This was a hard book to read. I found myself at odds with how I want to react should I ever find myself in this situation - to preserve life and family.

Early in the book, after the titular fifth child is born, he causes a deep rift to grow in the family, almost tearing them apart altogether. The father decides that the best course is to send him away to an institution. Effectively writing him out of the family, possibly just leaving him there to die. I found myself siding with the father. The pain and anguish that the rest of the family was experiencing was too great to make keeping the child, who clearly was not-right mentally, not able to learn empathy or how to function in a society, here in the family.

The mother steals him back home and puts her foot down and says they are keeping him. This slowly, painfully, predictably tears the family apart. It is a credit to the author that her objective, detached viewpoint shows both the hurt of the family and the hurt and despair of the mother, trying to love all her children and failing most of them in trying to love the unlovable one. I feel for all involved. But if I was there, I side with the father. I did not expect that going in. It has left me thinking about myself and my breaking points, weeks after finishing the book. That is the mark of a good novel.