The Fourth Hand - Hardcover

Irving, John

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0676973922 ISBN 13: 9780676973921

Publisher: Alfred a Knopf Inc, 2001

Synopsis

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 opportunity to perform the nation’s first hand transplant; meanwhile, in the distracting aftermath of an acrimonious divorce, the surgeon is seduced by his housekeeper. A married woman in Wisconsin wants to give the one-handed reporter her husband’s left hand– that is, after her husband dies. But the husband is alive, relatively young, and healthy.

This is how John Irving’s tenth novel begins; it seems, at first, to be a comedy, perhaps a satire, almost certainly a sexual farce. Yet, in the end, The Fourth Hand is as realistic and emotionally moving as any of Mr. Irving’s previous novels – including The World According to Garp, A Prayer for Owen Meany, and A Widow for One Year – or his Oscar-winning screenplay of The Cider House Rules.

The Fourth Hand is characteristic of John Irving’s seamless storytelling and further explores some of the author’s recurring themes – loss, grief, love as redemption. But this novel also breaks new ground; it offers a penetrating look at the power of second chances and the will to change.

About this title

Review

The Fourth Hand is one of John Irving's finest novels to date. A man loses his hand. His search to become whole again soon makes him realise that it takes more than a new limb to find fulfilment. The novel begins with one of Irving's typically surreal scenarios: "Imagine a young man on his way to a less-than-thirty-second event--the loss of his left hand, long before he reached middle age." The unfortunate young man is the "irrefutably good-looking" television journalist Patrick Wallingford. While filing a report from a circus in India, Wallingford's left hand is eaten by a lion. Millions on TV watch the grisly scene. As friends and former lovers watch the disappearance of the reporter's hand, it becomes clear that:

Patrick Wallingford initiated nothing, yet he inspired sexual unrest and unnatural longing--even as he was caught in the act of feeding a lion his left hand. He was a magnet to women of all ages and types; even lying unconscious, he was a danger to the female sex

Bereft of his left hand, Wallingford ("the lion guy") finds that both his career and his already active sex life blossom. But "Dr. Nicholas M. Zajac, a hand surgeon with Schatzman, Gingeleskie, Mengerink & Associates", soon seduces him with the offer of a hand transplant. Unfortunately, "there were some strings attached to the donor hand" in the shape of its former owner's widow, Mrs Clausen from Green Bay, Wisconsin. Wallingford soon discovers that the transplant is only the beginning of his problems, as he goes in search of what transpires to be his "fourth hand". The Fourth Hand is a wonderfully funny and compulsive novel, which manages to encapsulate Irving's hallmark black humour with an incredibly tender pathos and gentle wisdom. Wallingford is a marvellous, flawed protagonist, a foolish, vain but ultimately decent man, while Zajac is one of Irving's finest comic creations. Above all, The Fourth Hand is a wonderful and lyrical love story, which is destined to become a classic. --Jerry Brotton

Review

'...had me howling with laughter.' -- David Robson in The Sunday Telegraph, July 1st 2001

'If you are looking for something light and provocative for the beach this is a great little number.' -- Irish Independent, 7th July 2001

'THE FOURTH HAND is his tenth novel and is sharp, funny and deep as the sea.' -- Eve, 1st August 2001

'an engaging, warm-hearted novel' -- Scotland On Sunday, 8th July 2001

'there's no better - or funnier - reintroduction to the least known truly great American author' -- FHM, 1st July 2001

About this edition

• Publisher: Alfred a Knopf Inc
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 0676973922
• ISBN 13: 9780676973921
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 336