Rating: 
Summary: Even Mediocre Irving Is Still Better Than Most
Review: The Fourth Hand is not close to being Irving's best work. Owen Meaney is my 2nd favorite book of all time and this book does not come close. Having said that, this is still a good book. The writing style is a pleasure to read. The bizarre plot points are trademark Irving. I also enjoyed the redemptive themes of the book. All-in-all a worthwhile read, just don't have your hopes up too high.
Rating: 
Summary: Irving Fans Will Be Disappointed
Review: As an avid Irving fan, I found The Fourth Hand to be one of his weakest works. True fans will read it because they love this author - and it's not a bad read. It's very funny in places, but those who expect something from Irving along the lines of Garp, Owen Meany, Cider House, or Widow will be sorely disappointed. The familiar theme of love as redemption rings a little hollow when the reader has a hard time caring much about the main character.The entire second chapter is dedicated to the maniacal Dr. Zajac, leading the reader to believe his story will be a true alternate plotline. However, Dr. Zajac receives little more than token treatment thereafter - like the third subplot of a sitcom. Ultimately, Dr. Zajac had the potential to be a much more compelling and sympathetic character than Patrick Wallingford. This may end up being a better movie than a book (I've read that Irving is already working up the screenplay - jeez, give a guy an Oscar!)
Rating:
Summary: Definitely not Owen Meany.
Review: Like some of the other reviewers, I am a big John Irving fan. And like the others, I found THE FOURTH HAND to be disappointing. It's John Irving gone over the top. Yes, he is the master of exaggeration and satire but this time his plot just turned ridiculous. Yes, there are some poignant moments... using STUART LITTLE to woo Rudy and Doris was lovely, and the wedding rings on the dock was breathtaking, but these moments are few and far between. I don't really care about football statistics or details of some guy's erection in my novels. Make me laugh or make me cry, John Irving. Unfortunately, all I did this time was yawn.
Rating: 
Summary: Pathetic
Review: I've found John Irving's past books to be wierd, so I began reading with full expectations that this one would be too. But I was unprepared for the explicit sex, and blatant (...)! I continued to the end hoping that there would be some justification for it. But if there was any, I missed it. The last book I read that compared was Kirk Douglas' autobiography. Thank goodness I got it at the library, instead of buying it!
Rating:
Summary: No Applause for the Fourth Hand
Review: Irving needs to use the two hands he does have to get a grip. One of America's premier writers, his previous novels have caused Catholics to espouse abortion (The Cider House Rules), male chauvinist pigs to espouse feminism (The World According to Garp, and tempted career military men to become pacifists (A Prayer for Owen Meany). Along the way, he has plumbed the depths of grief, the heights of heroism, the breadth of love, and the tragi-comic hilarity of our absurd human existence. The Fourth Hand provides several sex scenes that might have been better handled by Danielle Steele, takes a few ineffective pokes at the shallowness of contemporary TV journalism, and ends up leaving the reader relieved that the book is one of the shortest Irving has penned in some time. Like Heinlein, Ken Follett, and a few other male writers, as Irving has run short on content, he waxes long on sex. While I'm indebted to the image he provides of Mrs. Clausen installing a condom on her partner with just her teeth, the book leaves me feeling like I've eaten too much cotton candy, when what I wanted was a substantial meal. Less anatomy next time around, John. Maybe you and Barbara Kingsolver (Prodigal Summer) can get together for a week or so and just get it out of your systems, so that both of you can get back to what you do best: great characters, worthy themes.
Rating:
Summary: Give me a Hand
Review: While not on a par with Son of the Circus or Cider House Rules, this is a most interesting and amusing book. I couldn't put it down and laughed out loud. I think that this is definitely worthy of purchase and while not his best work, certainly an entertaining read.
Rating:
Summary: Hopelessly disappointed
Review: As an avid reader of John Irving, I'd hoped to be a naysayer to the common concensus that this book is a disappointment. Unfortunately, I have to agree. Probably my biggest complaint is that from an author that usually creates such complex, three-dimensional characters, I felt next to nothing for any of the characters in The Fourth Hand. In fact, Otto may have been the most well-developed character - and he was around for the shortest period of time. I think the story had potential but it fell well below its mark.
Rating: 
Summary: The Fourth Hand
Review: Very pleased. I couldn't put the book down. Another Irving book that makes you wonder where the hell he got some of these ideas. Doesn't matter. Go read it. I don't care what detailed reviews say (sure there are ways to disect the book). I don't care. It's just another very good book by Irving. So go read it. Worthy enough to splurge on the hardback to add to your library shelf. Maybe even with some spot lighting on it.
Rating:
Summary: Undisciplined but Compelling
Review: Patrick Wallingford, a TV reporter for "the disaster network," loses his hand to a caged lion during a televised story. The accident is broadcast over and over on TV for years and years, and of course Patrick's life is never the same. Everywhere Patrick goes, strange people call him the lion guy, and women often touch his arm just above the stump. Doctor Nicholas M. Zajac, surgeon to the stars and the most engaging character in the novel, does a hand transplant. But donor's widow wants to meet Patrick first, with visitation rights after. I won't spoil the book by telling you how it ends, but Irving's trademark taste for the bizarre is in full force throughout.
Dr. Zajac is by far the most compelling and engaging character in the novel. But it's hard to know whether Zajac receives too much or too little treatment. If Irving meant to portray Zajac (devoted father and monogamist) as a counterpoint to Wallingford (absent father and polygamist), then Zajac's story wasn't long enough. But as it is it feels like an overly long sidetrack into nowhere.
Woven throughout the story are tales of Patrick's various sexual escapades: a German camera girl, a makeup artist, a stranger in a hotel, a fellow reporter ... Patrick manages to bed woman after woman and yet seems strangely detached from each experience. In fact, for a book with so much sex, it was hardly titillating. Did Irving want the reader to feel as detached as Patrick Wallingford and his lost hand? Perhaps.
Overall this is a good story that was difficult to put down. But it would have been a GREAT story if Irving had shown more discipline or had a talented editor.
Rating:
Summary: Not up to his past work.
Review: There's nothing shockingly bad about The Fourth Hand. It's just ordinary. Much of the book seems formulaic -- repeated recountings of events and opinions, often introducing new events with phrases like "As for (so and so), ..." I've never seen "As for" so often in a book. And I've never felt like a John Irving book wasn't particularly well-written before, until now. Also: Why does every women in the book want to have sex with the main character, mother him, or destroy his life?
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