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What are readers saying about The Fifth Child?
| Reviews of The Fifth Child - Page 1 of 3 |
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A Reader posted a review at 2009-02-06 03:46:19.
(Language: English)
  
Okay. Nobel Price for Lit. or not: This book was the worst I've ever (had to) read.
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A Reader posted a review at 2008-11-07 01:44:16.
(Language: English)
Different to say the least. Very interesting.
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A Reader posted a review at 2009-03-17 01:52:39.
(Language: English)
Disappointing ending-glad it was a short book
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A Reader posted a review at 2008-11-07 10:53:39.
(Language: English)
Heavy book to read. Easy text but the content is rather depressing....I liked as I usually like all Doris Lessing books. You don' have to feel good reading the book - but you can still not FORGET the content after reading it eather.... Good book, but hard to read it. Very depressant. If you want to enjoy your life - don't read this but at this moment....
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A Reader posted a review at 2010-08-31 04:01:23.
(Language: English)
A good book. Well-written and leaving you with difficult questions to answer. Will not forget this books content easily....
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A Reader posted a review at 2008-11-30 08:08:37.
(Language: English)
dura crónica de una familia perfecta con un hijo extraño, casi inhumano. Genial
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A Reader posted a review at 2008-05-05 11:00:32.
(Language: English)
My first Doris Lessing. Brilliant story telling skill. Instead of merely a thriller, the book exposes darkness of human nature. And hypocrisy behind the persona. You can simply finish it in one day. But the impact is one lifetime. ¤H©Ê¡A±¹ï¶Â·t±¡A§A·|¦p¦ó±¹ï¡C
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A Reader posted a review at 2008-12-24 08:41:37.
(Language: English)
terrible ending, sort of just stops at a point int harriet's life. nothing special. interesting in the middle though.
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A Reader posted a review at 2009-03-05 04:30:08.
(Language: English)
Doris Lessing won the 2007 Nobel Prize in literature. I've read "The Cleft" and am currently reading "The Fifth Child." Next I'll take on "The Golden Notebook."
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Nadine posted a review at 2008-09-10 12:40:10.
(Language: English)
i really have to believe that the translation was bad, because if a nobel prize winner writes this crap... i don't know about anything else...
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Cecilia posted a review at 2009-03-05 05:28:37.
(Language: English)
Worth a read.
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A Reader posted a review at 2009-02-07 08:41:53.
(Language: English)
5 stars for me, great writing style and content is riveting...
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A Reader posted a review at 2009-05-12 01:00:27.
(Language: English)
its a simple easy read.i started being very careful reading my first Lessing bk, but soon enuf she dragged me into the story,the membrane between analytical-me and the story burst...but i found myself feeling angry towards parents who go on procreating despite not having the means to raise their child.
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Gloria posted a review at 2009-11-08 06:02:07.
(Language: English)
Essentially a story about a self-satisfied (?conceited) young family determined to be HAPPY unlike everyone else and have a large family whose fifth child is an unimaginable horror. I almost want to say that I dislike this book but I find myself also puzzled and repulsed by Ben the fifth child. It's like I've just sat at a witch's caldroun and drank the brew! That can only mean that the book is well written, right? I'm still puzzled as to what the point is. What is the social commentary? That those of us who desire to be happy are deceiving ourselves? That birth control or at the very least birth spacing is a must? All in all it was a very quick read!
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Sampada posted a review at 2010-01-11 10:21:52.
(Language: English)
For some naïve reason, I always associated horror with Stephen King, and him only. When I picked up Doris Lessing’s The Fifth Child I did not know that it would turn out to be such a terrifying read. The book is about Harriet and David Lovatt, an ordinary couple, whose ultimate aim in life is to just have an old-fashioned big and happy family. Their dreams are fulfilled to some extent as they seem to climb the ladder of familial success – having four beautiful children, and hosting large gatherings at their unusually enormous house. Everything seems to be going well… And here comes the dreaded but – the Lovatts’ fifth child is born, and their lives change drastically, taking a dreaded turn they never would have imagined. The book is really small, so it doesn’t make sense to say anything more. Lessing scares you through a tool that we don’t see used very often – the this-could-happen-to-you tool. I’d strongly recommend pregnant women, or would-be parents to stay away from the book. Even otherwise, the effects of narration and story would stay with you – I know it’ll stay with me. But we won’t give up reading literature just because it showcases fearful or tragic things now, would we? The short length of the book is a definite advantage, but Lessing does not divide the book into chapters, which might make it tough(er) to read. It’s a breeze of a read otherwise – especially since you want to know what happens. I’d ask you to read this book just to see another view of horror in fiction.
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A Reader posted a review at 2009-03-29 04:58:34.
(Language: English)
Couldn't put it down!
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A Reader posted a review at 2010-03-31 12:20:53.
(Language: English)
Very good. Deals with the complex debate:nature vs. nurture. I wouldn't put this in the category of horror though.
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A Reader posted a review at 2009-11-17 06:52:30.
(Language: English)
I cannot say whether i like this book or hate it, i cannot also say is it meaningful or meaningless, the end left me puzzled and annoyed. it really provoked me how they where discribing Ben, i found it so inhumane and sad. nevertheless there were lessons to learn on how we categorize people and de-humanize them inorder to justify brutality which is an ongoing problem, it was easier to dump this kid like trash for being different than to understand and let other people understand.I don't know if Ben was this scary or is it how "they" saw him because he wasn't exactly what they wanted. the story of Ben is seen throughout history and even today when one race or community believs they are supirior and starts looking down on others, even de-humanizing and giving them all kinds of names and traits inorder to justify arrogance, killing and injustice
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A Reader posted a review at 2010-02-28 03:44:54.
(Language: English)
Writing definately worth Nobel Prize. A great book of a heavy topic. Easy to read, so I did not notice
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A Reader posted a review at 2009-08-15 03:54:24.
(Language: English)
Interesting look at a dysfunctional family because of an abnormal child
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A Reader posted a review at 2007-11-08 04:49:14.
(Language: English)
I wanted to read a Lessing novel since she just won the Nobel Prize, so I grabbed this short one that I could fit in between the stuff I'm reading for classes. Largely because of its length, I doubt many consider this one of her "major" works, but I wasn't disappointed in the slightest. The writing is terrific -- very fresh -- and Lessing advances the story very rapidly, but with great care, offering enough dialogue and detail in the right places to make the characters seem whole and genuine. It's hard to say whether the story, a provocative "bad seed" yarn set in the English countryside, is meant as realism or fairy tale, but it works either way. Very creepy -- more so than most genre horror novels, I'd wager -- and intellectually fertile, too. Terrific.
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A Reader posted a review at 2009-01-23 07:40:35.
(Language: English)
So true :)
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A Reader posted a review at 2010-10-08 03:43:56.
(Language: English)
A gripping and fascinating tale about the sacrifices families endure when faced with raising a child who is not considered 'normal' by society's standards. Their suffering is further compounded by the ineptitude of the medical and educational systems which fail to recognise and support the needs both of the 'different' individual and his family. Lessing also explores the right to happiness, the wish to fulfil one's dreams - at the expense of others, whether monetarily, emotionally, or even downright physically. Whose life is worth more than another's? Lessing suggests as well how fragile the familial bonds can be when 'dark times' arise, and how easily even family members shy away from the unknown and 'familiar'; preferring to share only the good and the happy. At times the characters tend to be too obvious mouthpieces for the author's opinions and nothing within the narrative or the development of the characters warrants such speech. All in all worth a read. Many reviews remark upon the ending being less than substantial; however, that must be the case of bringing up an 'unordinary' offspring. There is no end to the problems in sight; no way to predict fully what might occur. It is a future without probability.
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A Reader posted a review at 2009-08-13 09:47:55.
(Language: English)
Yikes....I want the time I used reading this book ....back. Strange it started off ok and then it just went downhill.
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| Reviews of The Fifth Child - Page 1 of 3 |
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