From the Bookshelf of The Roundtable…

The Fifth Child

Doris Lessing

Start date: December 1, 2020

Finish date: December 31, 2020

Discussion: 2020 Novella Tournament

Discussion leader: Christopher

Why we're reading this: December 2020 Novella Tournament
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2020 Novella Tournament

The Fifth Child (Dec. 2020 Novella Tournament)
By Christopher · 32 posts · 22 views

last updated Sep 09, 2021 10:17AM

Passing (Nov. 2020 Novella Tournament)
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last updated Mar 03, 2021 08:06AM

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What Members Thought

Sep 29, 2015 Lark Benobi rated it it was amazing

Shelves: uk, ruthless-books, favorites-20th-century

Edgy and nearly perfect fiction about what it's like to raise a sociopath. Until the last pages where the book got a bit preachy and deterministic I felt that Lessing left me jittering unpleasantly between thinking that Ben, the "fifth child," was born this way, irredeemable, vs. that he was the victim of bad parenting and lack of love and even of abuse...which is of course the same duality any parent (in particular, mother) is judged by when raising a child who doesn't seem quite normal; who do ...more

40 likes · Like · see review

Nov 24, 2016 Christopher rated it it was amazing

Shelves: fiction, 20th-century, british, favorites, novellas

RE-READ 12-16-20: Still loved it, still absolutely horrifying. Not in the usual horror novel way, it's not creepy or crawly. This is the much realer kind of horror, the kind that could happen to you just by deciding to have a child. You'll probably have an alright, normal kid... but you might have a Ben.

During my first read, I empathized mainly with Harriet: how terrible, as a parent, to face the unmakeable choice between your children! This time around though, I felt myself identifying much mor ...more

11 likes · Like · see review

Dec 08, 2020 Irene rated it really liked it

With quiet sensitivity and insight, Lessing depicts the slow unraveling of a large happy family when their fifth child is born with intellectual, behavioral and social impairments serious enough to make him a danger to the other children. Although told in the third person, we see things primarily from the mother’s perspective, a woman whose love for her vulnerable child with overwhelming needs can never be reciprocated and which blinds her to the impact on her older children. Lessing reveals the ...more

7 likes · Like · see review

Dec 07, 2020 Wendy rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 500-women, nightmare-fuel, parents-n-kids, 2020, women-and-the-void

Back when I was pregnant some five-odd years ago, I'd be asked the usual question: "are you hoping for a boy or a girl?" And I'd dead-pan: "I don't care. I just want a kid who isn't a jerk."

Spoiler: all kids are jerks *some* of the time. In my child's case, this is balanced by him shrieking in worry/empathy for every imperiled child/sheep/toy on Fireman Sam. Or sweeping up without me asking. I can live with this balance.

Writers like Shirley Jackson and Doris Lessing understand that there's an un ...more

5 likes · Like · see review

Dec 19, 2020 Petra rated it it was ok

I have mixed feelings about this story. It's well written and intriguing but the thoughts and questions it brought up are a bit unsettling. Is that the point? But to what purpose?

Harriet and Dave decide that their life will be perfect. All that they want will come their way. The house, many kids, happiness, contentment, fulfilment. It's all theirs just for the wanting. Naive but perhaps sweet, maybe.
But they cannot maintain or afford what they want. Others must subsidize their lifestyle, to the ...more

1 like · Like · see review

Sep 01, 2024 Alasse rated it liked it

Shelves: mooched

I'm a bit confused. I'm pretty sure Doris Lessing didn't intend to resonate with millenials' relationship to parenthood. But I'm sitting here like "well, of course they had that coming" and I'm not sure that's what I'm supposed to be feeling here. Anyway, they totally did. ...more

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Dec 11, 2020 Lori rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: zy-text, z-read-2020, z-reviewed, fiction, literature, britain, roundtable, little-literary-novel, pre-2000

A modern Gothic horror story. A monster is born into a very happy family. The story is about the disintegration of the family (including relatives and friends).

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