Exactly how Boy died remains a mystery, but Dunstan finishes his account of his life with another Eisengrim show. Fifth Business was an immediate success. The novel is the first in a series of books known as the Deptford Trilogy.
The third book, World of Wonders , explores the life of Paul Dempster, detailing many of the same events as Fifth Business but from his perspective. See also Literature in English ; Literature in French. Search The Canadian Encyclopedia. Remember me. I forgot my password. Why sign up? Create Account. Suggest an Edit. Enter your suggested edit s to this article in the form field below. Accessed 12 November In The Canadian Encyclopedia. Historica Canada.
Article published February 07, ; Last Edited March 10, Silly kalliope felt lost and could see that her Muse was abandoning her and that she was on her way to become Saint Kalliope of the holy Spiral and that she would be joining Saint Ursula and her thousand saints… Irretrievably. But then there came a gasp of fresh air, and the mythological world came back. Gyges and King Candaules, by now familiar characters who live in various novels.
So may be the Candaules saga will help silly candid kalliope find her literary path again. For reading is all about myths, whether these are saintly or pagan. The main character, and narrator, of this tale is Dunstan Ramsay, a man who seems to have been destined to exist on the periphery of the life he is now looking back on. Boy is everything Ramsay is not: outgoing, active, popular and rich. Aside from their origins in a small Ontario town as part of the same generation, the two boys share something else, a link to the tragedy that occurred in the life of Mrs.
Mary Dempster. Dempster becomes the victim of a snowball hurled by Boy and meant for Ramsay which had a stone at its heart. It in fact becomes the shaping catalyst for his life and in large part determines the man he is to become. Ramsay takes upon himself the care of Mrs. For Ramsay is convinced that there is something special about Mary Dempster, in fact he is certain that she is a saint. This is not only the result of his guilt, but due to the fact that Ramsay is certain that he has personally witnessed three miracles performed by her one the resurrection of his apparently dead older brother.
He is not a particularly religious man, but he is not incredulous of the validity of religious experience either. This is where Davies is able to bring in one of his own favourite obsessions: Jungian archetypes and the mythical significance of history.
Dunstan Ramsay is an excellent narrator and his voice is pitch-perfect. Not only was Davies a learned man, able to convey his learning in his books without sounding like a school-teacher or a man with a mission to convert even though he was, perhaps, both things , but he was also a very accomplished writer: I know flattery when I hear it; but I do not often hear it.
Furthermore, there is good flattery and bad; this was from the best cask. Nobody who was not a Bollandist had ever called me that before, yet it was a title I would not have exchanged to be called Lord of the Isles. Delightful prose! I must know more of this. Delightful prose indeed. Also posted at Shelf Inflicted. Izvanredna knjiga. Toliko toga je u ovoj knjizi. Svako poglavlje nosi sa sobom strogu odgovornost, intezitet koji ne jenjava do samog kraja romana.
Em Lost In Books. Ramsay was born in in Deptford, Ontario. When he was 10, while running away from his friend, a snow ball meant for him hit Mrs. Dampster instead of him. Dampster, who was pregnant at that time, immediately went into labour and lets say she was never same again.
She became what people of Deptford called "simple". This very event weighed heavily on Ramsay's conscience for the rest of his life.
Whatever he did, he always returned to this very moment. This is a hard book to describe. One can say it's Ramsay's story but once you start reading it you will find that it is so much more. For example take his relationship with Mrs. Dampster and how highly he think of her. Whereas his mother think that him spending time with that "simple" lady is not good for her son. But Ramsay knows why she has became "simple" and he blames himself for it.
So spending time with her and taking care of her is atonement for his sins. There was a lot of struggle for a loving mother she was also a kind woman to understand her son and Mrs. Then later on it's his relationship with his friend Staunton that take precedence.
One of the thing that stand about Ramsay's is that he is not critical. He has laid bare himself in the letter. Confessing his lies, insecurities, remorse but he is never critical. His apparently innocent involvement in such innocuous events as the throwing of a snowball or the teaching of card tricks to a small boy in the end prove neither innocent nor innocuous.
Fifth Business stands alone as a remarkable story told by a rational man who discovers that the marvelous is only another aspect of the real. From New Canadian Library. Read an excerpt Author interviews.
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