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The Fifth Child

3.48 of 5 stars 3.48 · rating details · 4,381 ratings · 508 reviews

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...more

Hardcover, 151 pages

Published March 12th 1988 by Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. (first published January 2nd 1985)

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Apr 07, 2013 Mariel rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: everybody knows

Recommended to Mariel by: everybody understands

She felt rejected by him. They had always loved to lie here feeling a new life, greeting it. She had waited four times for the first little flutters, easily mistaken but then certain; the sensation that was as if a fish mouthed out a bubble; the small responses to her movements, her touch, and even- she was convinced- her thoughts.

But what about me? I've been shot. Go on without me, save yourselves. Ooh aah it hurts, like a spoon or a papercut that irritates your mind into the beyond. Listen,...more

She felt rejected by him. They had always loved to lie here feeling a new life, greeting it. She had waited four times for the first little flutters, easily mistaken but then certain; the sensation that was as if a fish mouthed out a bubble; the small responses to her movements, her touch, and even- she was convinced- her thoughts.

But what about me? I've been shot. Go on without me, save yourselves. Ooh aah it hurts, like a spoon or a papercut that irritates your mind into the beyond. Listen, take this review from my pocket over my frozen heart... Give it... gasps.... I don't have much time... Don't let it bash anyone else over the head with it's magazine article case study depthless void of empty characterizations that zip along like the latest autotuned hit to the next check on a form. Why the flipping hell did they HAVE to have six to ten kids? (Ten if someone was suspected to think the original six was too many. People who were essential to foot the bill, naturally.) Lovey dovey eyes that see into a shiny mirror. Don't let the constantly pregnant wife and her automatically possessive husband suck you into their weeks long Easter house parties of freeloaders hitched to their shag carpet ride on daddy's money and her mommy's retirement time. The glow of brand new furniture under layers of visiting butt sweat and baby vomit. Poor Ben was born into the dreams of spit out and consume. Poor Ben calls himself Poor Ben. He must have heard someone say it. It is getting life off on someone else's foot. He must have seen something, sensed something to have kicked and screamed with a "This is wrong" and not ask for better. I said better but there was nothing else here. He did come from a family who expected gloating contentment of the variety of I really couldn't give two shits. Housewife stuff if you were really angry about the sexual revolution. For no good reason. People were doing it and yeah I was researching for a period drama about issues. I saw a whir of ugly faces in a stream of going through the motions of this is the dream. Kill me before they get to tupperware parties. The boredom nearly did it. Their hopes meant nothing to me. What do they have to lose?

So the wife-mother Harriet collects Ben out of the institution he is stuck in to die. It's like when your dog is going to "live on a farm somewhere with room to run" without the "room to run" part or the "farm". It's cold as the clinical shit baby Ben is covered in when Harriet lays her brooding (the egg laying definition) on him. I didn't know, I didn't think. I don't want to know, I don't want to think. It all happened so fast of and this happens next boringly flippant narration. The four kids whisper together. They were cute babies to show off five pages ago. We want Ben to be gone. Ben means nothing but an obstacle. An object of stone for their unfeelings. The side of the lucky to be born under a better sign, before the difficult pregnancies got more difficult. No body really knew what they wanted. I didn't know the kids. Theirs were a blurred face of get on the next bus out and marry the first person you see. They will all speak in the language of The Fifth Child that is whining or bragging grunts of hear what you expect to hear before anyone has said a word. The only difference in Harriet is that she turns her head when what she expected to hear is not what she had heard, though she is still afraid to look (that's important) and doesn't live. They weren't a family at all. Harriet may be a woman too weak to be good enough for a child like Ben. The other children may have felt unsafe in their own homes. I read a baby locked behind bars in a lonely room until he became the snarling animal in the corner they bought him for sight unseen. Yeah, there's a story in there and it kills me. But I didn't know them any more than the passing story related third hand about a man in Fla who fucked his wife into fourteen kids (he would yell at her "Flossie!" for back room sex with a house full of people). She dies and the fourteen kids go to the orphanage. The next wife gets four kids. The Fifth Child knows these people as well as that. It's creepy and sad and about complete strangers. Shouldn't there be more than passing judgement on strangers to this? It's not an issue or product of the times when it is your life. Maybe that kind of heartless removal speaks to others in a societal morse code I can't understand. Although a disturbing number of people on the review sites read this as a book about an evil little baby boy. I guess the message! anvils missed them, somehow. I don't get anything out of reading shit like that from strangers on the Internet either. I don't want it. That kind of thing kills me and I have no letters to home about that. That's so lonely. Harriet sees Ben and translates a monster stare looking for others like him. Where's the dying breath to understand?(less)

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Apr 27, 2013 Thomson Kneeland rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This was my introduction to the writing of Doris Lessing; I had high hopes for the book but was sorely disappointed. The writing was pretty unengaging for me, though not poor. The plot was ridiculous in content, though perhaps acceptable as a sort of "unmagical realism"; completely unrealistic and unbelievable, along with two dimensional characters suitable for allegory only. Perhaps the book stands as an indictment of conservative 1950's family values, white picket fences, women staying home to...more

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Apr 27, 2013 Ensiform rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction

A middle-class English couple buck the disapproval of both their families and plan to have “at least six” children, buying a huge house and becoming the focus of all holiday gatherings. The fifth child, however, Ben, after a difficult pregnancy, turns out to be some sort of evil throwback, horrifying and sending away the extended family.

This slim novel appears to be making a comment on social selfishness, as well as being a parable for our violent modern times – “the barbarous eighties,” as the...more

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Oct 14, 2007 Fenixbird SandS marked it as to-read · review of another edition

Recommended to Fenixbird by: NY TIMES

Shelves: wanna-buys, nobel-prize-winners, fiction

By recent Nobel literature prizewinner Doris Lessing...about Ms. Lessing, "Ms. Lessing, who turns 88 this month [09/08?], never finished high school and largely educated herself through voracious reading. She has written dozens of books of fiction, as well as plays, nonfiction and two volumes of autobiography. She is the 11th woman to win the Nobel Prize in Literature.....[further quoting NY Times reporters Motoko Rich & Sarah Lyall] "Ms. Lessing’s strongest legacy may be that she inspired a...more

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Jun 24, 2007 Julie rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: barren men

I believe the only reason Tom feels so strongly in favor of this book is due to the fact he is unable to give birth. As a female, it's terrifying!

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Jun 23, 2008 Josh rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: those who think the world is going to hell in a handbasket

I picked up this book completely randomly at the epicly awesome Green Apple Books in San Francisco. Anytime I do that, and think that maybe I'm finding some lost literary gem that I can then pass off to my friends and enemies alike, I am inevitably disappointed, or at least underwhelmed.
This was a short read (about 130 pgs), and I read it all in one travel day. So that was good. It has no chapter or even page breaks, so it all lends itself to that. Reviews on the book jacket call it a horror bo...more

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May 02, 2008 Doralyn rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This novel was disturbing on so many levels. It was supposed to have started out with this great couple who had all these wonderful family ideals, until the fifth child came along who was really tough to take (and basically a commentary on society's reaction to such a different child). However, I never saw the couple as having a great marriage. The only testament to any sort of greatness I guess would be their coupled desire to have a lot of children. Simply because their house was constantly fi...more

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Oct 01, 2007 Adam rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is the first bizarre, disturbing, and haunting book in a bizarre, disturbing, and haunting series by Doris Lessing, all of which chronicle the life and times of "Ben", the fifth child in a family utterly unlike him. Truthfully, he's utterly unlike anyone else at all, as Ben seems to almost be a bestial throwback to some sort of pre-fully-human ancestor, a person who doesn't quite fit that descriptive very well in the eyes of this world.
This book describes the relationships and interactions...more

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Jan 21, 2009 Beverly rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: audio, horror, british

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Jun 20, 2011 Daisy rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: well, I know who I wouldn't recommend it to

Shelves: england, house-as-character, autism

"It's crazy," said Dorothy. She was flushed with the hot tea and with all the things she was forcing herself not to say. p. 34

This is fascinating.
Yes this is about a bad seed, the last child in an otherwise happy family. But it also has a lot to do with perception and judgement, how the parents, Harriet and David, see themselves and how others see them and how they think others see them. And how they see others, particularly their fifth child. Who is criticized and how and why? What expectations...more

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Jan 10, 2009 Katharine rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This was a fine book. I'd been reading so much about Doris Lessing, went to the library and of the 5 or 6 books there, chose this one.
Not going to mention plot, that is everywhere, but the writing style was great. Lessing wrote non-stop, with no chapters or white space so I read it that way and finished it in one morning.
Enjoyed her writing, enjoyed my wondering what was going to happen and why. Enjoyed the many comments here by others who read it.

Going to read more Lessing -- like her intellige...more

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Apr 30, 2010 Donna rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: book groups

Shelves: fiction, read-more-than-once

Wow!

This is the first Doris Lessing book I've read and she's a great writer. This is a true "horror" story...not in the classic sense, but in the real sense of a horrible situation that people must confront. It leaves the reader with the thought "what would you do if you found yourself in this situation?". Therefore it is a highly discussable book.

Interesting characters, interesting plot, great writing. What more can a reader ask?

Reread in April 2010 for Maze book discussion. Still thought it w...more

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Apr 17, 2011 Eva rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Bring on the creepy children! Or in this book's case, creepy child. This story is about an extraordinarily ordinary English couple who are determined to have 6 children during the turbulent late 60s. Harriet and David Lovatt seclude themselves to their mansion-like home in a far town from London and get to work. They have 4 children in quick succession. This family is happy beyond reason. Each pregnancy comes with some mild sickness or tiredness for Harriet, but each birth is a happy occasion. T...more

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Mar 19, 2009 Terry Earley rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

As parents of six children, Lessing's book is disturbing and important. Often the idyllic life we lay out for ourselves gets sidetracked and sometimes destroyed through no real fault of our own, though family friends and strangers judge parents as somehow culpable.

Harriet and David did everything right, and still, their handicapped child, Ben drove a dump truck through their perfect world. Lessing does not really provide a denouement. We are left to wonder if Harriet can resolve her plight. May...more As parents of six children, Lessing's book is disturbing and important. Often the idyllic life we lay out for ourselves gets sidetracked and sometimes destroyed through no real fault of our own, though family friends and strangers judge parents as somehow culpable.

Harriet and David did everything right, and still, their handicapped child, Ben drove a dump truck through their perfect world. Lessing does not really provide a denouement. We are left to wonder if Harriet can resolve her plight. Maybe that is the message. The damage is done and she can never really recover.

Late in the book, Harriet and David try to make sense of a senseless situation:

A scapegoat. She was the scapegoat—Harriet, the destroyer of her family.
But another layer of thoughts, or feelings, ran deeper. She said to David, "We are being punished, that's all."
"What for?" he demanded, already on guard because there was a tone in her voice he hated.
"For presuming. For thinking we could be happy. Happy because we decided we would be."
"Rubbish," he said. Angry: this Harriet made him angry. "It was chance. Anyone could have got Ben. It was a chance gene, that's all."
"I don't think so," she stubbornly held on. "We were going to be happy! No one else is, or I never seem to meet them, but we were going to be. And so down came the thunderbolt."
"Stop it, Harriet! Don't you know where that thought leads? Pogroms and punishments, witch-burnings and angry Gods—!" He was shouting at her.
"And scapegoats," said Harriet. "Don't forget the scapegoats.
"Vindictive Gods, from thousands of years ago," he hotly contended, disturbed to his depths, she could see. "Punishing Gods, distributing punishments for insubordination . . ."
"But who were we to decide we were going to be this or that?"

It is so interesting that I seem to read books in pairs. Not consciously, but it seems to work out that way. I am reminded of the wolf cub raised by the Chinese student on the Inner Mongolian grassland described in Wolf Totem . The wolf grows to be a wolf, unresponsive, intensely independent, and without any loyalty or affection, just waiting for an opportunity to escape.

Ben was Harriet's wolf cub. She had no control, and could only wait for the inevitable.(less)

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Nov 30, 2008 Arash Radmanesh rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

لسینگ از نویسندگان معدودی است که در طول دوران نویسندگی اش هرگز به یک سبک و اسلوب خاص بسنده نکرده و همواره درصدد آزمودن ژانرهای گوناگون یوده است؛ و جالب اینکه او تقریبن در همه ی این آزمون ها موفق بوده و در هریک از ژانرهای مختلفی که کار کرده،آثار مهم و قابل توجهی برجای گذاشته است.
این کتاب، "فرزند پنجم" به نوعی اولین تجربه ی مهم لسینگ در ژانر وحشت است. رمان مزبور داستان زن و شوهری را روایت می کند که پس از آشنایی و ازدواج،تصمیم می گیرند خوشبختی را به معنای عام آن در زندگی خود به منسه ظهور برسانند.خ...more لسینگ از نویسندگان معدودی است که در طول دوران نویسندگی اش هرگز به یک سبک و اسلوب خاص بسنده نکرده و همواره درصدد آزمودن ژانرهای گوناگون یوده است؛ و جالب اینکه او تقریبن در همه ی این آزمون ها موفق بوده و در هریک از ژانرهای مختلفی که کار کرده،آثار مهم و قابل توجهی برجای گذاشته است.
این کتاب، "فرزند پنجم" به نوعی اولین تجربه ی مهم لسینگ در ژانر وحشت است. رمان مزبور داستان زن و شوهری را روایت می کند که پس از آشنایی و ازدواج،تصمیم می گیرند خوشبختی را به معنای عام آن در زندگی خود به منسه ظهور برسانند.خوشبختی که از نگاه آن ها در یک زندگی نسبتن مرفه به همراه بچه های بسیار و تبدیل کردن خانه شان به مرکز میهمانیها و جمع های دوستانه و خانوادگی خلاصه می شد. همه چیز بر طبق نقشه پیش می رود. آن ها یکی پس از دیگری صاحب فرزندانی زیبا می شوند... تا این که فرزند پنجم آن ها نوزادی کاملن متفاوت و غیرطبیعی به دنیا می آید، و از آن جاست که همه چیز عوض شده و حول محور فرزند جدید به سمت و سویی متفاوت به پیش می رود.
ساختار روایی رمان به زعم من بسیار ساده و بی نقص است، اما وقتی نام ژانر وحشت به میان می آید، یک مشکل بزرگ رخ ممی نماید. کجای این ساختار، این زبان و لحن این داستان از قواعد ژانز وحشت پیروی می کند؟ تقریبن هیچ کدام از عناصر این رمان درخدمت ایجاد دلهره و احساس ترس حتی از نوع نسبی آن نیست. اما درصورتی که این عنوان را که منتقدان آن زمان به رمان نسبت داده اند کنار بگذاریم، به نظر من این کتاب رمانی است ساده و همه فهم که قصه اش را به خوبی می گوید.
من به این رمان از 10 نمره ی 5 می دهم.
درضمن ترجمه ای که از این کتاب شده متأسفانه بسیار بد است و مانند بسیاری از برگردان هایی که اخیرن در حوزه ی داستان چاپ می شوند سرسری و شب امتحانی کار شده است. تا حدی که احساس مس کنم شاید این که رمان هیچ یک از عناصر ژانر وحشت را در خود ندارد به این دلیل باشد که در ترجمه لحن و فضاسازی کاملن تغییر کرده و یا حتی در جاهایی حذف شده باشد!!!! در اولین فرصت متن اصلی را خواهم خواند، آن وقت با اطمینان کامل نظرم را راجع به ترجمه ی این کتاب می دهم. (less)

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Feb 22, 2013 Joyce Scapicchio rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

When I was pregnant, I became acutely aware of the infinite number of things that have to go right for the baby to come out normal. The horror in this book grasps at that basal fear one has of pregnancy... What are the chances of having that perfectly normal baby we all pray for. What will life be like if you don't get that. This story narrates the extreme case of this. An idyllic home, pastoral setting, rich and generous parents who fill in every gap, beautiful child after child, until the horr...more

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Jan 11, 2013 S rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Original review posted at my blog, Writing by Numbers, here.

I once read an article which argued that King Lear’s structure allows the audience/reader to experience Lear’s pain. That is, wading through a drawn-out and weighty narrative helps us to empathize with Lear’s exhaustion and the cruelties of having lived past one’s time. The Fifth Child is a trim book, easily read in a day or two, but it packs similarly unrelenting tragedy. It starts ominously, trudges through despair, and ends hopeless...more

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Aug 17, 2012 Linda Lipko rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

What a book! What a story! What a writer!

David and Harriett are unique individuals and different from their work group and their peers.

In their minds, finding each other equated to a perfect match.

Living a life of upper middle class in the countryside of England, they purchase a huge house, unaffordable even by their standards.

I couldn't relate to David and Harriett and the author did a great job at portraying them as selfish and self absorbed individuals who, together as a team, double the narc...more

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Jun 27, 2012 The Wee Hen rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Much like Lionel Shriver's "We Need To Talk About Kevin" this book is an excellent method of birth control. This old hen has never hatched a chick and after reading these two books I would, frankly, be terrified to even try.
Harriet and David are a rather stolid, prudish, old-before-their-time couple who insist on spewing child after child into the world despite the fact that they are financially unable to care for all of them. They wind up depending on David's father's money and Harriet's mother...more Much like Lionel Shriver's "We Need To Talk About Kevin" this book is an excellent method of birth control. This old hen has never hatched a chick and after reading these two books I would, frankly, be terrified to even try.
Harriet and David are a rather stolid, prudish, old-before-their-time couple who insist on spewing child after child into the world despite the fact that they are financially unable to care for all of them. They wind up depending on David's father's money and Harriet's mother's kindness in caring for this quick-growing family. At first it appears that everything will even out for the couple. Their first four children are charming, their large house filled with laughter and love and lots of family and friends over the holidays. But David and Harriet cannot leave well enough alone and be pleased with what they have. Despite the well-deserved criticism from family they go ahead and have yet another child.
This, their fifth child, is Ben. Ben is a nightmare from hell. Ugly, brutish, nasty, mean, powerful and violent (even before his birth), Ben takes the entire family hostage to his anger and disturbing outbursts. He kills animals, he threatens the other children, he is completely uncontrollable. Finally the family turns on Harriet and forces Ben out of the house and off to an institution far away from the family home.
And peace returns to the house. The first four children are beyond relieved and happy. The family is together again and joy reigns. But Harriet, stupid Harriet, has to go and ruin it. Against her husband's wishes she races off one day to visit Ben in his institution where she is horrified to find him drugged out of his mind and weak. Instead of thanking her lucky stars for getting some peace and quiet for her family Harriet insists on bringing this monster back home.
Nobody in the family is pleased and eventually, all the children leave home, off to boarding schools or grandparents' homes. Nobody can bear to be in the house with the terrifying Ben. David becomes a cipher in his own home.
And Harriet is left to contemplate the mess that is her fifth child as he grows up into a young, menacing, disturbed adult who is clearly embarking on a life of crime.
Harriet was an idiot, to put it mildly. I felt horrible for her family and disgusted with her. She was more than happy to play Cindy Anthony to Ben's Casey. What a mess.
Sociopaths will be sociopaths and there's not a damn thing you can do about it. Better to lock them the hell up and throw away the key. They don't belong in society with the rest of us. (less)

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May 09, 2012 Catherine rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Perhaps it happens that parents do not love their children. Without any reason for it they start to feel a strange unexplained hatred for them.

But our situation is slightly different.
So, there is the perfect family. No, no.
The Perfect Family, like that.
This, you know, tha family with kids, husband and wife, relatives and friends all united around the house.
And then the wife starts to feel hatred for the new unborn baby. Sad but true.

But is that a child?!!

Who is Ben? It is a strange creature tha...more

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Feb 29, 2012 Ryl rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I read "The Fifth Child" last night. That was so, sooooo disturbing. I'm exhausted today because I got my hands on it at 7:30pm and then I was up til 2 finishing it, but I knew I'd never be able to sleep unless I just finished it. Then I couldn't stop thinking about it, and dreamed about it!

If you haven't read it but have any inclination at all to read it, stop here and don't read the rest of my review. Then read it, and then come back here so we can discuss!!! I'm dying to talk to someone abou...more

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Jan 20, 2012 Emma rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

When I first read this I didn't really understand what made it so brilliant. It was only later, when I thought back to how I felt reading the book that I realised what an amazing piece it is. While I was reading about the early years, before Ben's birth, i shared the joy of the family with their large group of friends and children all playing together in some kind of idyllic lifestyle. With the arrival of Ben, the fifth child, that all changes. Even the pregnancy was different, the morning sickn...more

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Jan 20, 2012 wally rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: lessing, favorites

this will be the 1st from lessing-doris for me...starts out: harriet and david met each other at an office party neither had particularly wanted to go to, and both knew at once that this was what they had been waiting for.

onward and upward

Characters

Harriet & David
Harriet is in the sales department of a firm that designs & supplies bldg material, she is the oldest of three daughters, left home at eighteen, went to an arts college, became a graphic designer, she is 24
David is an architec...more

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Jan 11, 2012 Valerie rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: roman, english

What an extraordinary book. First it starts quite ironically by this couple who believes that they can be happy and have this big family, in a giant house, having to work so much to make the dream live. Then Harriet has 5 children in 6 years, and this fifth one will be different, but no one agrees to name the difference, Ben is like the "call of the wild", he is like Nature dangerous, strong, he does not care of what is going on he's in his own world, he's nor good nor bad, he's a force of survi...more

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Dec 25, 2011 Emma Thompson rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This one's short and pretty easy to read, really. The story of a traditional family who build a traditional family home together until it is torn appart by the arrival of Ben, the fifth child. Ben is violent, wild, he has no grasp of how to function in society and he pulls the family appart at the seams.

It's a strange kind of book, and as a scientist I found myself a bit puzzled at times by the idea of a throwback, as Ben is described, a neanderthal child being born out of the blue. I don't kno...more

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Nov 15, 2011 Kara Bisceglia rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The Fifth Child by Doris Lessing portrays a conventional couple in England in the 60’s and they are craving to have a larger family. The couple, Harriet and David, quickly finds and make the loving family they have always wanted. They had four children in which they bestowed a very heavy Christian background and this shows especially in their names. Doris does an excellent job at reinforcing the religious message with in her story through the festivals and celebrations the family participates in...more The Fifth Child by Doris Lessing portrays a conventional couple in England in the 60’s and they are craving to have a larger family. The couple, Harriet and David, quickly finds and make the loving family they have always wanted. They had four children in which they bestowed a very heavy Christian background and this shows especially in their names. Doris does an excellent job at reinforcing the religious message with in her story through the festivals and celebrations the family participates in. This repetition taught me that with my won writing if I want to portray or convey a message to my readers I can do so with the repeating of certain events.

Lessing really conveys to the audience that this family is very pro-christ and Christian. So the fact when Harriet becomes pregnant with the fifth child, Ben, and starts to feel that he may be evil or something of an anti-christ the reader is struck with suspense. Lessing is able to take a reader to the actual place in time with visuals and imagery. Lessing takes creative writing to another level when she reveals to readers that Ben is in fact something of a monster or alien of some sort and the family is in desperate need of help.

There was a theme in the beginning of the book where the family is tight knit and has a beautiful unity. They all share the same values and the reader has a true sense of humanity. But, as the book goes along the theme and tone completely change. Lessing takes her positive tone to one of a dark and sinister tone with the birth of Ben. Lessing unveils the evils the birth of this child has brought upon the family and their cohesiveness. Lessing plays the roles of humanity and non-humanity in her book. There is an extreme clash between two different worlds and forces that can change the nature of someone’s life.

Lessing is so concise and honest in her words and the energy of her language that just the way she formats and structures her book allows a reader to follow along. I was able to understand to the full extent the message of her subject. It gave me the feeling that she was trying to convey the struggles between humanity and harmony with chaos of wanting happiness. The book left me with so many questions I wanted answered. I was struck with the confusion of, well is the root of evil something that comes from wanting happiness so much? This was such a good story. It gave both aspects of fiction and horror.

Lessing left me with such a good first impression when reading this book. Her language is so strong and compelling and her words really come to life with the way she places them. This book taught me that I can convey a message, meanings and questions all at once with the way I use language, patterns, images and figurative language. This story is so good at keeping the reader interested. I just wanted to keep reading it and the suspense kept me intrigued, which is something I want to do for my readers.
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Nov 15, 2011 Natacha rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Doris Lessing is a talented and sensational author. When I researched Lessing, I wanted to experience her writing firsthand. Lessing's writing is different and seems to have caused many different reactions. Lessing writes about the things that many like to keep quite or just ignore. I have experienced her boldness in her novel "The Fifth Child". This novel allows the reader to experience raw and terrifying emotions. There is so many mixed feeling about this novel and at times I find myself havin...more Doris Lessing is a talented and sensational author. When I researched Lessing, I wanted to experience her writing firsthand. Lessing's writing is different and seems to have caused many different reactions. Lessing writes about the things that many like to keep quite or just ignore. I have experienced her boldness in her novel "The Fifth Child". This novel allows the reader to experience raw and terrifying emotions. There is so many mixed feeling about this novel and at times I find myself having mixed feelings as well. This novel tells the story of a perfect couple that sets out to have the perfect family. Everything for Harriet and David was perfect until their fifth child was born.

Lessing novel "The Fifth Child" deals with the fact that nothing is perfect and we tend to learn that the hard way. Harriet and David are a matched made in heaven, two shy individuals meet by chance, and it is love at first sight. Life starts off perfect and they have four beautiful and normal children. Everything is somewhat perfect until their fifth child Ben joins the family. Ben is different from the others and it is painfully obvious. From this point on we see the demise of an entire family. Ben is wild, violent, and cannot seem to comprehend what society deems a "normal" child. Ben is institutionalized in a facility that keeps children that are like him heavily drugged and physically restrained in order to control them. Harriet struggles with being a mother and feeling scared and hateful towards her own child. One example of how twisted Harriet's feelings are toward her son is that from birth she refers to him as a "goblin". Ben's existence is the catalyst for self destruction in this family. Many argue that this novel is extremely disturbing and point out how our perception of what is normal is not always right.

When it comes to Lessing writing, I think she is amazing but her style in this novel is very different. I feel like at times it was not realistic enough and some parts of the book were uncomfortable to read. Reading this book evoked many mixed emotions in me. At times, I felt sympathy for Ben because he did not choose to be like he was. I wonder if there was more to Ben's problem that was not discussed in the novel or handled correctly. One aspect of the novel that I did favor was how it ended. Lessing does not give the readers a perfect ending but a realistic one. Lessing's ending is open for assumptions just like real life. If I were to place this novel under a certain genre it would be Horror because it truly is a terrifying situation. Lessing makes the reader question the love of a mother for her child and the love a family has for each member. One of the main issues in this novel is whether the family is selfish and cruel for excluding a member the way they did. Doris Lessing brings the reader into a world where love cannot conquer all.
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Aug 06, 2011 Laura rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The irony of the "selfish" vs. "unselfish" characters was interesting, though I honestly don't know that I would have acted any differently than David, the children and the rest of the family. The lack of any real conclusion, but rather a series of questions as to what Ben is, is always something I fail to appreciate in a novel - I suppose I fail to think outside of the box and prefer my stories to be wrapped up in a neat little package, for better or for worse. I held my eyes open for when the...more

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Jul 03, 2011 Shehab.saif rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

هذا ليس تلخيصا للرواية وانما مجرد مقدمة سريعة

رواية الطفل الخامس للكاتبة الحاصلة على نوبل (دوريس ليسنج) تتحدث بإختصار عن زوجين قررا الحياه كما ينبغى للإنسان أن يحيا. .عائلة سعيدة تمتلك الكثير من الأطفال، بعكس الفكر السائد فى انجلترا فى هذه الفترة أن كثرة الأطفال شىء سىء، حيث يرون أنه قد تم عمل غسيل دماغ للإنسان ضد الفطرة التى تجلب السعادة
بالفعل تتزوج هارييت بديفيد وينجبا الأطفال بشكل متسارع
وسط الإنتقادات الدائمة من المحيطين بهما الا أن الأقارب كانو يأتون فى عيد الفصح كل عام ويمكثون أسبوعا، حباً م...more

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Feb 16, 2011 Augusta Jahrsdoerfer rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Lessing, Doris. The Fifth Child
New York: Vintage International, 1989

Doris Lessing wastes no time drawing readers into her Pulitzer Prize in Literature winning novel, The Fifth Child. Lessing shows what it’s like when maternal instinct takes over and luck runs out in her seductively tragic horror story about losing it all. With stylistic prose and a complete lack of chapters, The Fifth Child propels the reader through page after page, making it impossible to put down until finished.

Beginning i...more Lessing, Doris. The Fifth Child
New York: Vintage International, 1989

Doris Lessing wastes no time drawing readers into her Pulitzer Prize in Literature winning novel, The Fifth Child. Lessing shows what it’s like when maternal instinct takes over and luck runs out in her seductively tragic horror story about losing it all. With stylistic prose and a complete lack of chapters, The Fifth Child propels the reader through page after page, making it impossible to put down until finished.

Beginning in England’s late 1960’s and ending in the 80’s, The Fifth Child tells the story of Harriet and David Lovatt, a young couple in a hurry to raise a family and start their fairytale lives. Making their home in a grand Victorian home, the Lovatts start reproducing while at the same time bringing their families closer together; something both had always wanted. So begins the cyclical lives that the Lovatts find themselves in; family from all over would come to stay at the Lovatt’s for Easter, Christmas, and Summer, sometimes staying for weeks at a time. With four perfectly healthy babies, it was a surprise that baby Ben came flailing out looking like a “troll, or a goblin or something.” The years after Ben’s arrival were the downfall of the Lovatts. Baby number five was exceptionally violent and clearly not a human; his inability to learn or behave like a normal human being strained the unity the Lovatts had worked so hard on. Family came less and less, and the children escaped to anywhere but home, with three of them eventually moving out. Alone with Ben and rarely David, Harriet realizes that all she has to do is wait; she had endured the past twenty years, and she would endure Ben until the day he left, just like the rest of her children.

Such a tragic story needs tragic diction, and with her decision to write in prose form, Lessing captures the essence that is rock bottom and complete misery. Her sentences, constantly broken up by commas, emphasize the broken life that Harriet Lovatt has found herself living. Even when it’s used in the beginning of the story, before everything went bad, the choppy syntax gave a sense of foreshadowing. The fact that chapters have been omitted completely speeds up the story; without breaks in the story, one is less inclined disrupt their reading. Just like how the Lovatts never take a break from family, the book never takes a break for chapters; it’s ironic that the Lovatts never experienced different chapters in their lives, they were just go, go, go from the start. Although I’ve established a new favorite book, one aspect of The Fifth Child absolutely slays me; the fact that the story is so fast paced makes it extremely difficult to keep up with all of the characters and I had to draw a diagram in order to make sense of it all. There are too many characters for such a short piece of work, and it makes it all the more confusing for the reader. I suppose, however, that this could all be part of Doris Lessing’s master plan to make the form of her plot match the form of the physical story.

I wish I could convey how horribly gut wrenching this story is, but I’m no Doris Lessing.
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About Doris Lessing

Both of her parents were British: her father, who had been crippled in World War I, was a clerk in the Imperial Bank of Persia; her mother had been a nurse. In 1925, lured by the promise of getting rich through maize farming, the family moved to the British colony in Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). Like other women writers from southern African who did not graduate from high school (such as Oliv...more Both of her parents were British: her father, who had been crippled in World War I, was a clerk in the Imperial Bank of Persia; her mother had been a nurse. In 1925, lured by the promise of getting rich through maize farming, the family moved to the British colony in Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). Like other women writers from southern African who did not graduate from high school (such as Olive Schreiner and Nadine Gordimer), Lessing made herself into a self-educated intellectual.

In 1937 she moved to Salisbury, where she worked as a telephone operator for a year. At nineteen, she married Frank Wisdom, and had two children. A few years later, feeling trapped in a persona that she feared would destroy her, she left her family, remaining in Salisbury. Soon she was drawn to the like-minded members of the Left Book Club, a group of Communists "who read everything, and who did not think it remarkable to read." Gottfried Lessing was a central member of the group; shortly after she joined, they married and had a son.

During the postwar years, Lessing became increasingly disillusioned with the Communist movement, which she left altogether in 1954. By 1949, Lessing had moved to London with her young son. That year, she also published her first novel, The Grass Is Singing, and began her career as a professional writer.

In June 1995 she received an Honorary Degree from Harvard University. Also in 1995, she visited South Africa to see her daughter and grandchildren, and to promote her autobiography. It was her first visit since being forcibly removed in 1956 for her political views. Ironically, she is welcomed now as a writer acclaimed for the very topics for which she was banished 40 years ago.

In 2001 she was awarded the Prince of Asturias Prize in Literature, one of Spain's most important distinctions, for her brilliant literary works in defense of freedom and Third World causes. She also received the David Cohen British Literature Prize.

She was on the shortlist for the first Man Booker International Prize in 2005. In 2007 she was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature.

(Extracted from the pamphlet: A Reader's Guide to The Golden Notebook & Under My Skin, HarperPerennial, 1995. Full text available on www.dorislessing.org).(less)

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“While she strode rapidly through the ward to the door at the other end, she was able to see that every bed or cot held an infant or a small child in whom the human template had been wrenched out of pattern, sometimes horribly, sometimes slightly. A baby like a comma, great lolling head on a stalk of a body... then something like a stick insect, enormous bulging eyes among stiff fragilities that were limbs... a small girl all blurred, her flesh guttering and melting - a doll with chalky swollen limbs, its eyes wide and blank, like blue ponds, and its mouth open, showing a swollen little tongue. A lanky boy was skewed, one half of his body sliding from the other. A child seemed at first glance normal, but then Harriet saw there was no back to its head; it was all face, which seemed to scream at her.” — 2 people liked it

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