This denouement is so stickily sentimental as to make Bambi blush with embarrassment. He unites with Doris and Little Otto in bliss. Wallingford's hallucination becomes reality. The ending is all smiles and simple happiness. The only character who is even interesting is a walk-on (make that lie-down) makeup girl who is condescendingly presented as a caricature of every woman ever to come out of Queens.Īs to Wallingford, he is - as portrayed by Irving - shallow, one-dimensional, as superficial as a typical local television newscast. There is not a nice person in the lot, not a person with redeeming humanity. As the story unfolds, events are dominated by the back-biting conniving insiders who seem to constitute the entire television industry but for Wallingford. (The book's title suggests Wallingford's two original hands, his briefly transplanted one, and a fourth that exists in his and ultimately Doris' imaginations.)Īnyway, one-handed again, Patrick returns to New York, becomes the evening news anchor on his all-news channel. The use of the missing hand as a sexual metaphor is strained beyond the breaking point. The book is replete with elbow-jabbing, winking, finger-pointing devices that cross the threshold into cutesy-poo, a technical critical term that I resort to only in extremis. If it is intended as straight stand-up burlesque, it's inhuman. Skip to main content Save 15 through Sunday. We have new and used copies available, in 13 editions - starting at 0.99. If it were intended as irony, it is simply sappy. The Fourth Hand by John Irving - Alibris Buy The Fourth Hand by John Irving online at Alibris.
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