Despite my last topic about a book going largely unnoticed, I will make yet another topic, this time about a novel. Novels are perhaps a little more interesting to discuss in an atmosphere like Lumine Hall than an encyclical would be. This topic will include some summary of the book, a few spoilers, my personal thoughts on the story and characters, and a comparison of literary themes from England, Canada, and the United States. If this topic is lame, please tell me, as it means I should likely be changing my major.

So in my topic about Canadian Literature, pidge was kind enough to recommend a couple of books to me, and after reading a quick summary of Fifth Business by Robertson Davies, I quickly ordered a copy from Amazon.com. Prior to this, I had not read anything Canadian, and considering that Canada is a largely English-speaking country, my studies as an English major seldom address Canada at all. So Fifth Business is my first foray into Anglophone Canadian literature, and said foray was a good one.

I read a lot of books in my studies, so when I have some free time, I tend to gravitate more toward the video games as a way to unwind. RPGs in particular are satisfying to me because they are in my mind an all-inclusive form of entertainment. Interactivity of a video game, strategy to work the mind, music for the soul, a story for the heart. But sometimes looking at a screen can get old, so I'll read. However, I found that once I began reading Fifth Business it was very difficult for me to stop. The last five days I have been out of the house all day pretty much as I have been working a lot. In between, I read this novel, and as I read, I was writing this topic in my mind. I had so much to say that for a very brief moment, I was considering blogging ala Grandia; I then came to my senses. What I would instead preferred is to have an acquaintance with somebody IRL who would be interesting in reading or discussing such a thing. Actually, somebody like the main character in this book may be ideal.

So who is the main character? Well that alone is hard to say upon analysis. The book itself is written through the narrative of Dunstable "Dunny" Ramsay in a letter to the headmaster of the school he winds up teaching at. However, Dunny's life is comparatively bland when compared to the other constant people in his life. The title of the book comes from the term Fifth Business, which refers to actors in a play who are not stars themselves, but still vital to the overall show. In video game terms, NPCs. Dunny is an NPC, and this novel is this story. The novel starts with Dunny's life in a small Canadian town in the early 1900's and ends (presumably in Canada still) in the 1970's.

To give you a better idea of where this story (initially) takes place, see the below map. This is where the fictitious town of Deptford would be, in the province of Ontario.



The story begins with Dunstable Ramsay and his friend (also rival, but that quickly dissolves as their relationship matures) Percy-Boyd Staunton. The description of the little Canadian village is charming and not unlike something expected to be found in the United States at the time. Each man in the village has a role (Dunny's dad produces a newspaper) and everybody kind of knows each other, although the religious groups in the town all stick together and "take care of their own". Dunny is Presbyterian. Other groups in the town include Anglicans, Roman Catholics, Baptists, and Methodists. The strange event that sets the story in motion is when Percy-Boyd and Dunny are arguing after a day of playing in the snow and Percy-Boyd disguises a rock in a snowball (you know, coating a rock with snow so that it hits harder than expected) and throws it at Dunny. Dunny dodges it, and the projectile strikes the Baptist preacher's pregnant wife, Mary, in the stomach. This leads to her giving premature birth and the loss of her already-waning sanity. The result of this is that Dunny's mother volunteers herself and her son to assist this family, and Dunny becomes rather attached to Mary in several ways.

I need to resist giving a complete summary of the book here, but that sets the story in motion. I really enjoyed the part about Dunny's childhood, and with little warning, it shifts into a time when he is twenty years old and joins the Canadian Army (and thus gets involved in World War I) simply to escape his domineering mother. Now I'm not too into war stories, so when Dunny joined the army, I was a little worried that the story was going to get boring, but much to my delight, the next page is when he flat out says that he doesn't want to talk about the war. Good! He says just enough to give context, but then talks about his personal experiences with it, which I like. It gives him character! During the war he is injured my a flare and looses a leg as well as a few other surface disfigurements, particularly to his arm. A nurse that treats him suggests that he rename himself Dunstan. Dunny explains that a common tradition in Canada is to give the son his mother's maiden name as a first name, and that is where Dunstable comes from. In a sense, Dunny sort of reinvents himself.

Despite all of this, Dunny never marries and he begins work as a school teacher back in Canada. His old friend, Percy-Boyd, who now renames himself Boy (symbolizing his love of youth and all things young) is becoming a very savvy entrepreneur and he freely gives Dunny financial advice to not only help Dunny enjoy mild success, but also allow him to make money during the depression. The relationship is bi-conditional though, and as Boy becomes more and more of a public figure, he finds that Dunny is the only person he can truly confide in.

The themes in this novel are:
-Religion
-Responsibility
-Identity
-Satisfaction

Although Dunny is Presbyterian, he finds fascination with the saints, something typically more related to Catholicism. He writes several books on the saints and it becomes a sort of hobby for him as he travels the world looking for information on obscure saints. The rarer, the better. This journey brings him on a search for a female saint with a beard, which eventually brings him to a European freak show in which he finds the baby that he believes to have caused to be born prematurely back in Canada. More on that theme later. Curiously missing from any mention is Jean de Brébeuf, the patron saint of Canada. Dunny eventually has audience with a group of Jesuits (the Society of Jesus) and finds a mentor of sorts in the form of Father Blazon. The Jesuits occupy about two parts of the book, one longer than the other. Their inclusion is more philosophical than literary.

Overall, this may have become one of my favorite books, and I hope the two sequels (which I got in the omnibus), The Manticore and World of Wonders prove to be as captivating as well. The last book I've read that I liked this much is The Book of Lies trilogy, which inspired Mother 3. Some of you may remember me discussing this on GameFAQs, and I do intend to do a more detailed write up on that next time I read through it.

The character of Dunny himself was very enjoyable to me, and in some ways I can relate to him a lot, although there were a few points where I would have acted quite differently. Even more than telling a story, Fifth Business can almost just as easily be described as hanging out with Dunny over a set period of time, as he never really does anything out of the ordinary. Now if we could get all MBTI on this, I'd like to know what profile this guy would come up as, if nothing else to predict how others might like this book. I found Dunny to be wonderful, and I enjoyed the book, anybody with "E" might find him insufferable. If this book was IRL, I could see myself being good friends with Dunny, I think we'd have a lot to talk about and we could probably become bff rather quickly.

If I wasn't so lazy with it all, I may have written down a few exact quotes both for this portion of my topic and the next. Dunny is a loner, and I have always sort of been as well. True, I have people I associate with, and I feel rather cold when I realize that most of the people who consider me a "friend", I would more accurately describe them as "acquaintance". That is to say, I use the label "friend" very conservatively. Do I expect too much? Perhaps so, but what I do know is that I know myself, and for whatever reason, I've known what I want out of life and things in general at a fairly young age and live day to day with a sort of serenity that may make me come off as indifferent at first glance, but that is far from the truth, as I feel very passionately about a great number of things, ideas, and people I don't worry about much at all...a blessing or a curse? You decide, I have. I have my ideals, and I seek to find them manifested. So I saw a lot of myself in Dunny, although he doesn't seem as at peace on a daily basis as I am. I'm not sure if this made any sense, but I'm going to go with it.

The interactions between the different faiths in the small town of Deptford were interesting, if not a bit downplayed. The Baptist minister is the husband of Mary Dempster so the Baptists are prominent figures. Because of Dunny's obsession with the saints, the Roman Catholics get a bit of time too, specifically the Jesuits. The Jesuits are depicted in a very good light, which is a nice change because the clergy tends to be a more foreboding group in literature. Dunny himself is Presbyterian, so his outlook and early life is dominated by Presbyterian custom. Anglicans are mentioned only in ceremonial setting, and the Methodists are not really touched on at all. If I recall correctly, Boy is Presbyterian as well, but he turns atheist for egotistical reasons. Did he truly reject God? I think not. No denomination is depicted as being above the others, which I thought was nice.

The character with the most inner-peace in this book is ironically the insane Mrs. Dempster. As Dunny grows into a teenager, he sees that this allegedly-crazy woman is the best example of piety that he has ever seen. Although she is not all there, she is a woman of God and is calm and devout, seeming to not care what anybody thinks of her. Dunny is so charmed by this that he begins to view her as a saint in her own right. Could she really be a saint? Well officially, no, as she has not been canonized. The Jesuits that Dunny talks to make this clear, but Father Blazon tells Dunny that "she is a saint to you", meaning that even if there is nothing officially holy about this woman, it is okay for Dunny to still hold her in high religious esteem. "Fool-saint" is a recurring term here. A person can be saint-like without officially being a saint. A comforting, kind person. Selfless, at peace with God. I can think of a few people like this. What I was impressed with in this book is that it explains that even canonized saints are not flawless people. Saints are typically people who do good or are willing to die for a cause, martyrs. Nobody is perfect, but we can all still think of admirable people we know.

As a work of Canadian literature, I was taken back a bit by how much the country of Canada gets degraded throughout the book. Most of it is pretty subtle, but it is certainly there, and by the end, I was hoping all the characters would join hands and sing "O Canada" over a round of Dude Beer. Pride in the country, people! This starts off pretty early in the book and gets quite a bit more forward by the end. The country of Canada is belittled by characters of several nationalities, Canadian amongst them. The Canadian characters are either trying to hide the fact that they are from Canada or feel that Canada as a country is doomed or something, or inheritable inferior. Dunny himself travels to several places throughout Europe and even goes down to Mexico toward the end of the book. At several points he worries about having enough time to go to Europe, and he even puts Europe as a financial priority over a dependent at one point, although he admits it is selfish of him. Basically, anything to get out of Canada...why is Canada such a hell in this book? I'd love to take a trip to the Great White North. The British people in the book are less than fond of Canadian people and view Canada itself as a place to be wary of. The United States isn't mentioned much except that it is the "new" standard of how things are done and Europe is the old. At the time this book takes place, Canada has much closer ties to the crown than it has in recent history, and aside from Boy (who like the prince because he symbolizes what Boy wants to embody), the Canadian characters seem largely indifferent to the British royals or any status in general. Interesting anyway. I hope Canadians really don't feel the way the characters in this book do...seriously. God bless Canada!

So if this book is any indicator, Canadian literature is pretty cool. Of course, judging the category by one book is like judging a county by one citizen. So, I'll read more. I'll finish the Deptford Trilogy, and perhaps look into some other stuff as well. I really enjoyed this book, and it is now one of my favorite novels. I could write a lot more about this, but to avoid being too long-winded, I'll leave it at this. Expect another update as I finish the other two books.

I can't believe I didn't even realize this topic was here yesterday...


First things first: OH MY GOD I LOVE THIS TOPIC
I wasn't expecting the book to become amongst your favourites, but I'm glad it did! I think I'm going to order the two sequels myself soon, this topic has inspired me to do it (and once I read them I'm totally going to be posting all up on this thread)


Re: Degradation of Canada, that's a pretty interesting point. It seems awfully reflective of how Canada is often viewed as a mish-mash of American and British culture, and in a way that's true to an extent. Our country has even tried to counteract this in the form of laws reminiscent of "salvage anthropology" that require Canadian broadcasting stations to have at least 30% content originating from Canada, or something to that effect.

I'm a little clueless as to what Canada's international relations were like in the 60's and early 70's, though, so I'm not entirely sure where such a shame would come from. In my own experience, Canadians are either proud of their national identity or just indifferent to it, rather than ashamed of it.



edit: I just bought the trilogy online. It might take 2 weeks to get here

Yay, thanks for replying!

I may write quite a bit more on this now that I know somebody is reading it.

It'll still be a while before I am able to reply about the latter two books. It's been 4 years since I read the first, and shipping from the UK to Canada can be horrendous.

HEY SPARKY I got this in the mail today!

Yay! I've been slowly pushing through The Manticore over the last few days...it is mysterious. Glad ya got it!

So, I have to read this for school.

S'choo'. (Get it, it means It's Cool but also to mean School. I am so clever)

I wish I had an afternoon where I could just curl up and read the rest of the trilogy.



Man do I ever need a day off.

As I proceed through the third and final book in the trilogy, I'll talk a little about the second.

The second books was excellent, but then again, I particularly enjoy the kinds of things it addresses. I think some who aren't into character analysis may be turned off by the concept of it, but for most of the book it reads just like Fifth Business.

The second book is about David Staunton, Boy's son. David is older in this book and seeks the help of a Jungian psychologist in Zurich, Switzerland. Most of the character interactions from the book take place between David and his doctor, Johanna. Over the course of the year, David opens up about his feelings, or lake thereof, to the doctor and the two work out his psychological issues involving his father.

Most of the novel reads like Dunstan's account from the first book, although Deptford is a secondary place and the main city of interest in The Manticore is Toronto.

We got to know David pretty darn well when all is said and done. I think we can all look back and out childhood and remember some particularly painful times and some times when we regret what we did, but it is only natural, I guess.

A central theme here is Jungian psychology. The Anima is touched on briefly. Anima is essentially one's general idea of a woman, to keep it very simply. Women are more of a plot device here, and this book is very much about men and the relationships between them, particularly between father and son. While boys tend to cling to their mothers more than their fathers, boy also strongly desire to live up to their father's expectations and are very wanting of their approval. Toward the end of the book, the first book ties in more, so fans of the first one will be very happy. I was.

The whole Thinking/Feeling (think MBTI) thing comes up too, and Davey is finds himself to be a total thinker and is essentially emotionally crippled. His sister, Caroline, is quite the opposite, although it works for her. Caroline is character who didn't get much attention in the first book, but she proves to be very interesting here.

It was a compelling read, and I finished it in about two days. Davies can write a good novel. I'm working on the last book now, and so far I like it a lot. Yay for Deptford!

This has long been one of my favourite books; I'm so glad to find that there are other people in the world who enjoy it - I have never met anyone outside my immediate family who has even heard of Robertson Davies! If you enjoy the Deptford Trilogy, The Salterton Trilogy and The Cornish Trilogy are just waiting for you........

I found this book really interesting and useful. It's sad that it's not that popular.

Angela
vienintelė santechnikos gamintoja Baltijos šalyse

Man, this topic gets a lot of new users that only post once. The book most be good then. I'll look into it on Amazon, as I need a new book to read, and don't know if I want Vampire Hunter D vol. 6, The Fall, or one of the Dragon Age books.

Thanks you guys!

I think it's more strange that people would show up twice in a row just to post in this thread and disappear forever... very strange.

^It maybe Duke, hiding in plain sight.

or maybe its the ghost of Lumine Hall past!

WOOOOOOooOOOooOooooooOOO cough cough.