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Books and Cooks Ithaca -- March 2001

Fifth Business

Our rating as a stand-alone book:3.84 cups of tea!

Our rating as a discussion book: +
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 Fifth Business by Robertson Davies

Discussion date: March 29, 2001

Discussion place: Steve and Stephanie's Place

Menu: Canadian

From Amazon Customer Reviews - Allen Smalling, January 30, 2000
 No one has yet written the Great Canadian Novel, but in Fifth Business, World of Wonders and the Manticore, Robertson Davies may have given us something like the Great Interlinked Canadian Trilogy.

Fifth Business is the novel with which to start. The book's central figure is schoolteacher Dunstan Ramsay, who grew up in the tiny village of Deptford in the sugar-beet growing district of Southwestern Ontario. The town's pretty boy-slash-bully Percy Boyd Staunton hits the minister's wife with a snowball containing a rock, which causes her to go into premature labor and give birth to the underweight Paul Dempster. (This is an early 20th Century level of obstetrics, you understand.)

The rest of the book is a fascinating weave of Canadian social and political history from the 1910s thru the 1960s as Dunstan, Paul and Percy Boyd (now the raffish "Boy") Staunton are pushed together by the whims of fate. Boy and Paul become world famous in very different ways. Not bad for two kids from the sticks and Dunstan, the humble schoolteacher, has reason to envy them. Or does he? A "fifth business" is theater talk for a leavener, a kind of enzyme agent that, while not significant in itself, makes other things happen.

As the amazon-dot-com reviewer from Singapore so brilliantly pointed out, the novel contains elements of magical realism. Don't confuse Fifth Business with your basic American sprawling bestseller. This is heady yet subtle stuff. Not for nothing is Fifth Business required reading in Grade 13 of the Ontario public school system. (Yes, Grade THIRTEEN--no wonder Canadian kids are so smart.)

I would recommend you buy the paperback Fifth Business/World of Wonders/Manticore trilogy. It only costs a little more than buying Fifth Business by itself, and more than likely you'll want to read the other books once you've finished Fifth Business.

The Books and Cooks Fifth Business Informal Reading Guide
(member-generated questions to be given after the meeting)

  • When did you realize about the stone (when it was explained or before)?

  • Why was Ramsay friends with Boy Staunton?

  • Who killed Boy Staunton?

  • Why does Ramsay never take one of the earlier chances to tell about the rock? Is it really shared guilt?

  • Did Ramsay want to be '5th buisiness'? If not, was he envious of another character?

  • On page 256, the Head "explains" who killed Boy Staunton - what did it mean? Who killed him?

  • Do you think we were made aware of the existence of the stone in a natural way or that it appeared very suddenly at the last minute?

  • Did anyone else notice distinct similiarities between this book and "A Prayer for Owen Meany"? Isn't that weird? Yes or no?

  • If you have not read the second and third books: what would you like to see in these books - what characters do you want to know more about or what question do you want answered? Do you intend to read the other books? If you did read the second and/or third books, did they live-up to your expectations from the first book?

  • Did you like Dunny as a person?

  • What was the significance of Mr. Joel Sturgeoner - the reformed hobo?

  • Did you ever get the feeling that the narrator was not being completely honest with the reader?

  • How does the theme of the fool-saint fit in with the concept of "Fifth Business"?

  • Who in the book was 'fifth business'? Who wasn't? Who fit into the other roles of Hero, Heroine, Confidente, and Villian?

  • Why did several characters change their names? Did they themselves change in the process?

  • Is Mrs. Dempster really a saint?

  • What was this book actually about?

This Page Last Revised: April 30, 2001.