Customer Reviews

The Woman In the Fifth

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

One of the essential aspects that distinguish a great novel from a mediocre one is the `engine' that drives the reader to continue turning the pages till the last one is turned. The story begins as an interesting scenario, and from there builds momentum to the point that closing the book's covers and putting it aside till the "next time" is all but impossible. This `engine' is not only the content of the story but the author's style, his/her technical expertise to ensure the reader remains with, and is compelled to, read every word. To be certain, most if not all of Douglas Kennedy's novel's have this `engine', driving the reader forward, however, The Woman in the Fifth takes this notion further, the author using all his skill to intrigue us and entertain us but also somehow making the impossible appear absolutely probable.

Harry Ricks has hit rock bottom...or so we're led to believe until he tumbles further into the abyss. The man has fled the U.S. because of a failed marriage and a scandal at the college where he taught film studies. Harry's life is in ruins and now he is down and out living in Paris; little money, has now contracted a serious flu and doesn't know a soul. One event leads to another, and he ends up living in a very low income sector of Paris, a `chambre de bonne', later is offered a "job" as a nightwatchman, where he sits in a little second story office watching a video screen. He is instructed only to let those individuals through the door that offer a particular phrase. It is obvious that illegal activities are going on below on the first floor, but he is purposefully kept in the dark, it is said, for his own protection. Harry is payed 65 euros every morning after his shift and life carries on this way until he meets a beautiful and mysterious woman at one of Paris's famous "salons".

Magit Kadar is a Hungarian émigré, who had fled Hungary with her mother as a small child. At that time after the Second World War, Hungary was under the dictatorship of a ruthless Stalinist, (also named Kadar) where Margit's father had been lynched in front of her eyes by the secret police. Margit is on the better side of fifty, though appears younger - elegant, intelligent, sophisticated and extremely beautiful. She lives in the Fifth Adrossement in Paris - an understated and tasteful apartment, Margit instructs Harry to meet her there twice a week for only three hours as an intense affair begins.

Suddenly Harry Rick's life turns much more complicated and dangerous as his "enemies" begin to end up murdered one by one. Of course Harry is the prime suspect, but there is no substantial proof, however the circumstances of each crime point to him. Who is committing these murders and in such a horrific manner?

This is a wonderful novel because the narrative is in present time, that is, we follow and feel and sense every action, thought and move of the protagonist.

Original, well written and possesses that `engine', ensuring the reader holds fast to the book from start to finish.

Excellent.

I am a huge fan of Douglas Kennedy. I have read all his novels, and bought them as gifts or lent them to friends in an effort to spread the word. I actually really enjoyed this book ... until the mystery was revealed. I felt that this ending was a real cop out when usually I can expect to be gobsmacked by the way this writer ties up his stories. I'll keep buying his books, but another denouement like this one would have me seriously rethinking that position.

I enjoyed Kennedy's first three (I think) books years ago, and discovered at least four more have been published since. It seems that he has no USA distribution agreement, so I chose this one (during a recent UK visit) with the impression that authors get better with age. This seems to be the latest one, and may even be published in the colonies.
Kennedy is a descriptive writer who creates characters you can relate to. He also puts his ordinary people into extroadinary situations. Alfred Hitchcock was famous for this behavior, but Kennedy isn't quite in the same place. There is the notion that his characters are close to people that you have known, or yourself, but none of these wacky occurences could ever happen to you. This guy, Harry Ricks, seems especially unfortunate.
I am trying to not give too much away and have essentially failed to describe this book adequately. Not so vague is the fact that I thought it was a wonderful voyage, and will seek out other Kennedy books as soon as I finish with that other Harry.

Author Douglas Kennedy is an artist. Like a painter who uses brush strokes to flesh out a person's individuality on canvas, author Kennedy uses an abundant amout of skillful dialogue. A reader cannot help but learn about a person's character by the sheer amount of dialogue in his latest novel, The Woman in the Fifth. In my mind, this is skillful writing, not mere story-telling.

Sucked down the societal drainpipe from a scandal in his American hometown where he had been a dignified professor, Harry Ricks empties into the dregs of the Parisian scene. Is such a sewer place possible? Well in The Woman in the Fifth it is. With only the money he's succored from a bank account where he left at least half to his beloved daughter, Harry rents a gutter-like room in Paris' noir element.

Suffocating in self pity, meaninglessness, and hopelessness, Harry merely tries to pass away his life in bars, salons, and movie theaters, convincing himself he is writing a good salable novel. Realizing his bank account will run out, Harry begins working for a shady man who pays him daily to sit through the night in a second floor "office" to buzz in undesirables into the vault-like room below him. Harry knows something illicit, even punishing, is going on but is afraid to get involved even after he hears horrific agonized shrieks through the floor--so badly does he need money.

At a strange salon, Harry meets and then falls in love with an odd woman who likes his body and sexual prowess, but she can only see him at definite times on certain days of the week in her apartment on the fifth. This lovely but bizarre woman spills out her guts to Harry. She reveals that she lost both her Husband and daughter in an automobile accident years ago. Harry has lost his wife and daughter in a somewhat contrived, unfair scandal.

After patrons leave a bar, a lonely barmaid locks the tavern door and in my mind, she forces Harry to screw her. All the while, this lurid lust-filled woman knows her jealous husband will murder Harry if he learns of their frenzied copulation. Well, of course he finds out! He is on the rampage to knife off Harry's testicles and to slit his throat as well.

But in The Woman in the Fifth, the very opposite occurs. This man is found brutally murdered; so is Harry's sleezy neighbor in the boarding next room next to his; so are people involved in whatever-is-going-on in the room beneath Harry's "office." Harry becomes a chief suspect in ALL the murders. He is questioned, but discloses little damaging information simply because he truly knows little.

At rock bottom, Harry revisits The Woman in the Fifth apartment he had met and confided in at the etheral timeless salon. To his complete chimera, her apartment is dusty--cobweb covered. This beloved woman died many years ago. WHAT! Does this make sense to the reader? Of course not! Does it make sense to Harry? Never! The scene is reminiscent of Charles Dickens' Great Expectations: the room where jilted Miss Havisham's wedding feast sits decaying amidst the ruinous remains of her wedding day.

How are these incongruous events to make sense? Can they make sense? Is Harry succumbing to the same fever that kept him sheltered for many days upon his pained arrival in beautiful Paris? Has time somehow passed him by or is he living in an even grander deceit than he first thought?

The Woman in the Fifth is a read that could easily leave you engrossed till its final pages. The ending is odd, strange, peculiar, different, bizarre, outlandish, weird--I haven't enough adjectives to describe it. It may leave you intrigued like the movie Ghost, or it may leave you disappointed that a more sensational realistic ending did not occur.

Needless to say. Readers will find The Woman in the Fifth hard to put down hoping for a climax befitting its dangerous story. I would recommend it to readers who love the mysterious, the mystifying, the baffling, the unearthly, the incredible. In the end, whatever judgement you pass upon this work, you will have to admit it was entertaining and well written.

This review was written by Regis Schilken, author of TEARS OF DECEIT!

This was my first Douglas Kennedy book. I absolutely could not put the book down - until I was approaching the end of the book. Why did the author have to bring the supernatural into this otherwise thought-provoking, extremely well-written book. I definitely want to read more of Mr. Kennedy's books after reading this one; hopefully, his other efforts will have much better and believable endings.

The Woman in the Fifth was a book I picked up at a closeout sale at Walden's. I wasn't previously familiar with the author, Douglas Kennedy, but intrigued by the cover art (and the $1.50 price tag).

The main character, Harry Ricks, is a man who has hit rock-bottom, or so he believes. He's lost his job, his status, his wife, his daughter - basically, all his reasons for living. He decides to head for Paris, falls sick, and nearly loses his life. As the story unfolds, he's nursed back ...moreThe Woman in the Fifth was a book I picked up at a closeout sale at Walden's. I wasn't previously familiar with the author, Douglas Kennedy, but intrigued by the cover art (and the $1.50 price tag).

The main character, Harry Ricks, is a man who has hit rock-bottom, or so he believes. He's lost his job, his status, his wife, his daughter - basically, all his reasons for living. He decides to head for Paris, falls sick, and nearly loses his life. As the story unfolds, he's nursed back to health by a sympathetic hotel night clerk who happens to be a Turkish illegal immigrant. Harry gets drawn into the Paris underworld of slightly shady, unwanted characters, and nearly every step he takes gets him even deeper into trouble.

I have to admit, I reached a point where I got really tired of Harry's stupid moves. Although the writer makes you understand WHY he makes each move he does, I still couldn't help thinking, what a schlemiel, no wonder his wife got tired of him. Then the story picked up and turned in an unexpected direction that both horrified and fascinated me.

Without adding any spoilers, I can only say that if you love spooky thrillers, this may be the book for you. The ending was chilling, and hopeless, and packed with imagery that left me thinking about the story long after I finished reading. It's not my usual kind of reading, but it certainly kept me turning pages.

I have enjoyed several of the author's previous works. In both THE BIG PICTURE and TEMPTATION, the author manages to create page-turners using escapist, middle-aged male fantasy themes: what would it be like to leave the life you know and start all over again or what would it be like to have everything you know taken from you and to enact revenge. Similarly, this novel successfully explores these ideas again only to collapse under the weight of a supernatural element introduced later on in the book. Quite simply it did not work and I felt disappointed by it. But until that point the writing is, as usual, excellent. The author does know how to hook the reader....

I've liked every novel I ever read by Douglas Kennedy. This one is no exception. I don't want to
be a spoiler, so I can't say too much. Kennedy is such a fantastic writer that even if this
story doesn't have the appeal of some of his other books, you'll keep reading. By way of
criticism, I'll say that I thought he gave something away too early in the story. I was
hooked and could have waited for it to be revealed.

I thought "The Big Picture" was one of the most compelling mysteries I
ever read. The Big Picture

While Kennedy churns out his entertaining novels, Random House markets them well; adorned in gauzy dust jackets with leggy pensive women. Stocking airport book shelves; they sell like hot cakes. A congenial little seat mate for that long plane flight across the continent or the ocean. The plot is not too complex; locale Paris, immigrant life apart from the Rue de Rivoli, generous sex, good dialogue and a disaffected protagonist, down on his heels, who at the end of the book needs to have his head examined.

If you are a guy totally down on your luck, this is the woman you want to meet. A very original and unexpected solution to all of life's petty problems. Excellent book, unique plot.