The Fourth HandThe Fourth Hand
Title rated 3.5 out of 5 stars, based on 59 ratings(59 ratings)
eBook, 2010
Current format, eBook, 2010, , Available."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 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.From the Trade Paperback edition.
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