I have long meant to read something by Robertson Davies, so when I saw that Fifth Business qualified for the 1970 Club, I got hold of a copy. This novel is Davies’ fourth book and the first in his Deptford Trilogy.
In the 1910s, Dunstable (later called Dunstan or Dunny) Ramsey is ten years old when a snowball thrown by Percy Boyd Staunton locks his fate with that of Staunton and two other people. Dunny knows that Staunton, who is rich and a bit of a bully, is planning to hit him with the snowball, so he gets behind Reverend Amasa Dempster and his young, pregnant wife for protection. Staunton throws the snowball anyway and hits Mrs. Dempster in the head. She has a kind of hysterical fit, goes into premature labor, and gives birth to Paul, who has to be tended carefully to keep him from dying. This work is done by Dunny’s mother. Mrs. Dempster is not quite all there after this experience. Dunny’s guilt at having tried to use the Dempsters as a shield leads him to a lifelong connection with Mrs. Dempster and a more sporadic one with Paul.
Dunstan begins with this story in telling his headmaster about his life, because he feels diminished by the speech about him made at his retirement party. He claims to be fifth business, a theater and opera term used of a character who does not seem important but is required for the plot to work.
I found this novel fascinating, because it goes on, telling the events in Dunstan’s life in an interesting and entertaining way, but you wonder where it’s going. Then, in a breathtaking last few pages, Davies ties together all the major events and principal characters. Warning to everyone: the book reflects misogynistic tendencies, not a surprise for the earlier time setting of the book, beginning before World War I and continuing after World War II (or for 1970, for that matter). But what a book!
What? Me Read? 
This was assigned reading for me in high school, and I think it would benefit from a reread, as I probably didn’t catch everything, or appreciate it at the time.
I reread books from high school all the time unless I hated them. Even then, I sometimes change my mind.
I went through a Robertson Davies craze about 30 years ago & read the Deptford trilogy and the Cornish trilogy. They are still sitting on my shelves & when I saw that Fifth Business was published in 1970, I thought I might take it down and give it a reread.
I remember like the Cornish trilogy more than the Deptford trilogy because it had an academic setting & I am a sucker for any book set in a university. I still have my original three copies which are very beat up at this point. I decluttered the Deptford trilogy at some point, and then re-purchased an omnibus edition at a used book store a few years ago, which I am currently unable to locate on my bookshelves. Drat.
This is my first time for Davies.
I liked this, although maybe not as much as you, so I haven’t been in a rush to read the second and third books yet. I’m still planning to continue with them eventually.
I think I will read them, although FictionFan was talking to me about the misogyny in the book, something I didn’t notice as much as she did.
Glad you enjoyed it more than I did! 😉
😉
I had an RD phase in my 20s and read all three trilogies yet somehow only own 2/3 of each of them now (how?) as well as his excellent essays. He has somewhat of a “world” which is a lovely thing to dive back into if you like it the first time. Nice choice for the Club!
Thanks! I enjoyed it!
I have this one – somewhere – and didn’t realise it was published in 1970. I’ll get around to it sometime, it sounds good.
I liked it a lot.
I loved this one, too. I didn’t get on with the sequel, though.
Oh, dear, that’s too bad. I have it on my stack.
I had heard Davies’s name a lot but didn’t know what sort of book he wrote, so it’s been interesting to read about him during the 1970 Club. Also had no idea what fifth business meant!
Me, neither!