Rating: 
Summary: ART IN WORDS
Review: this book was great,so powerful the words sting your eyes, a superlative book. A meticulous and astonishing vivid creation of one man's journey from a kind of hell into a life among whited skinned aristocratic men into a kind of pleading dream. A graceful and moving memoir. if you will. poignant recollection, lyrical and evocative. more than a record of unusual events, it shows how in a matter of survival, the courageous reffusal to abandon the fifth as it truely and always will be. the reader is left in awe of the bravery, endurance and solidarity of which humans are capable, as well as the brutality, evil and devisiveness they can inflict.
Rating: 
Summary: A good novel.
Review: I read Fifth Business because John Irving mentions it in A Prayer for Owen Meany. I am thoroughly impressesed. Fifth Business incorporates politics and history with great character development. If you plan to read A Prayer for Owen Meany, read Fifth Business first. I liked Fifth Business better than Owen Meany. In addition, by reading Fifth Business, you will understand Owen Meany better.
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Summary: FIFTH BUSINESS cornerstone of Great Canadian Trilogy
Review: No one has yet written the Great Canadian Novel, but in Fifth Business, World of Wonders and the Manticore, Robertson Davies may have given us something like the Great Interlinked Canadian Trilogy.Fifth Business is the novel with which to start. The book's central figure is schoolteacher Dunstan Ramsay, who grew up in the tiny village of Deptford in the sugar-beet growing district of Southwestern Ontario. The town's pretty boy-slash-bully Percy Boyd Staunton hits the minister's wife with a snowball containing a rock, which causes her to go into premature labor and give birth to the underweight Paul Dempster. (This is an early 20th Century level of obstetrics, you understand.) The rest of the book is a fascinating weave of Canadian social and political history from the 1910s thru the 1960s as Dunstan, Paul and Percy Boyd (now the raffish "Boy") Staunton are pushed together by the whims of fate. Boy and Paul become world famous in very different ways. Not bad for two kids from the sticks and Dunstan, the humble schoolteacher, has reason to envy them. Or does he? A "fifth business" is theater talk for a leavener, a kind of enzyme agent that, while not significant in itself, makes other things happen. As the amazon-dot-com reviewer from Singapore so brilliantly pointed out, the novel contains elements of magical realism. Don't confuse Fifth Business with your basic American sprawling bestseller. This is heady yet subtle stuff. Not for nothing is Fifth Business required reading in Grade 13 of the Ontario public school system. (Yes, Grade THIRTEEN--no wonder Canadian kids are so smart.) I would recommend you buy the paperback Fifth Business/World of Wonders/Manticore trilogy. It only costs a little more than buying Fifth Business by itself, and more than likely you'll want to read the other books once you've finished Fifth Business.
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Summary: One of the Best Novels of the 20th Cnt.
Review: This novel is more than a great story. Davies shows us a world filled with hard-driven but shallow millionaires, bizarre eccentrics and religious omens. A world where a snowball can change the destiny of a town. In other words, our world. Forget the incoherent clap-trap beloved in the Academy, this novel will still inspire readers long after those books are forgotten.
Rating:
Summary: Definition ...
Review: Don't be turned off by the title. As quoted at the beginning of the book: "Fifth Business ... Definition Those roles which, being neither those of Hero nor Heroine, Confidante nor Villain, but which were nonetheless essential to bring about the Recognition of the denouement, were called the Fifth Business in drama and opera companies organized according to the old style; the player who acted these parts was often referred to as Fifth Business. --- Tho. Overskou, Den Danske Skueplads"
Rating:
Summary: One of the Best
Review: Possibly the best novel I've ever read. It seems to appeal more to men then to women, for some reason. I have recommended it to a number of women and all agree it is a good book, but the men to whom I've recommended it all loved it and went on to read other of Davies' books. What makes it so good is the way the story is crafted. As part of a trilogy, you should read this one first, then read World of Wonders. Unfortunately, those two are so good, The Manticore pales by comparison.
Rating:
Summary: Highly recommended!
Review: Fifth Business is a truly amazing novel. The first in Robertson Davies' "Deptford Trilogy", I like it best of what I've read of the trilogy so far. It has amazing characters, all of which are deeper than you first think, and intricate sub-plots which keep you reading. It is a significant piece of Canadian literature, and the only way to describe it is as a masterpiece. I am a fourteen year old girl, which proves anyone can really enjoy this novel. I would highly recommend it to anyone looking for a book that is wonderful on so many levels.
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Summary: Multi-layerd, haunting tale
Review: The first book of the acclaimed Deptford Trilogy. Davies is a great Dickens scholar, and the vast scope, sprawling structure, and eccentric, wonderful characterizations of this novel make that clear. This book is richly layered and really a brilliant tour de force in that the richness and technical accomplishment, the tight prose and excellent dialogue, never get in the way of what is really a cracking good tale.
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Summary: An inward-leading story appreciated only at the end.
Review: It is at this point in time that I wish to revoke my former statement about this novel by Robertson Davies. Although at the time unfinished and unliked, this work was something wholly amazing once read. The story twists back through itself and allows for sequels to either be read in sequence or on their own as separate entities. I reccomend reading the second in the series: "The Manticore". -Enjoy
Rating:
Summary: One of the first English-class books that I enjoyed.
Review: ...all right, it may have something to do with my fabulous teacher Ms. Biggs, but whatever. A fantastic example of literary theory, in the interweaving of themes and the complex but clear symbolism. ("He was killed by the usual cabal...") I was quite disappointed by the other two books in this trilogy, but I greatly enjoyed this one. Thank you, Ms. Biggs; thank you, Mr. Davies.
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