The Fourth Hand

I was pretty excited to get my hands on another John Irving book so quickly.  (Love my library).  Once I started reading it, disappointment set in.  This book, unlike Irving's other books, wasn't as good.  He was using more sensational language and he wasn't getting into the meat of the story.  He's a good story teller but this book was skimming the surface.  And I didn't like the main character, Patrick Wallingford.  Several times I stopped to ponder on what a jerk he was.  Patrick Wallingford was a handsome television newscaster who was sexually compliant with  every woman who hit on him.  He worked for a cable news network that specialized in sensational stories about death.  He had no journalistic ethics at all.  Once in a while Patrick would think a thought that was semi-kind so I would try to give him the benefit of the doubt.  Like nearly all Irving's books, there is a missing limb.  Patrick becomes knows as "The Lion Guy" when filming a story at a zoo in India and lions tear off his left hand and eat it - live on television.  Later he gets a donor hand from a guy in Wisconsin.  He becomes involved with the wife of his donor.  By the end of the story, Patrick Wallingford is a nicer man.  I think the author wrote this story in such a flippant style to illustrate how television news focuses on the sensational sound bites and misses the meat of the story.