The Fifth Season Author:Robert C. S. Downs Downs's first novel in ten years tells the story of one man's attempt to reconcile the dimensions of his life in the face of his parents' decline Sixty-year-old Teddy Neel, an able professor, is son to Able and Lillian Neel, who are living and dying in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. The rift between father and son has been wide at times. Now Able, a... more » captain of industry in his prime, is losing a kidney to cancer, while Lillian, who is largely blind, is in the midstages of Alzheimer's, a matter cloaked by her husband's protective ruses. As Teddy visits them, their lives and true characters-and his own-are revealed in the stark minutiae of the every day. In on-rushing and meticulous present tense, Downs let us witness the love and beauty, the pain and frustration, of the day-to-day needs in The Fifth Season.« less