Review of "The Fourth Hand" by John Irving

This is the tenth novel from John Irving, and it's not as good as we know he can be.

The story is about a newscaster whose become famous when his loses his left had to a hungry circus tiger and the tiger did it on it TV. Prior to his loss he was only a medium type reporter. Now he is known as "The Lion Guy" and that name has its ups and downs. His wife leaves him because he is no longer an acceptable lover to her mind. He becomes a television news anchor. It is now that he meets a famous surgeon who wants to give him a new hand.

The new hand comes from the husband of a woman who desperately wanted to have children. Sadly her husband died too soon. She makes arrangements to donate his hand to our newsman.

Here the story takes a nosedive from which it never recovers. The wife asks the reporter to sleep with her. He does. She produces a son. He wants to marry her but she says not now. His body rejects the hand so he is back to a stump.

It is still clear that Irving has a wonderful touch with words. When he describes the lion and the horrible experience he is top of the line (or lion). He has always tickled the imagination with unusual thoughts and characters. There are morals galore running through all of the characters and subplots. Still I was hoping for another Garp or (my favorite) "The Hotel New Hampshire". Maybe next time.