The Fourth Hand

Rating:
Summary: Loved the Writing
Review: The story line, which is totally necessary of course, takes a back seat to the writing in The Fourth Hand. The satire sneaks up on the reader and brings on a chuckle or grimace with each page. It is John Irving at his best.

Patrick Wallingford is a TV anchor and reporter for a second rate television station. In his heart he would like to do good stories with responsible reporting, however he only gets sent out to do the sensational ratings boosting type of stories. He also happens to be a fairly beneign sexual predator who seduces and sleeps with nearly every woman who crosses his path. His relationships have the depth of a puddle after a light rainstorm, and as the book begins, his wife is divorcing him because of his many affairs.

The assignment that paves the way for The Fourth Hand is to cover a circus in India. While Patrick is there a caged lion bites off his hand and the event is captured for all the world to see over and over again on television. Meanwhile, a woman in Wisconsin, an avid Green Bay Packers fan, who desperately wants to have a baby with the husband she has always loved, decides that it would be lovely if her husband donated his arm so that Patrick can have a "hand replacement." Meanwhile, a strange and dedicated surgeon in Boston is waiting to perform the first hand transplant and join the list of medical greats. The beloved husband dies; the widow has sex with Patrick before signing over her husband's hand and then requests visiting rights for herself and the baby to come.

The story line covers much contemporary disallusionment, hope, insecurity, love, shallow emotion, intense ambition, and commitment all between the covers of The Fourth Hand. I will never look at the 6:00 news anchors again without thinking of The Fourth Hand.

Rating:
Summary: Desperately lightweight
Review: A John Irving book is always something to look forward to - Piggy Sneed, Cider House Rules, Garp, Water-Method Man, all great, entertaining books - compellingly written, engrossing and the best type of best-seller.
The Fourth Hand however is almost laughably bad, mainly perhaps because it comes from John Irving. I find it hard to believe he really wrote this, as the sophomoric writing, plot and structure are just staggeringly weak. Perhaps, as Salon says, the book "is just a quick shot at another bestseller before the glow of the Oscar wears off". If so he'd better get the polish out ...

Rating:
Summary: The Best Irving Yet
Review: Tremendous! Fabulous! Wonderful! There are not enough superlatives to describe John Irving's latest work, The Fourth Hand. It is simply exquisite, made more so by sparse and tight writing. The World According to Garp established Irving's reputation as a serious writer. It also expressed a central theme: "In the world according to Garp, we are all terminal cases." With possibly one exception, Irving has explored the ways in which men and women can find meaning and hope in the face of the inevitability of death in all of its forms. Death is definitely present in The Fourth Hand: The death of John F. Kennedy, Jr, his wife, and his sister-in-law underlies a turning point in the narrative. Yet another turning point occurs with the destruction of the EgyptAir flight whose pilot, we now know, deliberately destroyed his plane and passengers. Death is present in more microcosmic ways, as well: the central character, Patrick Wallingford, loses his left hand to a lion in India (shades of Son of the Circus)....a devoted wife (and frustrated mother) in Wisconsin loses her drunken husband to a gun accident....when the man's hand is transplanted to Wallingford's stump, both he and Mrs. Clausen lose it to rejection. Yet, as Wallingford muses, the hand departed because it had done its work. It had freed both Patrick and Doris, the Wisconsin widow, from the addictions that had circumscribed their lives. Patrick's addiction took shape in a vapid life as a TV disaster commentator who attracted and bedded women almost offhandedly (to make a pun). Doris Clausen's addiction was to a narrowly defined life with a good man who drove a beer truck and lived to watch the Packers play. Before this lovely little novel is finished, both envision a larger world. That world will end in death, but that inevitability will be relieved and ultimately redeemed by the presence of love.

The last time John Irving came close to anything this profound and moving was in A Prayer for Owen Meany. In a review, I said that Owen Meany (the book and the character) represent Irving's ongoing search for a valid principle of transcendence. Introduced in his early novels, that search was addressed in Garp. In Hotel New Hampshire, we learned that one response to the transience of life is lunacy and sorrow. "Keep passing the open windows" was the mantra of the dysfunctional family in question. Then, Irving seemed to be saying that the best one could hope for is not to kill oneself in the face of the absurdity and pain that mark our days. It would be interesting to re-read Hotel in the aftermath of the events of 11 September, 2001. By Owen Meany, Irving has discovered that a death-bound world is also redeemed in self-sacrifice. "I am a Christian because of Owen Meany," says John Wheelwright, all the more after learning that Owen Meany had given his life to save innocent people from a terrorist attack (hmm, maybe we should re-read this one, too). With The Fourth Hand, Irving's musing is both gentler and more richly textured. Now, nearing sixty, Irving knows that there are many ways to benefit from the sacrifices of others, and there are many things that must be sacrificed for hope to survive. Don't miss this book.

Rating:
Summary: John Irving is John Irving
Review: The Fourth Hand may not be a moral epic adventure like some of Irving's other books, but it is fun to read and an ironic commentary on our time. The digs at the news networks are perceptive and right on. The hapless hero could be a metaphor, but he works as a real person as well. In my opinion, all John Irving books are worth reading and this one is no exception!

Rating:
Summary: HILARIOUS
Review: I rate this Irving high to skew the average. It SHOULD be higher. Love redeems, love cures, love hurts and makes us laugh right out loud. John Irving can conjure images that will lay 'em in the aisles when read and, on reflection, many times more. His characters are unmistakeably "his". If you want to read a good review see PUBLISHERS WEEKLY, or read Donna Seaman of BOOKLIST. They do it a lot better than most of us, and they are both in the "Editorial Review" section in this site. Then read this touching, funny, libidonous romp.
I limited myself to one chapter a day, but couldn't always stick to it.

Rating:
Summary: From Absurd to Dullness
Review: Well, I was quite enthousiastic about Irving, after reading the New Hamphire Hotel and the water drinker novel (I know its spanish translation only, sorry), and there was a strong campaign for Irving in the formal press, with long and very positive articles dedicated to the newest novel by the Cider House Rules man.
And it begins fast, funny and very very interesting, both on what Irving tells and the way he tells it. But... after the main character looses again the hand, the novel descends into the realms of nothingness, and an different novel begins; a very very ordinary love story. Besides, I am European, so I don't know anything about American Football...
Remarkable, though; the whole episode of how Patrick lost his hand, the life of Surgeon Zajac and Patrick's sexual adventures with Monika with K and the chewing gum girl, and also the Indian Pills plot. The rest? just pages and pages of dull litterature.

Rating:
Summary: a major disappointment
Review: There is very little of a positive nature to say about this book. It is difficult to care about any of the characters, except perhaps the hand surgeon. The plot is poorly supported--when we see a character change his feelings and behavior, there should be some reason for the change. The constant sex scenes were boring, offensive, and pointless. This book is not worthy of sitting on the same shelf with Owen Meany and Cider House Rules.

Rating:
Summary: I'll be the contrarian; I liked it!
Review: In this very likable novel, Irving decides to take on the medical establishment. Our main character, Patrick Wallingford, a sometimes likable yet roving lech, is a news reporter. During one of his trips abroad, he has his hand "removed" in a bizzare accident (I'll leave the details for you to read). Like all unfortunate events, the news media swarms the story and replays the hideously grotesque video incessantly thereby ensuring that Patrick would have anything but a normal life.

To trip wires of the medical ethicists, Wallingford makes plans to have a new hand transplanted. Our transplant specialist is, of course, the best transplant surgeon available if not a bit peculiar with this obsessive behavior toward dog poop and his live-in housekeeper. Our surgeon is prepared to perform the procedure but the widow of the donor throws a curve to Wallingford. Meet Doris Clausen. Prior to consenting to the transplant donorship, Doris demands to meet Patrick and further insists on visitation rights of the hand subsequent to the surgery. Upon meeting Doris, Patrick is lovestruck forever.

The story then weaves its way through many trials and tribulations, encounters, brief affairs and Green Bay football before its absolutely "feel-good" ending.

I read many of the other reviews of this book and frankly, couldn't disagree more with those naysayers. This was an interesting, funny and enjoyable read.

Rating:
Summary: The Fourth Hand
Review: If you like this author you will certainly be pleased with this work and will enjoy your time spent.

Rating:
Summary: The forth hand
Review: Irving must have felt pressure to get out a new book. This book was not of his usual quality or quantity. It did not contain his usual superb sentance structure. The Protaganist was unbelievable, underdeveloped and unlikeable. The sexual content was gratuitous. The only interesting story line was that of the surgeon and his son. I had to force myself to finish this book