On John Irving, I have six thoughts:
1.tHe always seems to have a discombobulated male as his central character, Garp, the narrator in A Prayer for Owen Meany, the dad in The Hotel New Hampshire, and the young orphan in The Cider House Rules. They can be clueless, happy-go-lucky, confused, aimless, grief-stricken…
2.tThere is also always some intriguing but slightly distant female.
3.tIrving loves the little bits of weirdness, like the woman in the bear costume in The Hotel New Hampshire.
4.tIrving also loves those moments of sweetness, to the point that they can become syrupy at times, like at the end of Owen Meany.
5.tHe writes very clean sentences; they’re amazingly adept and easy to read.
6.tStill, his little inventions often strain my suspension of disbelief.

All of these are true for The Fourth Hand. Patrick Wallingford is a cavalier reporter for a sensational news channel. He trots the globe covering disasters and small tragedies for the spectacle-obsessed audience. In each port, he panders his cavalier, sleeping with women without forethought or remorse. Then he loses his left hand in a lion accident. (No spoilers: it happens in the first few pages).

Dr. Zajac is a minor character, but he is the opposite of Patrick. He’s too distant, too thoughtful, very analytical, and even clueless. He’s a hand surgeon who hopes to utilize Patrick’s accident to make the first successful hand transplant.

Doris lost her husband, a man she loved very much; they agreed that if the opportunity should ever arise, they’d donate their hand to Patrick (who became famous because his accident was caught on camera.) Though Doris is sad at never having a child with her husband, and she is now grief-stricken, she insists on meeting Patrick and Dr. Zajac to make sure her hubby’s hand is going to a deserving person.

Love is going to find all these characters, even in their extreme circumstances. The main story here is how falling in love helps transform Patrick from a brainless, pretty lothario to someone who wants to be upstanding and responsible. The main question is whether he’s changed drastically and soon enough to deserve Doris, a grief-stricken woman whose husband’s hand Patrick now possesses.

Now to my six points:

1) Patrick’s journey is worthy as long as everyone recognizes that he is not always the most engaging, sympathetic character. He’s pretty shallow, in fact. I feel Irving spent too much time with Patrick, given that the man is basically a handsome but thoughtless cad. Dr. Zajac is also a bit of an automaton, but Irving seems to have spent the exact right amount of time with his story. We get the comparisons to Patrick. If Patrick’s story had been shortened to seem more even to Dr. Zajac’s (and Doris’), I would’ve been OK with that.

2) Doris: yes, I wish I’d known much more. What does her obsession with football mean? How does it define her, her relationship with her husband, her connection to his family? How does her day-to-day life look, especially grief stricken, especially jobless and with new responsibilities? How will she ever prepare herself to move on, to make room for another relationship in her life? In many ways, she purposely chooses to believe certain mythologies and lies: why? A few more chapters with her back-story would’ve pleased me. Her story is the shortest of the three main characters, and I feel that’s deeply unfair to her character and to the readers.

3 and 6) [Yes, I know I’m going out of order.] So, yeah, there is weirdness here. Actually the lion attack was believable, and even the hand transplant has some fact behind it. However, the strained little lies that characters tell themselves and each other were a little more problematic. I often doubted people’s intentions, and I felt that others acted fairly gullibly at times. I felt that outspoken characters would’ve been more blunt, less accepting.

4) This novel is one of Irving’s quieter, sweeter novels, even with the lion attack at the beginning. That should make it more saccharine, but I found that Irving did an even job with the romance and relationship portion (except, of course, what I mentioned earlier about people trusting others and not speaking up enough.)

5) There is something so breezy about the way Irving writes that I didn’t feel I’d read almost 300 pages. It’s a simple, effective approach I wish other writers – including myself – knew how to mimic.

So, that’s why this is only a good but not great novel, even though I feel that Irving is one of our best living writers.

One must like and understand John Irving to appreciate

Only John Irving can tell a strange and quirky story and yet keep the reader engaged. Not his best work, in my opinion, but amusing with some brilliant insights! If you are a John Irving fan you might be disappointed, but you must be an Irving fan to read

I found The Fourth Hand a highly entertaining read with an interesting premise—what are some of the moral and ethical issues associated with appendage transplants versus internal organs? As usual, Irving creates some slightly odd but memorable characters and does an excellent job of moving them and the story forward with his particularly unique style of humor, shock, and sensitivity. I tire of some Amazon reviewers comparing an author’s novels to that author’s past works. An American gem like John Irving constructs a distinct and different story with each new project. Their (authors and their books that dare) quality should not be judged, measured, or based on previous works; in this case, A Widow for One Year, The World According to Garp, or The Cider House Rules. Fiction does not have to be regurgitated facsimiles or seemingly a product of manufacturing.

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.

Weirdly endearing like all of John Irving's stories.

This is a really enjoyable and quick novel, despite all the shitty reviews it got.

If there’s two things I like, it’s the Green Bay Packers and John Irving’s writing, quirky as it may be. It’s definitely not for everyone, but for some reason it seems to capture some carnal part of me and hold my attention. This one was not my favorite, but it definitely had some endearing moments.

Nie pamiętam moich wrażeń po pierwszej lekturze, ale tym razem historia mnie wyjątkowo urzekła.

Bol taký deň, že som sa zobudila, dočítala knihu a povedala si, že mám chuť na americký román. Neviem, odkiaľ to prišlo, ale kombinácia faktorov: všetky knihy zbalené v banánových krabiciach, zbalené v pivnici v inom štáte - zvláštny výber v čítačke - nejaké predchádzajúce odporúčania mi dopomohla k Johnovi Irvingovi. Toto je prvá kniha, ktorú som od neho čítala a podľa recenzií ani zďaleka nie najlepšia. Mňa to ale bavilo. Dobrá dávka bizáru, citlivo vykreslené, zvláštne a svojské postavy a bolo to aj vtipné. Ten pomalý záver vnímam ako cynickú hru s čitateľkou, ktorá čakala vyvrcholenie a dostala také to pomalé odplazenie sa do brlohu. Ale aj také to niekedy vie byť.

Each time I read an Irving novel my response is always the same; how can I describe his writing style? How do I explain it to myself? First, his humor, that in the beginning seems so cynical. Perhaps it's social satire, or maybe farce is a better term. However it's described, his characters slowly become real, textured individuals that I actually begin to empathize with and care about. Patrick Wallingford is an on-camera reporter for a twenty-four hour, sensationalist news network, with a less than sterling journalistic reputation. As a handsome, womanizing, reporter we see the story through his eyes, including the seminal event that makes him famous. While filming a story about the death of a trapeze artist, a caged lion manages to snag his arm and bite off his hand. From that point on he becomes a celebrity known as “the lion guy” but as his life evolves, rather than becoming a tragic or pitiable figure his tribulations seem to attract even more women and what he calls “sexual chaos”. Women see him as a “really nice man” but he doesn't seduce, he just acquiesces. As one of his conquests tells him: “You're like a pretty girl who has no idea how pretty she is. You have no clue of your effect. It's not that you're dangerous because you're handsome---you're dangerous because you don't know how handsome you are! And you're thoughtless.” We find he's not thoughtless, just ecumenical with his gifts. He receives redemption as the story progresses but the question becomes: Is this an odyssey of the sexual politics of men and women in modern society or an exploration of how the media shapes our lives? Who knows? All I know is I couldn't put it down.

John Irvings Bücher waren für mich bis jetzt immer große Highlights, The Cider House Rules und Owen Meany zähle ich zu meinen Lieblingsbüchern.
Die vierte Hand ist da tatsächlich der erste Irving, der bloß "okay" ist. Für mich ziemlich medioker.
Das Buch hat mich durch meine alljährliche Sommerleseflaute begleitet; dass ich es nicht abgebrochen habe, zeigt, dass es doch einen gewissen Lesefluss bewirkt.
Es geht um Patrick Wallingford, einen erfolgreichen Fernsehmoderator, beliebt bei Frauen, der vor laufender Kamera seine Hand verliert; ein Löwe frisst sie. Dr. Zajac, ein aufstrebender Arzt in der Handchirurgie, möchte an ihm die erste Handtransplantation überhaupt durchführen.
Und Doris Clausen kennt einen Spender: ihren Mann, der sich kürzlich versehentlich das Leben genommen hat. Die Geschichte nimmt ihren Lauf und der Spannungsbogen umfasst eine Liebesgeschichte und das außergewöhnliche Leben Wallingfords.
Problem ist, dass mich die Charaktere doch eher kalt gelassen haben, was definitiv untypisch für Irving ist. Sie waren weder sympathisch noch unsympathisch. Richtig mitgefiebert habe ich nicht; und dennoch, war das Ganze irgendwie lesenswert. Wahrscheinlich ist es Irvings extravaganter Schreibstil, seine Skurrilität. Die Menschen in Irvings Geschichten verhalten sich in der Regel seltenst so, wie es der normale Bürger tun würde. Doch ist das alles plausibel. So ist es auch plausibel, wenn der Protagonist und eine fremden Person abends nackt aneinanderliegen und sie, eine ältere Dame, ihm dabei aus Klein Stuart und Wilbur and Charlotte vorliest. Klingt skurril, und das ist es auch, ist aber auch plausibel.
Grundsätzlich kein schlechter Irving, mit Irving-typischen Elementen, aber auch mit Irving-untypischen Schwächen.

This book was very disappointing. I happen to love most of John Irving's books which are always populated by odd, quirky, unique and unlikely characters. A Prayer for Owen Meany is extraordinarily beautiful and I will always have it in the top ten best books of all time. The Cider House Rules, The Hotel New Hampshire and The World According to Garp are funny, sad, tender and complex stories. Irving is a master at examining deep and controversial subjects like iconography, abortion, sexuality, faith and crime. He does so, always, with humor and respect. He does so, always, to develop the characters. So, I expected a deliciously entertaining book.

I expected another 4.5 to 5 star book, and it hurts to rate it at anything less than 4. But in truth I found this book difficult to read after the first half. I struggled to continue to listen. It isn't very funny and the protagonist isn't very likable. The themes are all there but this time it comes off as cartoonish and ridiculous instead of complex and symbolic.

Jason Culp deserves accolades however... he kept me listening long after I considered stopping. He brought out every tiny bit of humor and projected the weakness and sadness of the character. His narration was perfect for the role.