The Fourth Hand

So I’ve finished my fourth book by Irving, The Fourth Hand. This is his latest novel (2001). Interestingly, I noted in his acknowledgements a mention of a few assistant writers. I wonder how much they actually write for him.

Anyway, back to the book, The Fourth Hand is full of sex. It is not like the sex in The Cider House Rules which is passionate, intense, and pivotal. This sex is farcical and in large amounts. It comes from having a handsome playboy as the main character. Patrick Wallingford, a news reporter who lost his hand to a lion, isn’t capable of saying no to women. He is described as physically irresistible, yet in the long run, forgettable. His ex-wife likened him to the flu – when you are down with it you feel like you will die, but when you are well again you forget he even exists. He is extremely attentive to women, but also so shallow that he is capable of “losing himself” in any woman at all.

So this novel is about how he rises from his self-created stereotype by falling in love for real, for once. It also involves four hands. Coincidentally, its content is similar to another book of Irving’s I read, The Water Method Man. Both feature a male protagonist; both characters are on journeys of self-discovery and formation. An illuminating difference though is that intrinsic to Patrick’s journey is a strong will to change, which Trumper in The Water Method Man does not exhibit.

This novel also touches briefly on premonition, dreams and destiny. This is the first time I’ve encountered this theme in his books (then again I’ve only read four) and it looks like an interesting development. In The Cider House Rules, The World According to Garp, and The Water Method Man, life is chaotic, hilarious, brilliant, tragic, completely human. In this novel, there is the barest hint of destiny. Long before Wallingford met Doris, he had already dreamt of the ending. While this destiny has to be worked for (Wallingford has to will himself not to sleep with the sexy make-up girl and the powerful colleague), the very fact that it exists is quite something as it runs contrary his earlier worldview. Perhaps Irving himself is changing?