Had to read Fifth Business for senior year English back in high school in 2010. It was one that stuck with me and I found out later that it was part of a trilogy. Recently stumbled upon a copy that had all three books so I reread Fifth Business and then finished out the series. The book was better than I remember it and reading through to the end of the story was very fulfilling.
The whole series explores Jungian psychology with a heavy emphasis on archetypes. It’s a little bit heavy handed at times but the quality of the writing, particularly the dialogue, is such that you kind of just go with it.
I’ve heard it said on here that some people’s pet peeve is that when readers have an expectation that every character needs to be likeable. Well Davies does a stellar job of making you dislike a character while still making their story extremely compelling.
Some problematic ideas at times and it was sometimes hard to tell if the author was making a character flawed with such ideals or if he was speaking through the characters and had some problematic views himself. He was active mid-20th century so I’m guessing a bit of both.
Compelling if a bit dense at times, particularly the third book (World of Wonders) I still really enjoyed it.
by rustedsandals