Ben, in the World (Paperback, New Ed)

In this sequel to the chilling The Fifth Child, the monstrous Ben Lovatt, whose arrival fractured the peace of the family into which he was born, is now fully grown. With his unusual strength but inadequate understanding, Ben, predictably, falls prey to exploitation: he is robbed and cheated, employed as an unwitting drug smuggler, and degraded to an object of scientific investigation before finding a kind of truth in his tragic end. The narrative is told from Ben's perspective and his story hovers between the archetypal and the naturalistic. Yet this tension is also the book's greatest achievement, for it boldly takes as a real theme - not just a symbolic one - the limits of what it is to be 'human'. Lessing has always patrolled the boundaries of experience; with this novel she drops us over the edge. (Kirkus UK)

Many will recall the powerful impact The Fifth Child, Doris Lessing's 1988 novel, made on publication. Its account of idyllic marital and parental bliss irredeemably shattered by the arrival of the feral fifth child of the Lovatts made for unnerving and compulsive reading. That child, Ben, now grown to legal maturity, is the central character of this sequel, which picks up the fable at the end of the childhood where the first book ended and takes our primal, misunderstood, maladjusted teenager out into the world, where again he meets mostly with mockery, fear and incomprehension but with just enough kindness and openness to keep him afloat as his adventures take him from London to the South of France and on to South America in his restless quest for community, companionship and peace. As in Mara and Dann, Doris Lessing in this newest book returns to a plain, unadorned prose fit for fables; again, we have a childlike perspective at the heart of the book; again, the world in all its malevolence and misapprehenison swirls around at the edge, while, occasionally, a strong character steps forward to try to stake out some values and practise some good behaviour. Again, it is one of Lessi

General

Imprint:	Flamingo
Country of origin:	United Kingdom
Release date:	April 2001
Authors:	Doris Lessing
Dimensions:	197 x 130 x 13mm (L x W x T)
Format:	Paperback - B-format
Pages:	178
Edition:	New Ed
ISBN-13:	978-0-00-655229-1
Categories:	Books > Fiction > General & literary fiction > Modern fiction
LSN:	0-00-655229-3
Barcode:	9780006552291

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