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A review by jeremychiasson
Fifth Business by Robertson Davies
5.0
I originally read Fifth Business in grade 11. It was the only novel I studied in high school that really resonated with me. Here was a book about an insufferable know-it-all from a small Canadian town, who was constantly wracked with guilt. As far as I was concerned, I was this century's Dunstan Ramsay.
This was also the book where I first encountered C.G. Jung (or as he's called in Fifth Business, "The Duke of Dark Corners"). While I didn't fully grasp it all at the time, the little that I did galvanized my mind.
Nearly 7 years later, I have decided to revisit my old book buddy, and found it to be richer than I remembered. Some wickedly clever passages that spring to mind:
"Canadian soldiers had an ambiguous reputation in England at that time; we were supposed to be loyal, furious, hairy fellow who spat bullets and ate women raw."
"...I was finally acquitted of the suspicion that hangs over every bachelor schoolmaster--that he is a homosexual, either overt or frying in a smoky flame of his own devising."
"A boy is a man in miniature, and though he may sometimes exhibit notable virtue...he is also schemer, self-seeker, traitor, Judas, crook, and villain--in short a man."
These and countless other lines have followed me the last seven years. Its language permeates my speech to this very day. And while this book is eminently quotable, it's more than the sum of its scintillating prose.
Fifth Business is the story of one man's path to individuation, putting it very much in the same vein as Jung's autobiography, Memories, Dreams, and Reflections:
I have now undertaken, in my eighty-third year, to tell my personal myth. I can only make direct statements, only “tell stories.” Whether or not the stories are “true” is not the problem. The only question is whether what I tell is my fable, my truth.
Even the characters in Dunny's story take on a mythological, romantic form. Indeed this book talks of myth a great deal. In Davies' view, religion is mythological source of meaning, that doesn't concern itself with "police-court" facts. Dunny repeatedly compares the nature of Biblical stories to "Arabian Nights".
He spends much of the book criticizing those who fall in love with their intellect and scoff at religion for being fantastical. Davies claims they are missing the whole point of myth and metaphor. As Davies writes early on in the novel: "I have known many atheists since Sam, and they all fall down on metaphor". For Ramsay, it's all about the /spiritual/psychological truth.
Of the novel's many colourful and richly drawn secondary characters, Liesl is probably the most fascinating. The monstrous Swiss woman embodies Dunny's shadow. At first she seems grotesque, but Dunny soon comes to appreciate her beauty and usefulness. He even makes love to her after their nasty little wrestling match in the bedroom.
What's interesting is how much respect the author affords his devil character. Davies even goes so far as to acknowledge the devil as Christ's older brother, insisting that "the Devil knows corners of us all of which Christ Himself is ignorant". In the same way, Liesl provides Dunstan with some harsh truths about himself.
This book advocates meeting the devil as as equal, and befriending him. Or in Jungian terms, integrating the shadow aspects of the psyche into your conscious personality.
Since this book focuses so much on the inner world of its protagonist, it is a hard book to explain/recommend. What's it about? Well it's the life story of a dour old Scottish-Canadian schoolmaster who is obsessed with saints. There is also a big fuss about a childhood snowball fight. Are you fascinated yet?
Yeah...this is the kind of book you just have to read for yourself. So trust me when I say you need to read this. It might just be the best Canadian novel ever written.
This was also the book where I first encountered C.G. Jung (or as he's called in Fifth Business, "The Duke of Dark Corners"). While I didn't fully grasp it all at the time, the little that I did galvanized my mind.
Nearly 7 years later, I have decided to revisit my old book buddy, and found it to be richer than I remembered. Some wickedly clever passages that spring to mind:
"Canadian soldiers had an ambiguous reputation in England at that time; we were supposed to be loyal, furious, hairy fellow who spat bullets and ate women raw."
"...I was finally acquitted of the suspicion that hangs over every bachelor schoolmaster--that he is a homosexual, either overt or frying in a smoky flame of his own devising."
"A boy is a man in miniature, and though he may sometimes exhibit notable virtue...he is also schemer, self-seeker, traitor, Judas, crook, and villain--in short a man."
These and countless other lines have followed me the last seven years. Its language permeates my speech to this very day. And while this book is eminently quotable, it's more than the sum of its scintillating prose.
Fifth Business is the story of one man's path to individuation, putting it very much in the same vein as Jung's autobiography, Memories, Dreams, and Reflections:
I have now undertaken, in my eighty-third year, to tell my personal myth. I can only make direct statements, only “tell stories.” Whether or not the stories are “true” is not the problem. The only question is whether what I tell is my fable, my truth.
Even the characters in Dunny's story take on a mythological, romantic form. Indeed this book talks of myth a great deal. In Davies' view, religion is mythological source of meaning, that doesn't concern itself with "police-court" facts. Dunny repeatedly compares the nature of Biblical stories to "Arabian Nights".
He spends much of the book criticizing those who fall in love with their intellect and scoff at religion for being fantastical. Davies claims they are missing the whole point of myth and metaphor. As Davies writes early on in the novel: "I have known many atheists since Sam, and they all fall down on metaphor". For Ramsay, it's all about the /spiritual/psychological truth.
Of the novel's many colourful and richly drawn secondary characters, Liesl is probably the most fascinating. The monstrous Swiss woman embodies Dunny's shadow. At first she seems grotesque, but Dunny soon comes to appreciate her beauty and usefulness. He even makes love to her after their nasty little wrestling match in the bedroom.
What's interesting is how much respect the author affords his devil character. Davies even goes so far as to acknowledge the devil as Christ's older brother, insisting that "the Devil knows corners of us all of which Christ Himself is ignorant". In the same way, Liesl provides Dunstan with some harsh truths about himself.
This book advocates meeting the devil as as equal, and befriending him. Or in Jungian terms, integrating the shadow aspects of the psyche into your conscious personality.
Since this book focuses so much on the inner world of its protagonist, it is a hard book to explain/recommend. What's it about? Well it's the life story of a dour old Scottish-Canadian schoolmaster who is obsessed with saints. There is also a big fuss about a childhood snowball fight. Are you fascinated yet?
Yeah...this is the kind of book you just have to read for yourself. So trust me when I say you need to read this. It might just be the best Canadian novel ever written.