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The Fourth Hand

by John Irving (Goodreads Author)

3.25 of 5 stars 3.25 · rating details · 16,352 ratings · 668 reviews

"The Fourth Hand asks an interesting question: "How can anyone identify a dream of the future?" The answer: "Destiny is not imaginable, except in dreams or to those in love."" "While reporting a story from India, a New York television journalist has his left hand eaten by a lion; millions of TV viewers witness the accident. In Boston, a renowned hand surgeon awaits the opp...more

Mass Market Paperback, 368 pages

Published April 29th 2003 by Fawcett (first published January 1st 2001)

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May 29, 2010 J rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: american-fiction

This story, with all its unlikely characters and the attendant twists and turns, has John Irving's mark all over it. John Irving is with out a doubt, my favorite living American writer. It therefore comes as no surprise that I would find this book enjoyable.

For me, the characters are believable and their stories come together to reveal the intricacies that tie them all to one another. Patrick Wallingford is a sympathetic enough character in that his initial shallowness makes him someone whom I...more This story, with all its unlikely characters and the attendant twists and turns, has John Irving's mark all over it. John Irving is with out a doubt, my favorite living American writer. It therefore comes as no surprise that I would find this book enjoyable.

For me, the characters are believable and their stories come together to reveal the intricacies that tie them all to one another. Patrick Wallingford is a sympathetic enough character in that his initial shallowness makes him someone whom I would like to see get his comeuppances. However, the accident which he had a hand in (pardon the pun) proves to be a point of embarkation where he realizes that such a devastating loss leads to immeasurable rewards.

I found the back story about the 'faux' news network to be particularly apropos because Irving was able to project an absurd sense of reality to an otherwise inane albeit acceptable genre of entertainment in American culture today; news. Mary Shannahan's character was someone who I loved to hate - not so much because of her gender but because of her ceaseless, raw ambition which defies everything her television personality puts forward. It is a matter of image versus substance - the entire theme of this book - who we are as opposed to who we want people to believe that we are.

For anyone who feels jaded by what comes across as news nowadays, this is definitely a book for you. For those who fail to see the irony in news which really isn't; this may not be the book for you. Such critics of this story who point to the unbelievability of such a story as, "The Fourth Hand," are likely to pan it because, "The Fourth Hand" fails to follow a prescribed script more akin to what can be routinely found on any given cable news channel. Ignore the naysayers and read the book. It is good and stands on its own.

As an aside, I'll definitely be picking up, "The English Patient," and "Stewart Little" - the two books Irving mentioned in this story. I enjoy picking up on the ongoing side bar commentary he seems to offer to anyone who is paying enough attention to what he has to say - aside from the obvious story line in his other books. His delivery is subtle and unmistakably John Irving. I suppose this why I enjoy his writing so much.(less)

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May 18, 2007 Zack Brown rated it 4 of 5 stars

I just finished reading John Irving’s The Fourth Hand. While it is worth noting that I have previously read both The World According to Garp and A Prayer for Owen Meany, found each to be better than The Fourth Hand, and recommend that you read both, The Fourth Hand is especially significant today--two days after the Virginia Tech shooting.

The Fourth Hand is a story that follows a cad of a television field reporter who loses his left hand to an Indian circus lion while on an assignment. The repo...more I just finished reading John Irving’s The Fourth Hand. While it is worth noting that I have previously read both The World According to Garp and A Prayer for Owen Meany, found each to be better than The Fourth Hand, and recommend that you read both, The Fourth Hand is especially significant today--two days after the Virginia Tech shooting.

The Fourth Hand is a story that follows a cad of a television field reporter who loses his left hand to an Indian circus lion while on an assignment. The reporter, Patrick Wallingford, later falls in love with the widow of his hand transplant donor. The book has fewer layers than Garp or A Prayer for Owen Meany, and is without the adroit literary architecture present in most of Irving’s work. However, its commentary on the era of sensationalist ‘all-news-networks’ and their exploitation of national tragedies is particularly pertinent this week.

The following is from a Facebook group, posted by a news outlet on Monday:

"Hi everyone. My name is Karen Park. I am working with Tokyo Broadcasting System (TBS) in New York City. We are looking for (korean) people from VT who knew Mr. Cho personally, had a class with him, was his roommate in previous years, etc…

We would also like to know if anybody has any photographs or video clips of him or with him. We are interested in only showing his face and so we will blot out the faces of other people in the photographs.

Lastly, if anyone is willing to do a brief on-camera interview with one of our correspondents in Virginia or a telephone interview, please call us immediately..."

On Monday night, Brian Williams did the NBC Nightly News broadcast from the Hokie campus in Blacksburg. Tucker Carlson, MSNBC’s chief political pundit, was also there. Hoards of reporters have descended on Blacksburg, looking for the “he kept to himself” sound bytes and B-roll of the hysterical, sobbing friends of victims; ESPN is reporting on the canceled Hokie spring game and how the ‘innocence’ of college sports will bring us back together. Even the all-sports-news network struck gold:

“you realize there are 32 people who aren't walking down to the football game."
In The Fourth Hand, Wallingford is at the anchor desk the week of JFK Jr’s plane crash over Martha’s Vineyard. He curses both the local news and all-news networks for taking telephoto shots of the victims’ friends and family, and the networks’ proclivity to stretch a tragic story into a multi-week feeding frenzy. Wallingford would chastise Brian Williams for his reporting with all the gravitas and feigned verisimilitude of having been in the classroom with the victims, and the way the press will scrutinize the writings of Cho Seung-Hui and opine that someone should have seen it coming.

The Fourth Hand is about a man who loses his hand and finds his soul. Needless to say, it is a work of fiction. Our aggressive all-news culture will ride the Virginia Tech story like they did Imus and Duke and Anna Nicole Smith; they will be relentless. There are 28,000 students at Virginia Tech and, by the end of this week, each will have been solicited for an on-camera interview, photographs of Cho Seung-Hui and more information about the thirty-two victims.

On the fourth or fifth day of non-stop reporting following Kennedy’s plane crash, Wallingford sits in the anchor’s chair watching—with millions of viewers worldwide—a network montage of Kennedy Jr.’s life. The montage ends—with the image of John-John saluting his father’s funeral procession—and the camera is back on Wallingford. In lieu of his usual signoff (“Goodnight, Doris. Goodnight, my little Otto.”) Wallingford says, “Let’s hope that’s the end of it.”
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Dec 04, 2007 Stephanie "Jedigal" rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

John Irving's characters are often quirky to say the least. Normally they draw one in. Irving's typical forays into the minds of the odd but believable individuals who populate his stories are usually irresistably intriguing. I have often had a difficult time putting an Irving novel down.

This novel for some reason does not work. The characters did not interest me, and I neither liked nor disliked most of them. The plot drags on. I often considered putting the book down for good, and not finishi...more

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Apr 14, 2009 David Wrubel rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction-general

I will admit to being a huge fan of Irving's, and though this is not one of his best known works at all, it is sneaky good and its themes seem to keep popping up when you least expect it.

The Plot: In India, an American journalist accidentally has his left hand is eaten by a lion. Sounds contrived, but it works. And back in the States, a famous surgeon is chomping at the bit for the chance to perform the nation's first hand transplant. And he does, with great success.

Here comes the real plot twis...more

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Jan 25, 2011 Alex Telander rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: books-read-in-2002

John Irving has to be one of the most gifted writers, creating unique characters that can never be forgotten, and he does it once again with The Fourth Hand.

Our main character is Patrick Wallingford, a very unusual person and certifiably doomed in that Irving way. And while Irving’s past books may have roared from start to finish, The Fourth Hand does the same right up to the last fifty pages or so, where it slows to a crawl, and everyone conveniently lives happily ever after.

Patrick Wallingford...more

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Jun 09, 2013 La Stamberga dei Lettori rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: antonio

John Irving è conosciuto in Italia soprattutto per il romanzo "Le regole della casa del sidro", da cui è stato tratto un film che appare periodicamente alla televisione (anche se, si spera, non raggiungerà mai la frequenza con cui viene trasmesso Pretty Woman).
In "La quarta mano", un racconto piuttosto surreale, scritto con mano leggera, il protagonista è un giornalista, Patrick Wallingford, una specie di anchorman, che viene mandato dalla rete televisiva per cui lavora a fare un reportage in In...more

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Mar 26, 2013 Jen rated it 3 of 5 stars

I liked this book primarily for the same reason I’ve liked other John Irving books: the characters are so incredibly fleshed out that even their strangest motivations and decisions make sense to me. The story deals with bizarre events that are a bit difficult to fathom on their own, but when told within the context of the way these characters feel about them and get through them, suddenly everything is vivid and real. Ultimately, they are just people dealing with what life has thrown at them, ho...more

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Mar 04, 2013 Ruthie rated it 3 of 5 stars

I read A Prayer For Owen Meany last year and loved it so much that I wanted to read more of this amazing author John Irving.

The Fourth Hand was not what I expected. I'm not sure why I wasn't prepared for it, considering that the words "sexual farce" were written in the summary on the front flap of the book. The best way I know to describe this novel is: a mix of John Steinback and Fifty Shades of Grey. (Don't panic, friends - I haven't read and don't intend to read Fifty Shades. I've heard enoug...more

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Feb 23, 2013 Katia rated it 5 of 5 stars

Ce roman est décalé dès le départ. Du coup on est dans le bain rapidement. J'ai vu récemment une interview sur France 5 ou je l'ai trouvé très intéressant. Cependant je ne sais pas comment cet auteur arrive à passer pour un homme sain ou encore à répondre à une interview comme un auteur normal. Cet homme a une imagination débordante et il sait à chaque roman, nous plonger dans de nouveaux univers. C'est vraiment un auteur hors normes, ces personnages sont singuliers (ici Patrick Wallingford est...more Ce roman est décalé dès le départ. Du coup on est dans le bain rapidement. J'ai vu récemment une interview sur France 5 ou je l'ai trouvé très intéressant. Cependant je ne sais pas comment cet auteur arrive à passer pour un homme sain ou encore à répondre à une interview comme un auteur normal. Cet homme a une imagination débordante et il sait à chaque roman, nous plonger dans de nouveaux univers. C'est vraiment un auteur hors normes, ces personnages sont singuliers (ici Patrick Wallingford est un journaliste qui ne fait rien pour se démarquer, mais qui fait tomber les femmes comme des mouches sans jamais faire le premier pas. En fait "il inspirait un trouble érotique et un désir hors norme", rien de moins). En ce qui concerne son style, j'adore, mais l'idéal serait de le lire en anglais. En tout cas la traduction est de qualité. Une chose est sûre, il a des idées toujours plus époustouflantes. Après l'avoir découvert avec Le monde selon Garp je me suis dit on ne peut plus rien inventer d'aussi fou, et bien si ! Ce que j'adore chez John Irving c'est que je suis toujours surprise, et c'est très plaisant de savoir que chaque roman sera une découverte. Bon parlons un peu de ce roman ! Rien ne se passe jamais simplement, aussi lorsque Patrick peut recevoir une greffe de main, celle-ci a comme qui dirait "un fil à la patte" et il se fait aussi greffer Doris Clausen. Doris, veuve d'Otto, le propriétaire de la main, veut retrouver son mari à travers cette main, et ne quitte plus Patrick. Comme quoi les personnages sont vraiment singuliers. Je trouve ce roman très profond, car il n'est pas seulement bon en surface, en plus il fait réfléchir. Ce journaliste change peu à peu, et la perte de sa main lui apporte une dimension plus grave. Il cherche de la reconnaissance, de la compassion, mais ne les trouve pas. Doris va beaucoup lui apporter. Cet homme à femmes va s'assagir et s'attacher à elle. J'ai aussi beaucoup aimé le personnage du chirurgien le Dr Zajac. Ce médecin spécialiste de la main n'est jamais reconnu comme tel car ces greffes se traduisent par des échecs. Il a un fils qui ne mange pas , sûrement par mimétisme (lui même est maigre, mange des graines et mène une vie très saine), une assistante folle de lui (surtout à partir de la page 50) et qui va même jusqu'à se métamorphoser pour lui plaire. En voici un passage éloquent : "La jeune femme avait perdu dix kilos, elle s'était inscrite à un club de gymnastique, elle courait cinq kilomètres par jour, et pas en petites foulées. Et si ses nouvelles tenues n'étaient pas du meilleur goût, elles avaient été choisies pour mettre son corps en valeur. Car belle, Irma ne le serait jamais, mais elle était bien bâtie". Ainsi Zajac quitte son démon de femme (Hildred) pour vivre une passion avec Irma. C'est un roman à épaisseur, voilà ce qui me vient pour le décrire, car il est drôle, débridé, parfois léger, mais il possède aussi un côté grave et délicat. J'ai aussi beaucoup aimé les remerciements, dans lesquels l'auteur explique d'où lui est venue l'idée de ce roman, et puis ils sont aussi très bien écrits.(less)

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Dec 31, 2012 Kathleen Hagen added it

Shelves: 2012-audio-books

The Fourth Hand, by John Irving, Narrated by Jason Culp, Produced by Random House Audio, Downloaded from Audible.com.

A rather superficial television journalist, working for an international tabloid television station, gets his hand in a lions’ cage and has it bitten off, seen by thousands of television viewers. He is known as “lion guy” or “one-hand guy”. A woman in Green Bay Wisconsin, a zealous fan of the Packers, gets the idea that her husband, in his donor card, should donate his hand, if he...more

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Dec 11, 2012 Hilary G rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Ex Bookworm group review:

I mentioned in my review reminder that I was reading this book for the second time because I had read it on holiday and couldn't remember anything about it. As I have re-read the first hundred pages or so, I've come to the realisation that I still won't remember that much about it because it isn't really about anything – or not anything I care about, anyway.

My biggest problem with the book is that it just tries too damn hard, to be clever and funny and, I suppose, Irving...more Ex Bookworm group review:

I mentioned in my review reminder that I was reading this book for the second time because I had read it on holiday and couldn't remember anything about it. As I have re-read the first hundred pages or so, I've come to the realisation that I still won't remember that much about it because it isn't really about anything – or not anything I care about, anyway.

My biggest problem with the book is that it just tries too damn hard, to be clever and funny and, I suppose, Irvingesque. Irving is a bit of a legend in his own lifetime and clearly he himself has been completely taken in by the hype. This isn't really fair, I know, but the picture of the author on the inside front cover irritated the hell out of me, being something of a "pin up" that seems to demand us not only hanging on his every word because he's a "truly great American author" (must be, says so on the back cover), but thinking him a bit of a hunk as well. I just thought he looked smug.

I found some of the screamingly funny parts of the book completely unfunny. The constant references to the three-named doorman who mistook Wallingford for some sort of ball player (baseball?) left my sides decidedly unsplit. Obviously my problem, because everyone knows just how original and funny John Irving is, everyone says so, therefore (as an old boyfriend often used to tell me when I failed to be amused by things that amused him) I have NO SENSE OF HUMOUR.

I found it impossible to care about most of the characters. I felt no sympathy for Wallingford when the lions snacked on his left hand and no joy when his love for Doris was finally consummated (no, Ray, I didn't forget about the earlier sex, but it was only a metaphor!) I tried to relate to the characters in an allegorical sense, but I couldn't for the life of me imagine what they were an allegory for (should that be of)? I read somewhere about "redemptive love" (either on the cover, or in a review somewhere) but redeem a cardboard cut out and it's still a cardboard cut out. If there was redemptive love in the book, I didn't find it where I think I was supposed to, but I did find it in the parts of the book about Dr Zajac and his son, Rudy. I found their relationship moving and human and I cared enough about them to wish them well. Their part of the book was warm and actually funny. The dog-turd lacrosse did make me laugh and was inventive and clever, but stuck out like an iceberg in an otherwise running sea.

This wasn't a bad book, by any means. It was competently written, the plot hung together, there were some neat turns of phrase. I've got to the age where life is too short to read crap books to the end, but I never thought of not finishing this one. Maybe the problem was my expections as I had the constant sense that the book was "not good enough". I remember The World According to Garp as being startlingly original and a really fun read, but I suspect this one won't stay in my memory for very long, dog turd lacrosse and all.

Apparently this book was engendered by the author's wife, Janet, asking the inspiring question " What if the donor's widow demands visitation rights with the hand?" I guess if John Irving is going to write better books, he's going to have to get a new wife!
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Jul 23, 2012 Lex rated it 4 of 5 stars

Yes! John Irving wins again!!! Sir, you are my novelist hero! How are you so awesome? Please, spill your secrets to me! I must know how to write like you, sir!
(If you can't tell) I love John Irving! Since the day I picked up his book The Cider House Rules, I have devoured his novels! They are unbelievable, strange, and intelligent and The Fourth Hand is no exception.
In India, a journalist named Patrick gets his left hand eaten by a lion. On the east coast, a doctor wants to be the first surgeon...more

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Jan 11, 2010 Boris rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: people who like reading love stories

Recommended to Boris by: my dad

First of all, the genre of the novel is sort of like a drama but also a love story. The novel is about the main character, and how he travelled to India and got his hand bitten off by a lion. He is awaiting a hand transplant,but the donor's wife had wanted visitation rights with the hand. From there on, a love story develops between the two. The protaganist is Patrick Wallingford, a t.v journalist, he was the one that got his hand bitten off. Patrick's ex- wife and supporting character is named...more

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Nov 17, 2009 Architeuthis rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: literature, 2000s

While at work on the massive tome that became Until I Find You, John Irving took a break to work on the comedic and relatively short novel, The Fourth Hand. Irving began it hoping it would be his first comedy since The Water-Method Man.

The Fourth Hand is quite funny, especially in the earlier chapters, but it ends up growing out of its original intentions; by the end, you're not reading a comedy. It's not a sad book, but it is bittersweet in a way that will be familiar to John Irving fans.

Patr...more While at work on the massive tome that became Until I Find You, John Irving took a break to work on the comedic and relatively short novel, The Fourth Hand. Irving began it hoping it would be his first comedy since The Water-Method Man.

The Fourth Hand is quite funny, especially in the earlier chapters, but it ends up growing out of its original intentions; by the end, you're not reading a comedy. It's not a sad book, but it is bittersweet in a way that will be familiar to John Irving fans.

Patrick Wallingford is a television correspondent for a television network known as the "disaster channel." While filming a segment about a bizarre and tragic accident at a circus, Patrick's hand is devoured by a lion. Following the event, which is shown endlessly on television, he becomes known as "the lion guy," and becomes much more famous than he ever was before, ending up a news anchor. But Patrick is a shallow, womanizing little shit, and is good looking enough to get away with it.

A man from Wisconsin agrees to donate his hand to Patrick in the case of his death. Then, through a bizarre accident, the man dies. Patrick inherits the man's hand, and falls in love with the man's wife (who doesn't love him). This unrequited love causes Patrick to begin reevaluating his own life.

Personally, I've never known any guys who have this easy of a time getting poontang. It seems like every time Patrick turns around, some hottie is dropping her panties. I'm not sure whether a feminist reading of this book would find John Irving in contempt or not. But, it seems to me that we're SUPPOSED to see Patrick as a prick for most of the novel . . . so is all of this womanizing acceptable? Personally, I wasn't blown away by any of the female characters here, not even the woman he falls for, and my favorite was the gum-chewing ho who did Patrick's makeup. I mention all of this because I was mildly distracted throughout by the treatment of women, and how shallow it often felt. So, if that's something that often gets you up in arms, you probably won't enjoy this book as much as you would many of Irving's other works.

This is definitely worth reading for any Irving fan. If you haven't read anything yet by him, I wouldn't start here: track down a copy of The World According to Garp or A Prayer For Owen Meany. This book is good because it's John Irving weaving a fun and bizarre tapestry like he always does. You know how Iron & Wine songs are always good because they always sound like Iron & Wine? Same principal here. The extra incentive here is the fact that this book is more continuously funny than usual, and this might be Irving's only novel where he doesn't try and tell the entire story of the main character's life. The whole story focuses on five or so years for the main characters. So, read it if you're moved to do so. Or don't. Yeah, I never know how to end these reviews. I could end it with a tacky joke about giving a HAND to John Irving, but that would be lame, wouldn't it?
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Jan 01, 2011 Joan Winnek rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I quite enjoyed this slimmer (by comparison to his others) book. I picked it up because I've had a terrible cold and couldn't handle anything long or difficult. At the beginning the novel is funny as Irving creates a vivid and absurd scene of the lion attack. Patrick, the victim and main character, is a pretty boy playboy, about as superficial as one can be, and passive. The focus on the surgeon who transplants a new hand from a dead man is also witty. Over time, after receiving the hand transpl...more

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Jan 17, 2011 Sandy rated it 5 of 5 stars

The Fourth Hand, John Irivings 2004 bestseller, is the story of a talking head who works for a TV version of the National Enquirer. What is sordid, outrageous, and not really worthy of our attention is the stuff of the network for which Patrick Wallingford reports.

His own maiming while by a lion in India while he is reporting a story about the circus industry makes him the subject of his own network's reporting. He becomes The Lion Guy, One-Hand.

He also becomes the subject of a medical experimen...more The Fourth Hand, John Irivings 2004 bestseller, is the story of a talking head who works for a TV version of the National Enquirer. What is sordid, outrageous, and not really worthy of our attention is the stuff of the network for which Patrick Wallingford reports.

His own maiming while by a lion in India while he is reporting a story about the circus industry makes him the subject of his own network's reporting. He becomes The Lion Guy, One-Hand.

He also becomes the subject of a medical experiment in hand transplantation that places him in the company of one Doris Clausen, whose recently decease husband's hand becomes Wallingford's third hand for a little while.

The encounter with Mrs. Clausen effects Wallingford in ways he could not have imagined at that point in his fast-paced, high-profile, completely insubstantial point in his life. Wallingford, a shallow, thoughtless womanizer (a good looking guy who does not seduce but is seduced over and over again), realizes, thanks to Mrs. Clausen, that he wants more than anything to be happy. The only way to be happy is to be genuine.

Getting to that point requires changing himself. The Fourth Hand is Wallingford's journey from Mrs. Clausen and back to her again. Along the way, Wallingford stops asking for permission to make his life and be happy and takes the chances that make claiming happiness possible.

Happiness is possible even in the unlikeliest of circumstances if you make up your mind that happiness is possible--even in the unlikeliest of circumstances. Even for real people who have messed up their lives beyond belief and demonstrated their worst qualities in outrageous ways. If you want it, happiness is yours.

While the events in Wallingford's life seem to be maddeningly random, there nevertheless seems to a plan that drives his life amid the plane crashes and other catastrophes that shape the course of his life. Does he move through a pattern laid out before him without any control over the outcome, or does the deep desire for a genuine experience of happiness impel him forward in ways he never completely understands? Is there a goodness inside him that claims him, or does he claim it?

It might not matter.

________

This is the first book I read on my Kindle, which I purchased online Christmas after I saw the one my daughter received for Christmas. I was taken by how clear and beautiful the screen is. I was taken, too, by the beautiful screen savers that take form all by themselves.

The Kindle makes me think of the living pictures in the Harry Potter movies. In a delightful way, the text on a Kindle seems to be alive--perhaps because the Kindle makes it easy to connect with others reading the same book or to jump out of the book and into the online world for a while. I don't know. But the Kindle doesn't let me forget that the universe is alive, vibrant and vibrating; nothing is still or changeless. This idea and the potential it suggests--that texts are living things that engage us and change us if we let them--reminds me of why I love to read and love to teach reading. (less)

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Oct 19, 2012 Sydney rated it 3 of 5 stars

I hate to give anything by John Irving only three stars because he really is one of my favorite authors. He has the ability to make really outlandish plots involving the worst of human nature be really believable. Characters that you would disdain in real life, you empathize with. I think it is his greatest asset and reveals some real bizarre elements of his own nature, which is why I am not sure I want to meet John Irving, but I know I want to keep reading his books. This book, though, lost me....more

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Jun 05, 2012 Caroline rated it 2 of 5 stars

This novel follows the highlights and troughs in the life of Patrick Wallingford, a journalist working for a trashy 24-hour TV news station.

Whilst covering a story in India, he gets one of his hands bitten off by a circus lion. A surgeon shows interest in trying a hand transplant, and shortly after this Doris Clausen, a newly widowed woman who saw the lion episode on television, offers one of her husband's hands for the operation....on the condition she can have visiting rights to see the hand...more

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Sep 09, 2012 Kwirky Kirsten rated it 4 of 5 stars

All I can say is "meh." Not sure why, but this story just didn't grab me like the rest of his stories. Maybe it's because it doesn't present a new persective to turn over in my mind. Garp, Cider House Rules, Meany all provided a good shove to more deeply consider what it's like to live in the shoes of an "outsider."

The media has always repulsed me, not to the point I would begrudge anyone having both hands. Nonetheless, they gross me out with their "half stories" and circular logic. He merely c...more

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Aug 21, 2011 Glendalee rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: favorites, fiction

I read a lot of the reviews by some goodread readers where they said this book lacked a real plot. Of course I disagree with that opinion as you can see by the 5 stars that I gave this book. This was a very unique novel from any other book or previous Irving book I have read.

The story is about a womanizing journalist named Patrick Wallingford who gets his left hand eaten by a lion while covering a story in India. Out of the millions of people who see this happen on T.V, it is one women named Do...more I read a lot of the reviews by some goodread readers where they said this book lacked a real plot. Of course I disagree with that opinion as you can see by the 5 stars that I gave this book. This was a very unique novel from any other book or previous Irving book I have read.

The story is about a womanizing journalist named Patrick Wallingford who gets his left hand eaten by a lion while covering a story in India. Out of the millions of people who see this happen on T.V, it is one women named Doris who wants her husband Otto to become a donor for Patrick because she feels really sorry for him. Otto isn't to thrilled about the idea but does it anyway not because his wife forces him to but because he can't resist her. When Doris uses her "seductive" tone of voice on him, Otto succumbs to anything she desires because he is so aroused; so he becomes a donor. Otto ends up dying by mistake when he shoots himself while drunk. Patrick now has a new left hand under one condition, Otto's widower Doris wants visitation rights with the left hand because it is the only thing of Otto that she has left. Before the surgery Doris "rapes" Patrick (who can blame her hes a handsome devil) because she was trying for a baby with Otto for so many years but they were unsuccessful. So she becomes pregnant with Pats baby. After the hand transplant, Doris spends as much time as she desires with Patrick (or better said with his left hand). Womanizer Patrick ends up falling in love with this odd woman who is now carrying his child. Though Doris is carrying Pat's child she no longer sleeps with him again, she got what she wanted which was a baby and time with her husbands left hand. Unsurprisingly Patrick's body ends up rejecting the hand after almost a year, also unsurprisingly Doris looses interest in him after her late husbands left hand is removed. Though Patrick has a string of flings behind him, and commitment issues, he wants to be a part of Doris and his child's life but she doesn't begin a relationship between thems.

The novel then goes on about Patrick's journey in trying to win Doris love and trying to be a part of his sons life; while trying to get fired from his journalism job because he realizes its not a job he wants to be a part of because of the fake people who work there...and all the women he has slept with there. I won't spoil the ending and tell you what ends up happening between Patrick and Doris. But I will say the ending was unexpected yet satisfying like all of Irving endings.

I think this novel was less dark and tragic than the other previous Irving novels I've read. It still had a lot of comedy in there. It was more hilarious than sad. There were some funny ex lovers and current lovers of Patrick that made this novel so hilarious and hard to put down. Despite Patrick womanizing ways, I like every girl in this book was also in love with him. He had his flaws but overall he was a nice and honest man, who ended up growing at the end of this novel. I didn't like the fact that he was so easily persuaded into doing things though. He has a vulnerability in him that makes him give in easily to people. He has the personality you wouldn't expect of someone so handsome.

Overall, I enjoyed this novel. I think it had a great and unique story line, but what else can you expect from Irving?. I think the critics here on goodreads for this book were to harsh, making it seem so terrible when it really wasn't. I think if your looking for a unique funny love story, you'll find it in this book. Irving will reel you in! Trust me!.
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Jan 11, 2011 Fred rated it 3 of 5 stars

I'm a devoted fan of John Irving's books and have read six other of this earlier novels. There's something about his characters and his worldview that resonates with me, and it's that fact that kept me interested in this novel even when it became less interesting than I hoped. Or maybe that's not quite right. The story remained of interest, but the outcome of the characters' fates began to feel less compelling. The redemption of the main character felt increasingly certain (which may have been d...more

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Apr 10, 2008 Rea rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

For the standard that is John Irving, this book was so disappointing. I don't think he had much of a story and was depending on his characteristic literary traits to hold the story together, but unfortunately it backfired and instead of sustaining a mediocre story, turned all the things I loved about him into clichés and far-stretched half baked ideas. Do not judge Irving by this book, he is so much better than this!

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Oct 16, 2009 Matt Dorsey rated it 3 of 5 stars

"Absurd just for the sake of it." That was my opinion of this book after my wife (who'd just finished reading it) asked what I thought a hundred pages in. But then the book's central relationship develops and it became apparent that all this absurdity did indeed have a purpose: the ways in which humans manage their grief are absurd and unruly. Indeed, the core of this novel is a meditation on grief. Often it's touching, sometimes cutting, definitely unique.

The problem, then, comes from a lack of...more

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Aug 04, 2011 Jayne Charles rated it 3 of 5 stars

The blurb on the back of the book informed me that the main character has his hand bitten off by a lion. This being a John Irving novel, my first happy thought was that at least such a person would struggle to wrestle... Thus I decided to read this one, though it did turn out to have many of the features of Irving novels that have irritated me in the past - preoccupation with American Football (though it might even have been baseball, that's how little I understood of it), at least one bedroom s...more

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Oct 20, 2012 Jim rated it 3 of 5 stars

This is a story of a man's life after he has his left hand bitten off by a lion in a zoo in India. When a hand transplant becomes feasible, we follow the stories of the man, the hand donor's wife, and the surgeon who is to perform the transplant as well as a strange group of secondary characters. The elements expected in a novel by John Irving are mostly present which include a protagonist who mostly lets life carry him off by events with very little intervention from him, infidelity, sports (fo...more

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Jun 16, 2010 Angela rated it 4 of 5 stars

I'm glad that I didn't realize who John Irving was before I read this book--if I were expecting another Owen Meany, I would've been sorely disappointed. Do not, however, take that to mean that I didn't enjoy this novel.

I do love the sardonic tone that our omniscient narrator takes throughout the book--he points out quirks and hypocrisies with what amounts to an accepting shrug of the shoulder, illustrating and forgiving human imperfection without even realizing that he is doing it. And the plot...more

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Jul 10, 2011 Susan Emmet rated it 4 of 5 stars

Was hungry for Irving at the beach and found The Fourth Hand at the used book place attached to Lisa's Legit Burritos in Gardiner. The novel tracks Patrick Wallingford whose hand is eaten by a lion while he's reporting in India while working for a questionable tabloid company. He gets a transplant from the widow of a man who died; she insists on visitation rights. The story follows Patrick, the widow, Dr. Zajac (the surgeon who reconnects the hand and also with his son), and Stuart Little, the E...more

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Oct 07, 2010 Rat rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to Rat by: My OH

Shelves: fiction

What I learned from this book? - John Irving can take a weird premise and stretch it out to a small novel...

... and that's not an entirely bad thing. The plot, whilst a little surreal, was nevertheless engaging and held my interest.

I found the first portion of the book to be darkly humourous, even when - or perhaps especially when - dabbling in difficult situations and events. The latter portions have a different feel - having a more serious, slower pace. And I think that is the point - as the m...more

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Jan 19, 2012 Wright Forbucks rated it 3 of 5 stars

I wish I could write half as well as John Irving, and upfront I'd have to admit if this book was written by a self-published author I'd give it 5 stars. But, for the great John Irving, I use a different rating standard. I believe, this is not John Irving's finest work.
Any John Irving book contains numerous paragraphs that are worth the price of the entire book, and The Fourth Hand is no exception, but I feel this novel is not as compelling as some the author's other works.
I love the concept of...more

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Mar 18, 2011 Allison rated it 2 of 5 stars

It pains me, LITERALLY PAINS ME, to give a John Irving novel anything less than 4 stars. He is among my favorite living authors, and I typically wholeheartedly enjoy the stories he tells and the vivid characters he creates. But this one... well, it just fell flat for me. I could not relate to or care about any of the characters, the storyline was rather blah, and while I truly truly love him, Irving's writing STYLE and "voice" aren't visual music for me the way Nicole Krauss or Marianne Wiggins...more

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About John Irving

John Irving published his first novel, Setting Free the Bears, in 1968. The World According to Garp, which won the National Book Award in 1980, was John Irving’s fourth novel and his first international bestseller; it also became a George Roy Hill film. Tony Richardson wrote and directed the adaptation for the screen of The Hotel New Hampshire (1984). Irving’s novels are now translated into thirty...more John Irving published his first novel, Setting Free the Bears, in 1968. The World According to Garp, which won the National Book Award in 1980, was John Irving’s fourth novel and his first international bestseller; it also became a George Roy Hill film. Tony Richardson wrote and directed the adaptation for the screen of The Hotel New Hampshire (1984). Irving’s novels are now translated into thirty-five foreign languages, and he has had nine international bestsellers. Worldwide, the Irving novel most often called “an American classic” is A Prayer for Owen Meany (1989)—the portrayal of an enduring friendship at that time when the Vietnam War had its most divisive effect on the United States.

In 1992, Mr. Irving was inducted into the National Wrestling Hall of Fame in Stillwater, Oklahoma. (He competed as a wrestler for twenty years, until he was thirty-four, and coached the sport until he was forty-seven.) In 2000, Irving won the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay for The Cider House Rules—a Lasse Hallström film with seven Academy Award nominations. Tod Williams wrote and directed The Door in the Floor—the 2004 film adapted from Mr. Irving’s ninth novel, A Widow for One Year.

In One Person is John Irving’s thirteenth novel, which will be published by Simon & Schuster in May 2012. A compelling novel of desire, secrecy, and sexual identity, In One Person is a story of unfulfilled love — tormented, funny, and affecting — and an impassioned embrace of our sexual differences. Billy, the bisexual narrator and main character of In One Person, tells the tragicomic story (lasting more than half a century) of his life as a “sexual suspect,” a phrase first used by John Irving in 1978 — in his landmark novel of “terminal cases,” The World According to Garp.

His most political novel since The Cider House Rules and A Prayer for Owen Meany, John Irving’s In One Person is a poignant tribute to Billy’s friends and lovers — a theatrical cast of characters who defy category and convention. Not least, In One Person is an intimate and unforgettable portrait of the solitariness of a bisexual man who is dedicated to making himself “worthwhile.”

Born John Wallace Blunt, Jr., in Exeter, New Hampshire, in 1942, Mr. Irving’s name was changed to John Winslow Irving in 1948, when his mother remarried. (His mother’s maiden name was Winslow.) Mr. Irving named his first son, Colin, after his stepfather, Colin F.N. Irving, who taught in the History Department at Phillips Exeter Academy, where John Irving graduated in 1961; he was captain of the wrestling team at Exeter, and also wrestled at the University of Pittsburgh. Mr. Irving later attended the Institute for European Studies in Vienna, Austria. He has a B.A. from the University of New Hampshire and a M.F.A. from the Writers’ Workshop at the University of Iowa, where his mentor was Kurt Vonnegut.

Before the success of The World According to Garp enabled John Irving to become a full-time writer, he had several college teaching positions—not only at his alma mater in Iowa City, where he taught for three years, but also at Mt. Holyoke College and Brandeis University.

In the ‘80s, Mr. Irving lived in New York City and on eastern Long Island; since 1990, he has lived in Toronto and in southern Vermont. He has three sons—Colin, Brendan, and Everett—and four grandchildren. John Irving is married to Janet Turnbull Irving—formerly a Canadian publisher, who is now Mr. Irving’s literary agent in the U.S. His agent in Canada, and for the U.K., is Dean Cooke—at the Cooke Agency in Toronto. Mr. Irving is represented internationally by Nicki Kennedy at I.L.A. in London; his film agent is Robert Bookman at C.A.A. in Los Angeles.

In 2001, Mr. Irving was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters. John Irving’s 70th birthday is March 2, 2012.(less)

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