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John Irving – The fourth hand (03-022)
John Irving – The fourth hand (03-022)
While reporting a story from India, New York journalist Patrick Wallingford inadvertently becomes his own headline when his left hand is eaten by a lion. In Boston, a renowned surgeon eagerly awaits the opportunity to perform the nation’s first hand transplant.
I like the idea. Even funnier is the next idea: the widow demands visitations rights with the hand? Enough to base a book on. The lion-man as he is soon known, gets to know the widow fairly well, but in the same time hasn’t got a clue what to do with her. All the typical Irving subjects are involved again in this story. New England and India, writers/journalists and circuses, Irving always manages to stay close to the things he knows a lot about, without repeating himself. This is a quality not many authors have. Therefore I think that Irving is one of the best contemporary writers in the States. He certainly is someone that falls in the category “buy the new book unseen”, I think I have read all his novels now, a few short stories and I have read the whole oeuvre. I guess I come close to being a fan.
While reporting a story from India, New York journalist Patrick Wallingford inadvertently becomes his own headline when his left hand is eaten by a lion. In Boston, a renowned surgeon eagerly awaits the opportunity to perform the nation’s first hand transplant.
I like the idea. Even funnier is the next idea: the widow demands visitations rights with the hand? Enough to base a book on. The lion-man as he is soon known, gets to know the widow fairly well, but in the same time hasn’t got a clue what to do with her. All the typical Irving subjects are involved again in this story. New England and India, writers/journalists and circuses, Irving always manages to stay close to the things he knows a lot about, without repeating himself. This is a quality not many authors have. Therefore I think that Irving is one of the best contemporary writers in the States. He certainly is someone that falls in the category “buy the new book unseen”, I think I have read all his novels now, a few short stories and I have read the whole oeuvre. I guess I come close to being a fan.