Many mothers will be familiar with the emotions Harriet has when
she first sets eyes on Ben, her fifth child. Initial disbelief, a
reluctance to hold him, a pang of disappointment. There is
something strange and disturbing about him. Harriet and her husband
David have constructed an idyll of perfect happiness in their large
house full of children and relatives, but when Ben is born, their
world is torn apart. Ben is weird looking, he doesn't speak but
makes odd grunts and noises, and he doesn't seem quite human.
Although at first you seriously doubt whether there is anything
really wrong with the poor child, at the same time you begin to
dislike him. Sympathy only comes when Ben is briefly banished to a
special home in a bleak Scottish landscape, a drugged creature in a
straitjacket. Rescued by his mother and brought back to the family
home he becomes ever more nightmarishly 'different' and succeeds in
shattering the family. Harriet's dogged devotion is then all the
more remarkable as you come ultimately to realize the real and
terrible nature of the creature that is Ben. This novel, reprinted
five times, is a riveting read and a haunting addition to Lessing's
body of work. (Kirkus UK)
Doris Lessing's contemporary gothic horror story--centered on the
birth of a baby who seems less than human--probes society's
unwillingness to recognize its own brutality.Harriet and David
Lovatt, parents of four children, have created an idyll of domestic
bliss in defiance of the social trends of late 1960s England. While
around them crime and unrest surge, the Lovatts are certain that
their old-fashioned contentment can protect them from the world
outside--until the birth of their fifth baby. Gruesomely
goblin-like in appearance, insatiably hungry, abnormally strong and
violent, Ben has nothing innocent or infant-like about him. As he
grows older and more terrifying, Harriet finds she cannot love him,
David cannot bring himself to touch him, and their four older
children are afraid of him. Understanding that he will never be
accepted anywhere, Harriet and David are torn between their
instincts as parents and their shocked reaction to this fierce and
unlovable child whose existence shatters their belief in a benign
world.
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