everyone else seemed to be doing - what she and Helen had, in turn, spent years teaching Atticus to do. Talking without really saying anything.”
For me the premise of this book was promising but unfortunately never quite met my expectations. I feel as though Cheng didn’t quite push the characters or the plot enough to make it a dynamic read. I kept waiting to feel more engaged but I honestly didn’t feel interested in what would happen or where the book was progressing at any point of this read. The plot felt flat, the characters did not excite interest, and the writing felt lifeless to me. The above sounds overly harsh in reference to my feelings for the book, it is by no means the worst read of the year for me but at best I feel ambivalent towards the book. I think it worth noting that this book probably suffered from being read straight after Trent Dalton whose writing absolutely sung for me.
On a positive note the book is a very fast read. Somewhat negatively this could be due at least in part to the amount of white space in the book. Each chapter begins with over half a page of white space, making this book closer to the territory of novella rather than short novel (and sort of makes the page count a bit of a stretch).
For me the premise of this book was promising but unfortunately never quite met my expectations. I feel as though Cheng didn’t quite push the characters or the plot enough to make it a dynamic read. I kept waiting to feel more engaged but I honestly didn’t feel interested in what would happen or where the book was progressing at any point of this read. The plot felt flat, the characters did not excite interest, and the writing felt lifeless to me. The above sounds overly harsh in reference to my feelings for the book, it is by no means the worst read of the year for me but at best I feel ambivalent towards the book. I think it worth noting that this book probably suffered from being read straight after Trent Dalton whose writing absolutely sung for me.
On a positive note the book is a very fast read. Somewhat negatively this could be due at least in part to the amount of white space in the book. Each chapter begins with over half a page of white space, making this book closer to the territory of novella rather than short novel (and sort of makes the page count a bit of a stretch).
July 27, 2020
This is a very readable book – probably one of the fastest reads I’ve had in quite a long time! Meg is in her seventies, and age and loneliness are catching up with her. She takes in a young male university student, Andy, as part of a homeshare agreement. Although they are from vastly different backgrounds, both Meg and Andy struggle with the changes wrought by life, and develop a sort of affection despite an initial distaste for each other. I would describe this as a ‘quiet’ story. The upheaval in Meg and Andy’s lives is told in a simple way, but I think that is much of the book’s appeal – showing us the way sorrows, heartache, and drama affect us all. Rating - 8/10
January 17, 2021
3.5 Stars
August 26, 2019
Wow! I was not expecting to love this book as much as I did. I loved the friendship that slowly evolved between Andy and Meg. I loved the complexities of both their personal lives that were woven throughout the story. I would definitely recommend this book! It isn’t a long book and it is easy to read it over a day or two (depending on how late you stay up to finish it though hehe)
September 4, 2019
Room for a Stranger (Text Publishing 2019), by Melanie Cheng, is a heart-warming story about friendship, aging and the kindness of strangers. Meg Hughes, aged 75, is living alone in the house in which she was raised; the house where she spent so many years caring for her sister after a terrible accident. Since her sister’s death, Meg’s only companion has been Atticus, her talking African Grey Parrot. Her house is a reminder of all she has lost, and after a recent frightening assault, she is lonelier and more fearful than ever. She decides to take in a home share boarder, a 22-year-old student from Hong Kong. Andy is quiet, reserved, neat and tidy – all the qualities Meg wanted in a companion – but she worries that he is too quiet, that perhaps the house doesn’t suit him or even that he doesn’t like her. The disparity in age and culture and circumstances makes it hard for the two to find common ground.
This is a quiet, easy-to-read book that meanders along at a leisurely pace. The characters of both Meg and Andy are relatable and engaging, and it is lovely to see each alternate chapter switch between two such different perspectives: Meg reminiscing about her long life, those she has loved, all that she has achieved or wanted to achieve, and her regrets; and Andy, starting out with all the expectations of his family and the difficulties of his upbringing weighing heavily on his shoulders. Through Andy’s eyes, we see the oddities of Australian language, native fauna and customs; through Meg, we see her struggle to negotiate the modern ways of the world and to accept things that she once would have found untenable.
Towards the end of the novel, both Andy and Meg face crises, albeit of very different natures, and discover that although they are almost strangers, they share that common bond, the need for acceptance and reassurance, the want of a hand to hold in difficult times, the offer of simple moments of friendship that are priceless. The ending is somewhat unresolved, allowing the reader to imagine for ourselves what might happen in the coming weeks and months after the last page has been turned.
This is a quiet, easy-to-read book that meanders along at a leisurely pace. The characters of both Meg and Andy are relatable and engaging, and it is lovely to see each alternate chapter switch between two such different perspectives: Meg reminiscing about her long life, those she has loved, all that she has achieved or wanted to achieve, and her regrets; and Andy, starting out with all the expectations of his family and the difficulties of his upbringing weighing heavily on his shoulders. Through Andy’s eyes, we see the oddities of Australian language, native fauna and customs; through Meg, we see her struggle to negotiate the modern ways of the world and to accept things that she once would have found untenable.
Towards the end of the novel, both Andy and Meg face crises, albeit of very different natures, and discover that although they are almost strangers, they share that common bond, the need for acceptance and reassurance, the want of a hand to hold in difficult times, the offer of simple moments of friendship that are priceless. The ending is somewhat unresolved, allowing the reader to imagine for ourselves what might happen in the coming weeks and months after the last page has been turned.
May 12, 2019
I looked forward to reading this and was not disappointed. It was engrossing - I read it in a day. Cheng’s skill in creating nuanced, complex characters and connecting them to her readers is again in evidence. She is expert at portraying both common humanity and cultural difference. The two main characters in this novel are both likeable and flawed. As a reader I empathise and criticise . It is one of her strengths as a writer that readers (this one at least) develop sufficient relationships with her characters to respond as friends - with tolerance and understanding.
Nevertheless, there was a niggle. I was not entirely convinced that Meg would have taken the step to invite a student into her home, nor was I convinced she would have received agency approval. I was sufficiently engaged to suspend disbelief, but it remained as a niggle.
Within 10 minutes of finishing the book I watched a TV panel discussion on Australia’s Health system in which a range of stakeholders presented evidence of the effectiveness of connected, holistic community health and welfare services. It struck me that my unease with the book derived from the sense of the two main characters as isolated individuals, entering each other’s orbits, inevitably passing through. While both have a cultural context, neither is viewed as part of a community.
This, of course, is part of Cheng’s point. This is a story of the disruption created by opening a door to a stranger. It forces us to consider both the commonality and the distance between people. It is a narrower version of Tolstoy’s two stories. In this case, a woman goes on a journey and a stranger comes to a home rather than a town.
Nevertheless, there was a niggle. I was not entirely convinced that Meg would have taken the step to invite a student into her home, nor was I convinced she would have received agency approval. I was sufficiently engaged to suspend disbelief, but it remained as a niggle.
Within 10 minutes of finishing the book I watched a TV panel discussion on Australia’s Health system in which a range of stakeholders presented evidence of the effectiveness of connected, holistic community health and welfare services. It struck me that my unease with the book derived from the sense of the two main characters as isolated individuals, entering each other’s orbits, inevitably passing through. While both have a cultural context, neither is viewed as part of a community.
This, of course, is part of Cheng’s point. This is a story of the disruption created by opening a door to a stranger. It forces us to consider both the commonality and the distance between people. It is a narrower version of Tolstoy’s two stories. In this case, a woman goes on a journey and a stranger comes to a home rather than a town.
September 21, 2019
Now don’t let me put you off reading this book, but it’s one of the saddest novels I’ve had the pleasure of reading. It’s short, set in Melbourne, about the worlds of an old lady and her roommate, a young student from Hong Kong. Melanie Chen writes brilliantly about their colliding worlds. There’s huge value from insights into the world of the many Asian students in our central city streets. Live in Melbourne? You could learn a lot from this novel.
October 9, 2024
Excellent. Melanie Cheng is a brilliant writer who "shows without telling" just how our different cultures clash in Australia. Her portrayal of the character of the older white man who knew everything good was done by the English is beautifully drawn. She has woven a lovely story of two lonely people who come to accept each other despite the impossible beginning of their relationship but without being cliched she creates positive outcomes just when all seems lost.
June 1, 2019
I had no idea when I picked it up that this was the exact book I’d been craving to read. An Australian novel set in Melbourne it centres on the unlikely bond between an elderly woman and a university student from Hong Kong as they end up housemates. It’s subtle but real and well and truly addictive.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 228 reviews