Fifth Business by Robertson Davies (1970) A page-turner in the Bellovian model of a cranky, aging intellectual justifying his life and personal philosophical system. It is: immensely readable; frequently laugh-out-loud funny; and downright musical in its mastery of narrative flow. Davies' reverence for myth, and the ways in which he allows such reverence to bend the shape of the story, reminds me vividly of James Branch Cabell. Like Cabell, Davies has the knack for the detail that punches the psychological (as the anonymous tumblr user who recommed this book noted, Jungian) gut. I am loathe to explain any of the plot, except that you meet memorable and very alive people at every turn: a fool-saint, a very serious magician in need of a bombastic fake autobiography, a soft drink mogul, and, of course, the Fifth Business himself, Dunstable Ramsay. Dunstable Ramsay, our narrator, is a one-legged, one-armed World War I veteran, a private school teacher, and a well-regarded scholar of the saints. What is Fifth Business? Here's the epigram, to explain:  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.  It's quoted from a fake Danish reference book, so you know this author has what it takes. Serious thanks to the anonymous tumblr user who recommended me this book! I'm definitely going to try and sneak Fifth Business into my everyday idiomatic lexicon. And, of course, I'm going to finish this Deptford Trilogy.
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