Lending a Hand (The Fourth Hand - John Irving)

Member Name: xBorgx

Product:	The Fourth Hand - John Irving
Date:	04/09/09 (54 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: A great story that is well told

Disadvantages: None

'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...'

This is the doorway by which we meet Patrick Wallingford, John Irving's character in the book, firth published in 2001. Those of you who do not know, Mr Irving is the best-selling American author. Born in New Hampshire in 1942, John Winslow Irving is the author of more than ten novels, among them 'The Cider House Rules,' 'The World According to Garp' and 'A Widow for one Year.' Irving is married to Janet and they have three sons. He lives in Toronto and in southern Vermont.

I have been reading his works on and off for a long time now and never cease to be enthralled by his prose, narrative and general story-telling. His work is funny and moving, putting people in sometimes bizarre situations and seeing how they go from there. The Fourth Hand is no exception... it is the story of a man who loses his left and hand and how he goes on to cope with this handicap.

The hand in question is lost in India. Wallingford is a TV journalist and him and his team are at a circus, running a story. For extra effect, he waves his hand too close to the cage of a lion and the lion proceeds to make a meal of the hand. His cameraman gets it on film and it is promptly shown all over the world on the news and Wallingford is from then onwards known as 'The Lion Guy.'

Well known surgeon Dr Zajac wants to perform America's first hand transplant, and seeing Wallingford's accident on TV gets in touch with the TV journalist to see if he is interested. Patrick is interested and is then put on a 'waiting list' until a appropriate hand comes available.

This does in the form of Otto Clausen's - hours after he has an accident - as her wife donates the hand. However, Mrs Clausen wants to have right to 'see' the hand every so often. Wallingford and Mrs Clausen meet and Patrick falls for her immediately and various things happen in that first meeting, of which I will not spoil for you.

Patrick Wallingford is a ladies man. He is divorced (his ex wife told him being married to him was life having a bout of the flu). But since the accident, he starts to re-evaluate his life and feels that he needs to change...

The Fourth Hand is a great story and well worth a look. Irving has created many compelling characters here. Wallingford's in your face, what you see is what you get; Mrs Clausen in enigmatic; Dr Zarac is quite bizarre...

I loved this novel and could not put it down. I found myself mesmerised by the characters Mr Irving created. The plot is simple, but it is the prose and the shear quality that kept me entertained through out. If I have any complaints then they would be that the ending peters out and certain characters (I wished) would have had a greater role than they got - but that is perhaps because they were all so interesting...

Also published on Ciao UK, by me as Borg

Summary: Vintage Irving...