A few weeks ago as I scoured over the 300 titles in my Kindle, my finger landed on this novel by Doris Lessing, "The Fifth Child". The initial plan was to enjoy a relaxing novel for once, but my bewitched Kindle thought otherwise.
It's the 60's and revolution is in the air, but there is one couple going against the times. While most youth clash with the traditional family status quo, this couple's dream is simply to create a large family and a wonderful home, full of abundance and joy, and live happily ever after.... The end...
Or maybe not...
What followed after I opened the book was unexpected: I was sucked into the story, I sobbed pathetically with such magnitude that I stayed up till dawn to read last page. Then puzzled, wondered..."what have I just read?"
I still wonder weeks later about this innocently painful and disturbing story.
So just as innocently, the couple bring forth without further thought or planning their dreams of a beautiful life. Indeed their home has the capacity to house an entire soccer team, and the children are quickly born 1, 2, 3, 4, and then the 5th child....
Was this result the life that they had envisioned?
Did life throw a foul card at them?
Or were they guilty for just wanting to be happy?
How do we humans create horror out of beauty? Are there evil alien chromosones within us capable of perpetuating the permanent anguish in our world?, asks the author.
Dilemmas and questions arise, but there is no easy answer.
I hated writing it,'' said Doris Lessing. ''It was sweating blood. I was very glad when it was done. It was an upsetting thing to write - obviously, it goes very deep into me somewhere.''