Rating: 
Summary: Ms. Lessing wrote herself into a corner . . .
Review: and finding no way out of her dilemma, simply dropped the story and left it where it lay.
When I picked this volume up, I had not read any of Lessing's work. I found her characterizations vivid, her presentation of plot initially clear. She ultimately presents the fifth child as a villian, even prenatally, and builds on that. It seems, however, that once she gets her young antagonist well into grade school, she really doesn't know where to go from there. The story and behavior of the boy become tiresomely predictable and repetitive. In her endeavor to show the disintegration of the family around the mother's determination to raise her aberrant son, she starts out energetically, but seems to tire of her theme, or else to run out of ways to successfully conclude her story (not to be confused with a "happy ending", please understand).
My feeling about this book is rather like a nagging headache, now relieved, but unpleasantly remembered. I am not encouraged to sample her other works.
Rating: 
Summary: A thought-provoking book
Review: Doris Lessing's "The Fifth Child" will be loved by some and hated by others, but it's hard to be ambivalent about a book that evokes such strong emotions in its readers. The premise of the book--how family, friends, and distant relatives deal with the birth of Ben, the fifth child of David and Harriet Lovatt--is soon overshadowed by the reader's own feelings about the characters and the values each one represents. This one is definitely worth a read. Even if you walk away hating it, it will have challenged your perception of "normalcy" and how society should deal with people who "aren't like us".
Rating:
Summary: Dark, Disturbing, Despressing
Review: Great but sad book about a family overwhelmed by the needs of unique child. A child whose destructive impact was felt even before he was born. A book about the duty of a mother for her child in the face tremendous sacrifice all the while those around her urge her to take the "easy" way out. A book that explores the frail ties that keep a family together and happy. Concise, brutal, and a book I couldn't put down even though each new page exposed me to greater horror.
Rating: 
Summary: Thoughtful but Slow
Review: I keep expecting Lessing to deliver a high quality of fiction. The quality is there, for sure, but I have to wonder about how much is fiction. The elements are all too familiar in real life. An eager young couple sets about raising a family, and succeeds far too well. They can not support their own ambitions, whether measured in dollar amounts or in units of work caring for the children. The fifth child embodies a tragic accident of birth, and the fragile sitation implodes. I don't mean to trivialize Lessing's story - even when I saw what was coming, I was hypnotically compelled to see it through, like the proverbial bird in front of a snake. (I've also avoided spoilers as much as I can, so vagueness is intended.) Taken in literal terms, the story carries a gut-wrenching sensation that's much too close to life. One step above literality, I parented a "fifth child", or tried to. It wasn't my own spawn; it had been cast out by it's natural parent, the one that hadn't bailed out long since. My concerns for the child were twice the usual: I had a duty to prepare the child for the world, but had a second duty of protecting the world from that child. (That unpleasant period didn't last, and I was truly relieved at its end.) I did not need to grant Lessing very much poetic license to see the fact in her fiction. If I let the immediacy of memory die down, I can read the story at more metaphorical levels, too. I suppose that many parents have high hopes, before the reality of a pimply teenager sprawls on their couch. Outside of parenting, I know that I have undertaken tasks way beyond my capacity, with some silly faith that things would work out somehow. The more I rely on faith, the worse the outcome. I understand that Lessing has written a sequel. To tell the truth, I don't think I have the stomach for it - and I mean that as a compliment. She is far too successful in invoking the dark spirits that resemble my personal demons, and no other author has ever come close.
Rating:
Summary: Exciting book, but I have only fair lasting impressions
Review: I read The Fifth Child several years ago for a school assignment. I remember being very into it and not being able to put it down. I kept thinking, this book is such a thrill, how could it have been on my class list? I'm sure I was able to pull together some obvious themes in the paper I wrote, but the truth is this: In the end, after having read dozens of books of various genre over the years, this one is not one that stands out in my mind. I cannot recall any one particular thought or conclusion that I had upon reading it. To me, it simply was a chilling story of a mother with a congenitally freaky child.
Rating:
Summary: ....strange
Review: I read this for my Brit Lit class. It was interesting reading it, after having read Frankenstein earlier in the semester. They were very similar, at least in regard to themes of reproduction and its consequences, as well as the decline of morality in society. Victor's monster and Harriet's monster are not that dissimilar. The book deals with the rise of materialism in the 70s and 80s, as well as "old fashion" ideas about family, sex, education, religion, mental disorders, etc. I'm not sure what exactly is wrong with Ben. I think he's autistic. But, then again, maybe he's a goblin. Or a Evolutionary throwback (not that such a thing exists though). Good book. And short too, my copy was 133 pages. I read it in one night (because it was due the next day -- oh the wonders of procrastination). Orb
Orbshome.com
Rating: 
Summary: Disturbing and ggggrrreat!
Review: Man, was this book disturbing!!! i couldn't put it down, it was so good! There was never a dull moment, and i mean that with all honesty. This book was so eerie sometimes, it was so cool. One thing i keep on reading in other reviews is that there is a lack of character development. well it's true, there is. Big time. But aside from that, this book really captures you in, at least it did for me.
Rating:
Summary: Doris Lessing's monster for the 20th century
Review: The Fifth Child is a remarkable book. The story of a young couple who have a dangerous, violent child and the consequences of this, particularly for the mother, is chilling. What do they do with him, especially after it becomes clear that he is a danger to the family? How far can mother love go when your child is a "monster?" Note the child's last name is a variation of "love it"...as in must the mother love him/it? The book is a thought provoking study of this problem, as well as a commentary on the society in which the child was born. He was born into an upper middle class London family at the height of the Thatcher era. It is no coincidence that this monstrosity seems most at home in the company of other violent, inarticulate youths who are (frighteningly) like him. One of Doris Lessing's most readable novels, I highly recommend The Fifth Child.
Rating:
Summary: The Fifth Child
Review: This book is one of the most thought provoking books I've ever read. It really made me think about my own family and also about other people's family values.
Doris May Lessing was most diffinately put a moral into this story that over the course of the book is hard to figure out but in the end is very clear. I believe the book is really about society and how it turns away and tries to forget about the abnormal or strange.
I loved the way Doris May Lessing wrote this book. It is written in a very straight forward way. If this book has any flaws, it is the lack of character development.
I would recomend this book but I'm not sure to who.
Rating:
Summary: The Fifth Child Review
Review: this book was more of a fable than a horror story; the mother's want to always protect Ben, even though everybody else, including herself, thought she hated the beast, demonstrates a mothers compassion towards her child
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