Subject: FIFTH HEAD OF CERBERUS (Wolfe)

From: Peter Cash <cash at worm.convex.com>
Date: Thu, 07 Sep 1995 16:26:49 +0000

THE FIFTH HEAD OF CERBERUS, by Gene Wolfe
		      A book review by Peter Cash

Spoiler warning: The following discussion of THE FIFTH HEAD of CERBERUS
contains spoilers.

THE FIFTH HEAD OF CERBERUS is copyright in 1972, but has apparently been
out of print for some time; the Orb edition was published in 1994. This
book deserves a place not only among science fiction/fantasy masterpieces,
but among the best literary works written in English during this century.

This book is composed of three novellas. The novellas are related but, how
they are related, and how _much_ they are related, is not easy to judge.
FIFTH HEAD is ambiguous, complex, and puzzling; it will leave you wondering
what _really_ went on long after you have finished it. Don't let me mislead
you - this isn't a book that will leave you unsatisfied with its loose ends
and unresolved puzzles; instead, it will leave you feeling that you have
read something far richer than you are accustomed to. The impression FIFTH
HEAD left on me was that it was simply so complex, so multi-layered, that I
couldn't hope to ever understand all of it. I'll be thinking about it for a
long time.

The first novella, itself called "The Fifth Head of Cerberus," tells the
story of a young man's coming of age in a rather sinister and completely
odd family.  The young man, who is never named but narrates the story in
the first person, has a very peculiar relationship with his father - they
are very, very much alike. Eventually, the son ostensibly kills his father,
is sent to prison, and after some years in prison is released to resume his
father's career as pimp in the family house on Saltimbanque street.

I say "ostensibly," for the killing scene is written so elliptically that
it's hard to tell what really happened. Did the "father" kill the "son,"
and take _his_ place? (If so, why?) Did the mysterious anthropologist Prof.
Marsch, who is apparently a shape-changing alien, take over one of the
other's roles, and kill the remaining one? I don't know. And whatever
happened to the father's "normal" son, David? And what was the connection
between Marsch and the aunt?

The middle novella - "A Story," by John V. Marsch, doesn't seem to have any
direct connection with the other two, except it gives us some hints about
the nature of the shape-changers and about how the twin planets St. Anne
and St. Croix on which all three novelettes take place became colonized.
It's told in third person, mostly from the viewpoint of what is either a
human or a shape-changer (everyone seems rather confused about who they are
- - a theme never far from the surface in any of the three novellas) named
Sandwalker.  In the end, Sandwalker may, or may not, change places with his
twin brother.  The main connection between the second novella and the other
two seems to be in the title - it's attributed to the anthropologist, Prof.
Marsch. But then again, things are not necessarily what they seem in the
universe of Wolfe.

The third novella - "V.R.T" is partly a cleverly disguised first-person
narrative.  Usually, it's difficult for an author to mystify his audience
with a first-person account the way Gene Wolfe likes to mystify us; since
the narrator usually knows too much, tension is hard to maintain. (Unless
you resort to making him an amnesiac, as Wolfe does in his SOLDIER series.)
In this case, Wolfe has an anonymous "officer" go through the recordings
and papeers pertaining to the interrogation of Prof. Marsch, who it seems
has been placed in Kafkaesque arrest after the murder on Saltimbanque
street (but he is not charged with murder). Some of the records are
first-person memoirs which may, or may not, indicate that while on the
planet St. Anne, the real Prof. Marsch died and had his place taken by one
"V.R.T.", allegedly a shape-changer. Again, connections to the other two
novellas are indirect, and quite mysterious.  There is some indication that
the officer's slave may be one of a clone of the narrator in the first
novella.

As you can see, the questions are many. I would welcome net discussion on
all the things I missed! (A net correspondent has already pointed out to me
that it is possible to deduce the name of the family in the first novella,
and has provided me with some clues but, I have not yet figured it out.

Author:     Wolfe, Gene
Title:      THE FIFTH HEAD OF CERBERUS
Publisher:  An Orb Book, Tom Doherty & Associates Inc.
City:       New York, N.Y.
Date:       1994
Order Info: ISBN 0-312-89020-6
Pages:      252 pp.

Peter Cash