the fifth business

the fifth business by robertson davies published in 1970.

Anal-retentive? Well... Dunstable grew up in a small Canadian town in the early 1900s with stiff Scottish presbytian parents. In the pivotal moment, Dunstable will live with the guilt of his eight-yr-old slyness after dodging a snowball thrown by his best friend and arch nemesis, Percy Boyd Staunton . The rock-laden snowball hits the Baptist minister's wife instead, inducing labor to a pre-mature Paul who survives because of the iron will of Dunstable's Scottish mother's. The Baptist minister's wife is left simple and Dunstanble to care for her for the rest of your life.

After a winding hagiological path, Dunstan is reunited with Paul for whom he writes his autobiography "Magnus Eisengrim..." And Dunstan incidentally reunites the snowball with the owner.




Let the gigantic woman make you hero, villain, rival or lover.