The Fourth Hand
Just finished reading John Irving’s The Fourth Hand. In typical John Irving style, it was a fascinating and interesting book. Story is of a (disaster-style) news reporter who gets his left hand bitten off by a lion while reporting a story. He gets a hand transplant, develops relationships, and goes through his life. Irving has a way of making the extraordinary (this guy has a crazy life and is surrounded by crazy people) seem totally ordinary, but still very intriguing. You feel both close to and also very shut out from understanding his characters, a style I have liked in all of the other Irving books I’ve read. Late in the book you find out the meaning of “the fourth hand”, a phrase I had been wondering about for much of the book.
Couple of things that caught my attention… much of the story took place in Wisconsin, surrounding the Green Bay area (not far from where I grew up and even closer to where my sister Martha now lives) so there was a bit of familiarity there. It was funny to me, however, that the reader always pronounced it “grEEnbay”, run all together and with the emphasis on the ‘ee’. Growing up, we always called it “green bAy”… separated words with slightly more emphasis on the second. It’s a very subtle difference I suppose, but it jumped out and punched me each time I heard it. 
Plus, there was a discussion about PBS TV stations in the Green Bay area at one point. The protagonist notes that there are PBS stations in Milwaukee and Chicago, but that there is not one in Green Bay. I distinctly remember three different PBS channels we could get when I was growing up. Channels 10 and 36 were broadcast from Milwaukee and channel 38 was broadcast from Green Bay. 36 and 38 always seemed to have the same things on, I think, as though they were a simulcast… so perhaps they were both actually housed out of Milwaukee, although since Milwaukee already had channel 10 on VHF maybe 36/38 were actually together from Green Bay? I have no idea. But it was funny to have this set of thoughts running through my head for a few moments while listening to the book!
Overall, another great Irving book. I’m just a sucker for his writing style, so I don’t know I’ll ever find a John Irving book I don’t like! That said, I’m very disappointed that Audible only has 3 full-length John Irving books available. This means I have one more to “read” and then I’m back to proper “reading” for the rest of my John Irving needs.
