Family Business Human Dilemmas in the Family Firm Text and Cases Book

4.5 stars

"Those roles which, being neither those of Hero nor Heroine, Confidante nor Villain, but which were nonetheless essential to bring about the Recognition or 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."

Dunstan Ramsay was born in the small town of Deptford, Ontario. In 1908, at the age of ten, he is unknowingly cast in "the vital though never glorious role of Fifth Business" due to an untimely event that will ultimately weigh on his conscience for the rest of his life. This role of course is not a literal one – Dunstan is not an actor in a play or opera, yet he is a person who seems to have an influence on the lives of another small cast of characters in his real life drama. His feelings of guilt over this tragic occurrence will ultimately affect many of the decisions he later makes in his life in order to atone for what he considers to be his sin. His story covers nearly forty years and is told in the form of a first-person sort of memoir. We as readers have to question whether his guilt is such that he should take on so much responsibility for his actions over the course of his life.

On the surface, this book seems to be about growing up in a small-minded town, the effect of the horrors of World War I on a man’s body and psyche, the marvel of magic, and an obsession with the saints. It is about those things; but Canadian author Robertson Davies brilliantly weaves all of these elements together into something that is so much more than what we initially perceive. The narrative and the point of view used allow us to glimpse just a bit of what is really happening here a little at a time. While I enjoyed Dunstan’s story throughout, I did not realize just how cleverly this was written until I neared the end. The prose is crisp and clear and oftentimes with a bit of sarcastic wit. "Some thought that my known habit of reading a great deal had unseated my reason, and perhaps that dreadful disease ‘brain fever,’ supposed to attack students, was not far off. One or two friends suggested to my father that immediate removal from school, and a year or two of hard work on a farm, might cure me." The characters are well-drawn and memorable, all playing their ‘assigned roles’ quite perfectly in retrospect.

I am finding it difficult to provide an overview of this novel, but it is most definitely one for those that crave something literary, creative, and meaningful. Choose it at a time when you want to exercise your brain – not that it is difficult to read by any means, but in order to get the most out of it you will want to clearly focus on all that it has to offer. It certainly made me question to what extent our actions – or omissions – affect the lives of others and at what point can we say that we have paid our debt so to speak. Or is the debt ever truly repaid? This is my first Robertson Davies book; and I will be adding the next in the trilogy and seeing what else I have missed by yet another gifted author.

"This is one of the cruelties of the theatre of life; we all think of ourselves as stars and rarely recognize it when we are indeed mere supporting characters or even supernumeraries."