Helpful Score: 4
Overview
The Fifth Child is the story of David and Harriet Lovatt -- a young couple who meet, realize they have common values and goals, marry and decide to start a family -- a family with lots of children. They purchase a giant house they can barely afford and begin having children -- one right after another. Their life is full and busy and full of happiness -- their extended family regularly stays for long visits at Christmas and Easter. David and Harriet are living their dream, until Harriet gets pregnant for the fifth time. This pregnancy is different in a way that Harriet cannot describe to anyone -- it begins to change her and the way she feels about the unborn child. Then the fifth child arrives, and Harriet's worst fears come true when the baby arrives and changes the family dynamic for the worse -- ripping the family to pieces and causing Harriet to question whether a child can truly be unlovable and unwanted.
My Thoughts
I read this book because of an article in Cookie magazine that recommended unusual books about motherhood. It sounded intriguing and a little freaky, so I had to see what it was all about. When I got the book from Paperback Swap, there were two blurbs on the back. The New York Review of Books called it "Terse and chilling...a witch's brew of conflicting fears." The New York Times Book Review called it "A horror story of maternity and the nightmare of social collapse ... a moral fable of the genre that includes Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and George Orwell's 1984."
I wouldn't call this inaccurate as the book did indeed read more like a fable than a novel. There is not a lot of character development, and the writing is very terse and cold. And although the book is set in the 1960s, I could not shake the feeling that the story was taking place in the more distant past. It didn't have a modern feel about it. I was also unable to "buy" into the character of Ben -- the fifth child. I just couldn't imagine that this type of child would exist; I guess that explains the comparison to Frankenstein. I'm willing to accept the idea of the girl in the Bad Seed more than Ben because the character of Ben seemed so exaggerated. Because of all this I didn't love this book (but I suspect it isn't a book that anyone would fall in love with). If it wasn't a short read, I don't know if I would have stuck with it.
All that being said, you do kind of get sucked into the story and want to find out what happens to the family and Ben. At the midpoint, Ben gets sent away to an institution, and the description of what happens there just made me ill. I was also very uncomfortable with the Harriet character, but I suspect that is Lessing's point. She wants to make you uncomfortable. She wants to disturb you. The main questions of the book seem to be: Can a mother love any child -- no matter how awful? Can a mother's attention to one child ruin the lives of the others? Should a mother choose one child at the expense of the others? These are uncomfortable questions, and Lessing doesn't give the reader an easy answer. I really don't know what Harriet should have done or what I felt about her decisions. It was a strange and uncomfortable read.
The Bottom Line
If what I wrote about this book intrigued you, then you might want to check it out. It is not a long read, and the writing isn't bad. However, I did not fall in love with this book and I wouldn't really recommend it -- I'm not really sure who might be interested in reading this type of book. I'm listing it on Paperback Swap so if you want to snag a copy, head on over. (I couldn't, in good conscious, do a book giveaway of a book that I felt so ambivalent about.)
If you have read this book or reviewed it, I would love to hear what you think or get a link to your review and see what you thought.
Excerpt
The opening lines of the book: Harriett and David met each other at an office party that neither had particularly wanted to go to, and both knew at once that this was what they had been waiting 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.
The Fifth Child is the story of David and Harriet Lovatt -- a young couple who meet, realize they have common values and goals, marry and decide to start a family -- a family with lots of children. They purchase a giant house they can barely afford and begin having children -- one right after another. Their life is full and busy and full of happiness -- their extended family regularly stays for long visits at Christmas and Easter. David and Harriet are living their dream, until Harriet gets pregnant for the fifth time. This pregnancy is different in a way that Harriet cannot describe to anyone -- it begins to change her and the way she feels about the unborn child. Then the fifth child arrives, and Harriet's worst fears come true when the baby arrives and changes the family dynamic for the worse -- ripping the family to pieces and causing Harriet to question whether a child can truly be unlovable and unwanted.
My Thoughts
I read this book because of an article in Cookie magazine that recommended unusual books about motherhood. It sounded intriguing and a little freaky, so I had to see what it was all about. When I got the book from Paperback Swap, there were two blurbs on the back. The New York Review of Books called it "Terse and chilling...a witch's brew of conflicting fears." The New York Times Book Review called it "A horror story of maternity and the nightmare of social collapse ... a moral fable of the genre that includes Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and George Orwell's 1984."
I wouldn't call this inaccurate as the book did indeed read more like a fable than a novel. There is not a lot of character development, and the writing is very terse and cold. And although the book is set in the 1960s, I could not shake the feeling that the story was taking place in the more distant past. It didn't have a modern feel about it. I was also unable to "buy" into the character of Ben -- the fifth child. I just couldn't imagine that this type of child would exist; I guess that explains the comparison to Frankenstein. I'm willing to accept the idea of the girl in the Bad Seed more than Ben because the character of Ben seemed so exaggerated. Because of all this I didn't love this book (but I suspect it isn't a book that anyone would fall in love with). If it wasn't a short read, I don't know if I would have stuck with it.
All that being said, you do kind of get sucked into the story and want to find out what happens to the family and Ben. At the midpoint, Ben gets sent away to an institution, and the description of what happens there just made me ill. I was also very uncomfortable with the Harriet character, but I suspect that is Lessing's point. She wants to make you uncomfortable. She wants to disturb you. The main questions of the book seem to be: Can a mother love any child -- no matter how awful? Can a mother's attention to one child ruin the lives of the others? Should a mother choose one child at the expense of the others? These are uncomfortable questions, and Lessing doesn't give the reader an easy answer. I really don't know what Harriet should have done or what I felt about her decisions. It was a strange and uncomfortable read.
The Bottom Line
If what I wrote about this book intrigued you, then you might want to check it out. It is not a long read, and the writing isn't bad. However, I did not fall in love with this book and I wouldn't really recommend it -- I'm not really sure who might be interested in reading this type of book. I'm listing it on Paperback Swap so if you want to snag a copy, head on over. (I couldn't, in good conscious, do a book giveaway of a book that I felt so ambivalent about.)
If you have read this book or reviewed it, I would love to hear what you think or get a link to your review and see what you thought.
Excerpt
The opening lines of the book: Harriett and David met each other at an office party that neither had particularly wanted to go to, and both knew at once that this was what they had been waiting 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.
Helpful Score: 4
Disturbing and amusing at the same time. We all know children who don't "fit" into a family, but is it genetic, upbringing, madness, or alien babies?! Be careful what you wish for - happy families aren't always what they seem...
Helpful Score: 3
Very disturbing look at a family that, for all intentions purposes, is "normal". Bad kids can happen to good parents.
Helpful Score: 1
The married couple in this novel pull off a remarkable achievement: They purchase a three-story house with oodles of bedrooms, and, on a middle-class income, in the '70s, fill it to the brim with happy children and visiting relatives. Their holiday gatherings are sumptuous celebrations of life and togetherness. And then the fifth child arrives. He's just a child--he's not supernatural. But is he really human? This is an elegantly written tale that the New York Times called "a horror story of maternity and the nightmare of social collapse . . . a moral fable of the genre that includes Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and George Orwell's 1984."
Helpful Score: 1
pretty good... strange, short read
Helpful Score: 1
A tale of a monster child.
Helpful Score: 1
Tantalizing novel, a real page-turner/thriller. Can't wait to read more of Lessing's works.
Helpful Score: 1
This book is SWEET!. If you like horror, or dark fiction, you will love The Fifth Child. It is short and sweet. Packs a punch.
Helpful Score: 1
Scary, thought-provoking, sad, amazingly well-written. You won't forget this one.
This is a somewhat disturbing tale, in the vein of Shirley Jackson, about a young couple who desire a large family. Unfortunately, number five, Ben, turns out to be somewhat of a freak. I kept waiting for him to turn into Chuckie but this does not happen, although he is more than a handful. At one point, after he is allowed (or not) to roam the streets on his own, a policewoman follows him home. It flashed through my mind that this scene could have been describing the kid in The Ransom of Red Chief. There is not as much violence and horror as the cover notes would have you believe. Most of the impact is the disruption of the extended family. At the end, Ben merely moves out, leaving the reader hanging until the sequel, Ben, In the World.
well written, suspensful, quick read
Very interesting and thought provoking but not your usual feel good story. Doris Lessing is an amazing writer!
Good read.
I really looked forward to this book from what I had heard about it. It's been a couple of weeks since I read it and I'm not sure I can yet say if I liked it. It was and wasn't what I expected. The feelings it aroused in me were that I wanted to yell at the characters and tell them what it was they needed to do and do it NOW. I'm still thinking about the book, that's a good sign, right? The whole idea intrigues me. It was a quick read, easy read and I'm still thinking about it. You read it and see for yourself???....
