Synopses & 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 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.
Review
"The Fourth Hand shares many of the author's previous qualities and defects....It is all wildly loopy, yet Irving has something deeper in mind....[I]n the book's last and best section, he makes the far-fetched not only human but moving." Richard Eder, The New York Times Book Review
Review
"Besides a turbocharged plot and outsized heroes and villains, other Irving trademarks are here: a reverence for childhood innocence, a weakness for the wincingly quirky, and outrage at zealotry of all kinds. There are also powerful, pungent descriptions of lust, moments of hilarity, and an intense (and intensely conveyed) preoccupation with the notion of redemption through love....In The Fourth Hand, [Irving] aims to tell a sweeping narrative with big, poignant themes, and he succeeds with brio." Elle
Review
"Irving is compulsively readable...[The Fourth Hand] is classic Irving: extreme medical procedures, missing body parts and a surfeit of sex. But his condemnation of the media is right on, and...this is one crazy but sweet little love story." Booklist
Review
"[The Fourth Hand] offers the familiar pleasures of any John Irving novel a well-turned plot, an antic mixture of comedy and tragedy, and profound observations about the wounds and consolations or romantic and sexual love." Bookpage
Review
"John Irving is proof that literary fiction doesn't have to be ponderous." New York Post
Review
"
The Fourth Hand...is shorter than [Irving's other books], certainly, but it also matters less. The instigating tragedy is comparatively minor: Beefcake newscaster Patrick Wallingford's left hand is eaten by an Indian circus lion. Patrick wants a new hand very badly, but his life goes on as before, anyhow: reporting on disasters for a third-rate news channel, sleeping with countless women thanks to his movie-star looks -- and never quite landing in the world. He is not a person of depth, and losing his hand does not make him one....Patrick's studliness and essential shallowness differentiate
The Fourth Hand from Irving's recent books -- and frankly, they make it worse. Irving protagonists are usually painfully sensitive, acutely aware of every nuance of interaction. They feel things more strongly than other people around them. Life tears them up, they take action, they are consumed by worry. They also tend to be sexually inhibited or dysfunctional....
The Fourth Hand, by contrast, traces the emotional maturation of a discontented lothario....
"I tend to love Irving -- for his dedication to complex, old-fashioned plotting; for his unironic, urgent characters; and for his passion for peculiar, telling details and rhythms of prose. So although there's not much plot in The Fourth Hand, and characters tend to appear briefly and then never return (as I've hinted, Patrick himself isn't much to write home about) -- I found kernels of familiar delight here, anyhow." Emily Jenkins, Salon.com
Synopsis
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. What happens next is the subject of Irving's tenth novel, which offers a penetrating look at the power of second chances and the will to change.
Reading Group Guide
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.
1. The novel is clearly critical of the kind of news media epitomized by the footage of Patrick Wallingford ’s accident and by the “calamity channel ”in general.And yet it doesn ’t renounce TV and modern media entirely.What kind of news coverage do you see the novel advocating?
2. How would you describe the narrator ’s tone and perspective?
Do you think the narrative voice has a journalistic quality?
3. What role does the circus play in the novel?Have you read any other John Irving novels in which circuses are involved? If so,how does Patrick Wallingford ’s experience with the Great Ganesh Circus –and his infamous encounter with the lion – compare to depictions of circus characters and themes in Irving ’s earlier work?
4. How did the novel ’s portrayal of transplant technology – both the personal dimensions and the philosophical differences represented by Dr.Zajac and the medical ethicists – affect your views on these kinds of medical procedures?
5. Hands –and Wallingford ’s “fourth hand ”in particular – represent many things in the novel. What does the hand-transplant ordeal seem to say about loss and absence?
6. What are the turning points in Patrick Wallingford ’s life? How would you describe his development as a character?
7. From Wallingford ’s reverie brought on by the cobalt-blue capsule in India to Otto Clausen ’s nightmarish vision in the beer truck, dreams play an important role in the novel. How would you articulate the connection between dreams and the future for these and other characters?
Do you think “destiny” figures into this?
8. E.B.White ’s Charlotte ’s Web and Stuart Little and Michael On-daatje ’s The English Patient are all carefully read and discussed by characters in the novel. How do these books function in The Fourth Hand ?
What do their readings suggest about the relationship between literature and life?
9. Patrick Wallingford is not a devoted fan or watcher of sports events before he meets Doris and the Clausens. The Clausens are almost religious about their commitment to football and the Green Bay Packers. What does being a sports fan seem to represent in the novel?
10. After Wallingford ’s first meeting with Doris Clausen, he develops a new sense of how becoming –or not becoming –a mother affects a woman ’s life. What do you make of this new interest?
How does it relate to Wallingford ’s perceptions of the book ’s female characters – Marilyn, Mary, Evelyn Arbuthnot, Sarah Williams, the airport security guard, and Doris Clausen?
11. We learn that Patrick Wallingford ’s favorite oxymoron is “no- fault divorce. ”Why do you think he sees such irony in this phrase?
How do successful marriages differ from unsuccessful marriages in The Fourth Hand? What kind of hope,or concern, do you have for Wallingford ’s relationship with Doris Clausen?
12. The novel draws a sharp contrast between Patrick Wallingford ’s New York and the Clausens ’Green Bay,Wisconsin,homes and their lake house.What does the Midwest –and “heading north ”–seem to represent to Wallingford?
13. In what ways does this novel have elements of a fairy tale or fable?
14. Would you call The Fourth Hand a love story? Why or why not?
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.
1. The novel is clearly critical of the kind of news media epitomized by the footage of Patrick Wallingford ’s accident and by the “calamity channel ”in general.And yet it doesn ’t renounce TV and modern media entirely.What kind of news coverage do you see the novel advocating?
2. How would you describe the narrator ’s tone and perspective?
Do you think the narrative voice has a journalistic quality?
3. What role does the circus play in the novel?Have you read any other John Irving novels in which circuses are involved? If so,how does Patrick Wallingford ’s experience with the Great Ganesh Circus –and his infamous encounter with the lion – compare to depictions of circus characters and themes in Irving ’s earlier work?
4. How did the novel ’s portrayal of transplant technology – both the personal dimensions and the philosophical differences represented by Dr.Zajac and the medical ethicists – affect your views on these kinds of medical procedures?
5. Hands –and Wallingford ’s “fourth hand ”in particular – represent many things in the novel. What does the hand-transplant ordeal seem to say about loss and absence?
6. What are the turning points in Patrick Wallingford ’s life? How would you describe his development as a character?
7. From Wallingford ’s reverie brought on by the cobalt-blue capsule in India to Otto Clausen ’s nightmarish vision in the beer truck, dreams play an important role in the novel. How would you articulate the connection between dreams and the future for these and other characters?
Do you think “destiny” figures into this?
8. E.B.White ’s Charlotte ’s Web and Stuart Little and Michael On-daatje ’s The English Patient are all carefully read and discussed by characters in the novel. How do these books function in The Fourth Hand ?
What do their readings suggest about the relationship between literature and life?
9. Patrick Wallingford is not a devoted fan or watcher of sports events before he meets Doris and the Clausens. The Clausens are almost religious about their commitment to football and the Green Bay Packers. What does being a sports fan seem to represent in the novel?
10. After Wallingford ’s first meeting with Doris Clausen, he develops a new sense of how becoming –or not becoming –a mother affects a woman ’s life. What do you make of this new interest?
How does it relate to Wallingford ’s perceptions of the book ’s female characters – Marilyn, Mary, Evelyn Arbuthnot, Sarah Williams, the airport security guard, and Doris Clausen?
11. We learn that Patrick Wallingford ’s favorite oxymoron is “no- fault divorce. ”Why do you think he sees such irony in this phrase?
How do successful marriages differ from unsuccessful marriages in The Fourth Hand? What kind of hope,or concern, do you have for Wallingford ’s relationship with Doris Clausen?
12. The novel draws a sharp contrast between Patrick Wallingford ’s New York and the Clausens ’Green Bay,Wisconsin,homes and their lake house.What does the Midwest –and “heading north ”–seem to represent to Wallingford?
13. In what ways does this novel have elements of a fairy tale or fable?
14. Would you call The Fourth Hand a love story? Why or why not?