Joubert's Full Review: John Irving - The Fourth Hand: A Novel
John Irving returns to a sublime Garp-like world in The Fourth Hand and creates one of his most memorable quirky characters in Patrick Wallingford. The combination, along with a cast of eccentric supporting characters, combines in a strangely compelling novel that one might not think would hold a reader's interest for more than 300 pages.
Irving's masterful story telling and dreamy sequences are here, but the plot is more tangible, concrete rather than dirt this time, and while Patrick will never replace Garp or Homer Wells, he is a pretty neat character. Unfortunately, readers may co-mingle Robin Williams with Garp and an awfully young Tobey Maguire with Wells, so the comparison isn't quite fair. Indeed, played by a Ben Stiller or similar actor, the absurdity in Wallingford would quickly become apparent to a film audience.
Meanwhile, Irving's blend of strange characters, dream sequences and idiosyncrasies that would give a psychiatrist fits are all present in The Fourth Hand. The return of a monstrous animal, a lion this time rather than Irving's bears, and the strange Dr. Zajac who is a hand transplant specialist with a strange fetish for cleaning dog excrement. Critics have posited for years that the fourth hand is symbolic of male genitalia. Even if that were not the case, the donor of the hand Patrick receives, a football crazed widow named Doris, has some strange notions of that hand and its meaning.
The Plot In Exactly One Hundred Words
Patrick Wallingford is a cable news reporter covering a story in India when a lion chews his hand off on tv. Wallingford, despondent and traumatized, becomes known as "the lion guy". He meets with Dr. Zajac, an off-kilter hand transplant specialist and agrees to become the second known transplant patient. The hand comes from a rabid Green Bay Packer fan who dies in a bizarre turn of events. His wife, an equally rabid fan, donates the hand with the condition that she be allowed visitation. Along the way, sexual tension develops with Patrick that unfortunately is never synchronized between them.
What Works Well
Symbolism aside, and literature classes will be discussing symbolism in Irving books a century from now, John Irving's strength is the unforgettable character. In The Fourth Hand, there are no less than three characters joining the Irving pantheon of deeply flawed but completely realistic characters. Readers who prefer plot-driven novels have always had a tough time with Irving because of the intense character development and symbolism, but like his best, this one is worth the effort.
Like other great writers, a second or third read of some passages will unveil how spectacular Irving can be when he is on top of his game. Norman Mailer was the same way, as was William Faulkner. Is there a living American novelist who could have written The World According To Garp, The Cider House Rules, A Prayer For Owen Meaney and this in just twenty years? Kurt Vonnegut certainly did while he was alive, John Updike fits up there. Phillip Roth wrote Portnoy's Complaint 40 years ago, won a Pulitzer for Fiction 20 years later and is still writing. After that, there are darn few. Because Irving is still a relatively young man compared to the Roth and Updike, each a good fifteen years older. Authors born during the Great Depression have a different perspective than those who grew up in the shadow of World War II, and that later start allows Irving's novels to continue to be accessible to casual readers and Hollywood.
What Doesn't Work As Well
John Irving has reached that exalted status where editing him must be a nightmare even if he is polite about all the whole business. One expects an editor to be a rock solid superstar to simply suggest, "Uh, perhaps kill the love interest in Chapter 12 and tighten the backstory about the girl's youth?" Because of that, I've found that Irving's later works, including A Widow For One Year don't enjoy the same economical style featured in his earlier works.
Because of this long story buildup, one often finds time to suspend disbelief and potentially stop tracking with Wallingford and the characters in orbit around him. Once the real world intrudes, we stop caring about the novel. Irving knows that, of course, but I don't think he pulled it off as well as he has in earlier stories.
The Bottom Line, Dog Earred Pages and All
A modern slant to the story (unlike, say, Cider House) helps keep The Fourth Hand and its bit of Irving-style lunacy fresh. Focus on the story, get through the plot the first time, and then go back to re-read some of the more intimate passages between Doris and Patrick.
Five Things To Remember From This Review
1. Still not optioned for a movie yet, The Fourth Hand is one of Irving's most intimate and longer novels.
2. The sublime Irving still darts among the pages, and readers will have to focus to keep up with him.
3. As always, Irving has developed superb, memorable characters.
4. The premise itself is bold and inventive. In the hands of most authors, this would be a hack novel.
5. Because of his low output, Irving may not have as many fans as others, but the man writes hit after hit. He is like a pinch hitter who hits a home run every time he enters the game.
Epinions.com periodically updates pricing and product information from third-party sources, so some information may be slightly out-of-date. You should confirm all information before relying on it.
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.