The Fifth Child (Paladin Books) (Paperback)

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Ben, in the World by Doris May Lessing 4.1 out of 5 stars (8)  £5.99

The Golden Notebook (Harper Perennial Modern Classics) by Doris May Lessing 3.7 out of 5 stars (10)  £4.85

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Review
"The Fifth Child has the intensity of a nightmare, a horror story poised somewhere between a naturalistic account of family life and an allegory that draws on science fiction. Read it and tremble." CLARE TOMALIN, Independent "The Fifth Child is a book to send shivers down your spine, but one which it is impossible to put down until it is finished. Doris Lessing's power to captivate and convince is evident from the first, and the effect of the odd, alien child on the family is conveyed with quiet understatement which adds to the mounting sense of horror." Sunday Times "A powerful fable. Like the story of Frankenstein or the Minotaur, it generates all sorts of uneasiness. Its strength is expressive not didactic. A disturbing vision, The Fifth Child offers a faithful if chilling reflection of the world we live in." Sunday Telegraph "Doris Lessing can take any genre she chooses and brilliantly reinvent it; this time, the horror story. The Fifth Child is dramatic and memorable, playing as it does upon a most ancient fear." JUDY COOKE, Guardian

Many mothers will be familiar with the emotions Harriet has when she first sets eyes on Ben, her fifth child. Initial disbelief, a reluctance to hold him, a pang of disappointment. There is something strange and disturbing about him. Harriet and her husband David have constructed an idyll of perfect happiness in their large house full of children and relatives, but when Ben is born, their world is torn apart. Ben is weird looking, he doesn't speak but makes odd grunts and noises, and he doesn't seem quite human. Although at first you seriously doubt whether there is anything really wrong with the poor child, at the same time you begin to dislike him. Sympathy only comes when Ben is briefly banished to a special home in a bleak Scottish landscape, a drugged creature in a straitjacket. Rescued by his mother and brought back to the family home he becomes ever more nightmarishly 'different' and succeeds in shattering the family. Harriet's dogged devotion is then all the more remarkable as you come ultimately to realize the real and terrible nature of the creature that is Ben. This novel, reprinted five times, is a riveting read and a haunting addition to Lessing's body of work. (Kirkus UK)

Ever unpredictable, Lessing now offers a rather cryptic yet uncommonly accessible tale of psycho-social horror: a variation on the classic "changeling" formula - here marbled, subtly and disturbingly, with such Lessing themes as apocalyptic doom, the rough dignity of society's outcasts, and the dark underside of human nature. (The five-novel "Martha Quest" series, Lessing readers will remember, is called Children of Violence.) In the 1960's, that "greedy and selfish" time of alienation and "bad news from everywhere," young architect David (terribly old-fashioned) meets solid, homey Harriet (a grownup virgin) - and soon they're a couple, blissful and confident in their sharing of all the traditional, "unfashionable" values. They buy a big house (with help from David's wealthy father), joyfully begin having babies (they want at least seven or eight), and become the happy center of rich, extended family life, continually visited by assorted in-laws. Circa 1972, they're relieved and grateful: "they had chosen, and so obstinately, the best - this." With Harriet's fifth pregnancy, however, this idyll (quickly, hypnotically sketched) begins to fall under a sickly, expanding, implacable shadow. The expectant mother is tormented by the fierce, unnaturally strong fetus. When born, baby Ben is heavy, muscular, creepy-looking - "like a troll, or a goblin or something" - and violent. As a child, he's hostile, unteachable, "neanderthal"dike, more dangerously violent (he kills a dog, then turns to humans) with each passing year. The family is splintered, cruelly transformed - by fear, shame, and furious sorrow (especially vulnerable little Paul). Eventually, urged on by David and flinty Grandma Dorothy, Harriet agrees to give Ben over to "one of those places that exist in order to take on children families simply want to get rid of." But, in a truly nightmarish sequence, the mother reclaims her unlovable horror-child from a death-ward for the unwanted. And, through sheer willpower and ruthless shrewdness, Harriet manages a sort of coexistence between the family (forever fractured) and the "throwback" - though the teen-age Ben inevitably takes off to roam the earth with the punks and outlaws who accept him. "Perhaps quite soon. . . she would be looking at the box, and there, in a shot of the News of Berlin, Madrid, Los Angeles, Buenos Aires, she would see Ben, standing rather apart from the crowd, staring at the camera with his goblin eyes, or searching the faces in the crowd for another of his own kind." As a symbolic summing-up of the past three decades, from Sixties cataclysm to Eighties terrorism, this short novel is vaguely provocative at best; the even broader, socio-anthropological subtext - civilized, familial mankind forced to confront the primitive animal within - is only slightly more persuasive. But, despite echoes of pop-fiction (Rosemary's Baby, etc.) and TV-movie case-histories (damaged child, valiant mum), the plain story itself - fine-tuned with ordinary-life details yet also insidiously fable-like - is stark, relentless, and memorably harrowing. (Kirkus Reviews)

Product Description
'Listening to the laughter, the sounds of children playing, Harriet and David would reach for each other's hand, and smile, and breathe happiness.' Four children, a beautiful old house, the love of relatives and friends, Harriet and David Lovatt's life is a glorious hymn to domestic bliss and old-fashioned family values. But when their fifth child is born, a sickly and implacable shadow is cast over this tender idyll. Large and ugly, violent and uncontrollable, the infant Ben, 'full of cold dislike,' tears at Harriet's breast. Struggling to care for her new-born child, faced with a darkness and a strange defiance she has never known before, Harriet is deeply afraid of what, exactly, she has brought into the world

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19 Reviews 5 star:  (9) 4 star:  (6) 3 star:  (2) 2 star:  (1) 1 star:  (1)           Average Customer Review 4.1 out of 5 stars (19 customer reviews)		Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
Most Helpful Customer Reviews   23 of 25 people found the following review helpful: 5.0 out of 5 stars A traumatic but worthwhile read, 14 May 2004 By A Customer I read this book because my 13 year old son was reading it at school and was finding it hard to relate to. I could not put it down. The three main themes of the book (the dangers of complacency, how society responds to those who do not or cannot conform, and the strength of a mother's love) are all hugely important. It made me appreciate my own children more than ever, but also forced me to realise that it could have been so different. I hope I emerged a more tolerant and understanding person; we all have hopes and dreams, but some of us end up lucky and some do not. Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)   27 of 33 people found the following review helpful: 5.0 out of 5 stars Horrifically good, 15 Aug 2004 By  M. L. York "Grammarian" (UK) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)       This is not only a very modern horror story. It is so horrific because it is utterly believable and the plot could happen to anyone. I really could not put it down, I was so moved by the reactions of the main character, Harriet, to her frightening new son, the large, violent Ben. I thought the balance in Harriet between horror, confusion and reluctant love for her son was extremely touching and complex. As a result, I, as the reader, felt this mixture of reactions, too, one minute totally repulsed and frightened by Ben, the next moved and very sorry for him. One never understands, as Harriet never does, what goes on in Ben's mind. He remains a mystery to everyone within and without the novel. But Harriet's tough fight for any morsel of understanding is really powerful to read, right to the end, as she observes her son living an entirely separate life. It is a tragedy as well as a horror, which makes it all the more absorbing - the family gradually diminishes as a result of Ben's dominant presence in the big, once laugter-filled house. There is also the sense that Lessing comments more generally on society. The novel is not only a domestic drama. Set in the 1960s initially, Lessing offers the characters Harriet and David, who fight determinedly against the 'sex and drugs' spirit of the era. They have ideals of simple, enriching family happiness, a big, lovely house with loads of children, and they seem to battle to gain their dream which seems too conventional for the age. The book progresses through to the 1980s, and Lessing comments on the growing crime and aggression which characterised the 80's, a violent backdrop for violent Ben who seems so comfortable in it. Lessing shows Harriet becoming more and more lost, isolated from the real, circulating world, first through the desire for a family, then seeing her son disappearing into a society so remote from her ideals. I strongly recommend this to anyone, but not children - it is harrowing at times, and extremely graphic. One wonders exactly what this child Ben is and where he came from - I found that extremely traumatic so I can't imagine a child trying to understand. Perhaps the other readers who should avoid this are mothers-to-be. The description of the pregnancy is very disturbing indeed. Far from simply being a horror story, I think it is a extremely engaging investigation of the disparity between honest dreams and the harshness of reality. There is such a lot contained in this novel. Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)   17 of 21 people found the following review helpful: 5.0 out of 5 stars A harrowing novel, 9 Feb 2006 By  Philippe Horak (Zug, Switzerland) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)    Harriet and David met at an office end-of-the-year party. David Lovatt was a successful architect and they decided to marry the following spring. Soon they found a large Victorian house within commuting distance of London. Their first son Luke was born in 1966. Then followed Helen, Jane and Paul in 1973. Then Harriet was pregnant for the fifth time. But it was a difficult pregnancy, the foetus kicking and punching, but eventually their fifth child, Ben, was born. At four months, he already looked like an "angry, hostile little troll". Later on, he became so aggressive and repulsive that Harriet and David had to protect themselves and other members of their family from his kicks and bites. Finally David decided to take him to an "institution". But soon Harriet could not tolerate the situation and on her own accord drove to the North of England to bring Ben back home. What she found there constitutes the most harrowing scene of the novel and is no doubt Mrs Lessing's sharp critique of the way such institutions used to treat mentally retarded children. Then follows Harriet's desperate attempts to re-educate Ben for social life, to the disgust of the other members of the family. A moving and very disturbing novel in which Mrs Lessing brilliantly shows that a mother can love and devote herself to a child even if it is no more than a monster or an alien. Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this) Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review › See all 19 customer reviews...		Ad feedback   Most Recent Customer Reviews 4.0 out of 5 stars my first Dorsi Lessing and bought after an amazon recommendation on the back of "we need to talk about Kevin" Not as good as Shriver. Read more Published 3 months ago by karen bennett 4.0 out of 5 stars She won me over I had only read Lessing once before, and that was when I was given The Golden Notebook as a set book at University. Read more Published 6 months ago by María José García Ferrer 5.0 out of 5 stars Mother's Little Hero. In the relaxed mood of England in the late 1960s, Harriet and David Lovatt, face an unpleasant change of fortune when their fifth child is born. Read more Published 6 months ago by Jan Dierckx 4.0 out of 5 stars thought provoking read 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. Read more Published 10 months ago by Ms. L. J. Armstrong 4.0 out of 5 stars A thoroughly disturbing read 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... Read more Published 11 months ago by kimbofo 2.0 out of 5 stars A bit pointless 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... Read more Published 11 months ago by daisyrock 5.0 out of 5 stars A thought-provoking read - Recommended! Jeanette Levin: from London, England , 20 September 2000 I read this little book many years ago and have never forgotten its impact upon me. Read more Published 13 months ago by Jeanette Levin 1.0 out of 5 stars YAWN YAWN THEN WHOOOAAA WAIT A MINUTE I`M NOT HAVING THAT !!! 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. Read more Published 14 months ago by Leeds lass 4.0 out of 5 stars Enduring fate Harriet and David Lovatt are a happy, newly married couple. Unaffected by the swinging 60s, they have strong, old-fashioned family values. Read more Published 15 months ago by I LOVE BOOKS 3.0 out of 5 stars it's not love, it's guilt.... I enjoyed reading The Fifth Child (translated into Greek) but I don't think that Harriet actually loved Ben.... Read more Published 17 months ago by nassia Search Customer Reviews Only search this product's reviews › See all 19 customer reviews...

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