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| The Fifth Child (Paladin Books) | 
 enlarge | Author: Doris May Lessing
Publisher: Flamingo
Category: Book
List Price: £7.99
Buy Used: £0.51
You Save: £7.48 (94%)
New (27) from £2.00
Avg. Customer Rating:  16 reviews
Sales Rank: 10350
Media: Paperback
Edition: New edition
Pages: 160
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.3
Dimensions (in): 7.8 x 5.1 x 0.6
ISBN: 0007718756
Dewey Decimal Number: 813
EAN: 9780586089033
ASIN: 0586089039
Publication Date: April 2, 2001
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews: Read 11 more reviews...
thought provoking read August 17, 2008
I'd never read Doris Lessing before and this was a really pleasantly surprised. This is a thought provoaking and disturbing tale, a horror story really. I will definitely be reading the follow up 'Ben in the Real World'. Recommended
A thoroughly disturbing read July 18, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Doris Lessing is one of those authors you know you ought to read but never do. A case in point: I've had both The Golden Notebook and The Good Terrorist in my possession for more than three years and never once cracked them open. The sheer size of the books and the weight of the subjects contained within, combined with Lessing's awesome literary reputation, have made me doubt my ability to understand and enjoy her work. Easier, then, to leave well alone.
That was until I heard about The Fifth Child. Maybe it was time to take the plunge? A slim book -- just 160 pages -- seemed the perfect introduction to her work.
Billed as a horror story, it's not from the Stephen King school of horror -- it's slightly more subtle but oodles more menacing because of it.
It's about two people -- David and Harriet -- who meet at an office party in the 1960s and get married shortly after. Lessing describes them as "freaks and oddballs", not least because they have old-fashioned views about sex at a time when the sexual revolution was in full swing. But also because in each other they saw what they were looking for:
"Someone conservative, old-fashioned, not to say obsolescent; timid, hard to please: this is what other people called them, but there was no end to the unaffectionate adjectives they earned. They defended a stubbornly held view of themselves, which was that they were ordinary and in the right of it, should not be criticised for emotional fastidiousness, abstemiousness, just because these were unfashionable qualities."
With their minds set on living in a big house within commuting distance of London, they purchase a "three-storeyed house, with an attic, full of rooms, corridors, landings... Full of space for children in fact". And then waste no time filling it with offspring -- four children in ready succession -- even though they can barely pay the mortgage.
Fortunately, David has a rich father who helps with the bills, while Harriet's mother, Dorothy, is able to move in on a semi-permanent basis to help with the childcare. This enables the pair to create a welcoming, cosy home visited by a steady stream of relatives. Christmas and Easter become big family events that stretch into week-long parties. It seems an idyllic kind of life on the surface, but underneath there are sores that are beginning to fester: David has to work longer and longer hours in the city to pay for his children's upkeep; Dorothy finds herself being taken for granted and brands the pair "selfish and irresponsible"; and Harriet becomes more and more exhausted with each pregnancy.
It is only when Harriet falls pregnant for the fifth time that things take a turn for the worse. The unborn baby is a "wrestler", causing Harriet so much pain and discomfort she starts taking sedatives on the sly.
"The drugs did not seem to be affecting her much: she was willing them to leave her alone and to reach the foetus -- this creature with whom she was locked in a struggle to survive. And for those hours it was quiet, or if it showed signs of coming awake, and fighting her, she took another dose."
When she eventually gives birth to 11-pound baby Ben she notices that he doesn't look quite right. He had a "heavy-shouldered hunched look" and a strange hairline. "He's like a troll, or a goblin or something," she tells David.
This feeling of having produced a non-human baby continues when Ben continually tears at Harriet's breast, roars and bellows to the point of turning white with rage, and stares at her with cold malevolent eyes.
To say anything more would ruin the plot of the book, but essentially Ben's mental development stalls, which has consequences for the entire family. Much of the story hinges on Harriet's relationship to her child and raises that age old dilemma of whether it is nature or nurture that shapes who we become.
If you are thinking that The Fifth Child sounds like a disturbing read, you'd be right. But it is also a memorable, thought-provoking one. The brevity of this book does not make it less interesting or less controversial than a more page-heavy novel, because within this slim volume there are so many issues worth debating: does class structure affect our family lives? to what extent should a mother take responsiblity for her child's misbehaviour? is it responsible to have so many children when you must rely on help to raise them?
Personally, I found the narrative immediately gripping although the fast pace left me breathless at times. Everything seems to move so quickly, and Lessing is brilliant at hurrying things along with a minimal of detail or explanation -- which is a necessity if you are to cover one couple's life from courtship to raising teenage children in the space of 160 pages. I thought it was a rather effortless read and it has now given me enough courage to delve into Lessing's rather extensive back catalogue, the first of which is likely to be the sequel to this book, Ben in the World, which looks at how Ben copes with life as a strange, inhuman adult. Fascinating.
 A bit pointless July 11, 2008
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
I didn't get this book at all. What was the point of it? I read it having read another review about We Need to Talk About Kevin, where that book was compared (unfavourably) with this one. So I thought I'd check it out. But rather wished I hadn't wasted my time.
As a commentary on psychopathy/social and familial dysfunction it had nothing to offer whatsoever. It's laughably over the top (bikers hanging out with a five year old - I think not) and there is no set up for debate as to what made Ben the way he is. Sooo... I thought, maybe that's not the kind of book it's supposed to be. Maybe it's just a thriller. But no, it doesn't work on that level either. The characters are barely there. Often, even towards the end of the book, I was flipping back to remember which one was Jane, or Deborah, or Luke or whatever their names all were. And when you keep in mind that the novel covers 20-odd years in just 159 pages (it's almost a pamphlet) you'll probably get the idea of how thinly the story and the characters are drawn. It's not scary, it's not thought provoking and it's simply boring. This was the first novel(ette) I've read by the highly decorated Miss Lessing, and if this is an indication of her work, I won't bother again.
 A thought-provoking read - Recommended! May 27, 2008
Jeanette Levin: from London, England , 20 September 2000 I read this little book many years ago and have never forgotten its impact upon me. My understanding of this psychological drama was that, despite the warm, close, loving environment into which this Fifth Child was born and, from which his older siblings seemed to emerge as normal, loved, educated, employed individuals, this Fifth Child's behaviour gave another, frighteningly eery view of the origins of the deviants in our society. The English Liberal philosopher, John Locke (1632-1704) proposed that man was born a blank slate and that all knowledge is derived from experience. In complete contrast, the Scottish philosopher, David Hume (1711-1776) developed Locke's empiricism into the scepticism inherent in it and proposed that man was born a savage beast with no inherent social graces. Thus I see the destiny of this Fifth Child, doomed impervious to his environment, a savage beast', seeking the company of those like himself and hell-bent upon a life of non-conformity. It should however carry a Government Health Warning, DON'T READ WHILST PREGNANT'!
 YAWN YAWN THEN WHOOOAAA WAIT A MINUTE I`M NOT HAVING THAT !!! April 27, 2008
17 out of 23 found this review helpful
Overall, a load of old cods. An age spent at the beginning explaining how much this couple have in common - every aspect of their lives dissected - page after page of it. Then wham ! - married, house bought, babies being born like they`re going out of fashion, all extended family involved in their lives - and to an unrealistic degree - at one point over thirty of them over to stay - and it took FIVE cars to go on a picnic ! What the hell ??!! If my family were that involved in my life i would leave the country or slit my throat - or theirs ! Every event in this couple`s life is funded by the husband`s father - from the mortgage on a mansion to school fees for the kids to institutionalisation for `the fifth child.`
I mean come on, get real, it just wouldn`t happen. And the institution itself - almost laughable - where `imperfect` kids are injected on a daily basis - four times a day - no more - until they die.
Yeah right....
The fifth child is some sort of ET with super human strength, who, at four months old, grabbed one of the older kids, dragged his arm into the cot and gave it a good old bashing - but luckily just badly sprained it !! He killed the cat, killed the dog, tried to kill a relative`s dog,and at 18 month old threatened to kill the whole family - including all the extended family ! ( actually i might have given him free reign there if i`d been his mother...)
He was hanging out with the local layabouts at age 5 - getting picked up from school on a motor bike and going to the local caff til bedtime so the family could have some peace from him - and his mother was paying the layabouts for their `services` - and sometimes he doesn`t come home for days or weeks at a time !
( Imagine it - the mind really does boggle - where the hell were social services ?? !!)
The family doctor says he`s just `hyperactive` - and i thought MY doctor was a nutter ! The specialist says he behaves that way because his mother doesn`t like him - - ok....moving on....
This kid has bars on his bedroom window, and bars on his bedroom door - and all the other kids are locked in their rooms at night away from him - and he creeps downstairs and devours raw chickens.
( Sounds like a `little britain` sketch doesn`t it..? )
And the `ending` - what was that about..?
I had to go back and re-read a couple of pages as i thought i had missed something - i hadn`t - it just basically had no ending.
Well i have read some weird books in my time but this one really takes the biscuit. I keep looking at it and thinking did i really pay good money for that crap...? I can`t believe there`s a follow up - `ben out in the world on his own` (thought we`d already covered that...??)
Doris - seriously - are you having a laugh....??
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