A Summary of John Irving’s ‘A Widow For One Year’ and ‘The Fourth Hand’

In A Widow for One Year. Ruth Cole, the central character, is a successful American novelist whose writings reflect a deep urgency to make sense of her life.Born in 1954, the daughter of Ted and Marion Cole, is the replacement child for her 2 brothers, Thomas and Timothy, who were killed at ages sixteen and fifteen in a puckish automobile accident. Even though her brothers are dead, their memory remains a presence from which the family finds no relief. The mother, Marion, attempts to assuage her grief for her lost sons by intermission photographs of them on all available wall space.She bitterly blames her conserve Ted for their sons deaths, and she resents him for win over her to have another child. She does not hate Ruth, but, preoccupied with her own loss, Marion is oftentimes unaware of her daughters presence and she is afraid that she ordain transmit her grief, like a disease, to Ruth.Ruth witnessed her parents divorce when she is four years old, followed by the disappear ance of her mother, Marion, who apparently feels that Ruths father, Ted, although a womanizer and a drunk, result be the better custodial parent. Ted, a author and illustrator of childrens books, has hired sixteen-year-old Eddie OHare to serve as his errand boy, designated driver.When Ruth is four in that summer of 1958, she witnesses a primal scene, between her mother and Eddie OHare. She never forgets it, though she forgets some of the details. Eventually she comes to catch the relationship between Marion and Eddie and even to understand wherefore her mother left-hand(a) field. Ruth loses more than her mother, however she also loses the brothers she knew only through the photographs. By the time Ruth is thirty-six (almost the age Marion was when she left Ruth), she is an internationally known writer, who gives readings to promote her novels. At one of these readings in forward-looking York City, she meets Eddie OHare again.Eddie is also a writerof romance novels-and he intr oduces Ruth, who reads from her novel around a widow for one year. Ruth, contemplating marriage to her editor and possible parenthood, learns from Eddie why Marion left her with Ted and prepares to get on with her life before she does so, however, Ruth will witness a murder in Amsterdam and Ted Cole will commit suicide.In the novels concluding portion, Ruth gives birth to a son, her husband dies, and in 1995 she will get remarried, after one year, to the Amsterdam policeman who unkindly the books on a serial killer using Ruths anonymous testimony. briefly thereafter, Marion reappears on the scene, reunited with Eddie, having achieved some success as a mystery writer in Canada.If someon adores A Widow for On Yar, one whitethorn b a bit disappointd in Th Fourth Hand. The main charactr of th story, handsom TV journalist Patrick Wallingford is stalkd with minutly dscribed on-night stands. H is filming a encase about an Indian circus, Th Gnsh, which is an Indian symbol of nw beginni ngs whn a lion eats his lft hand. Meanwhil, a total stranger in Wisconsin, Doris Clausn and hr husband Otto are obsssd with th Gren Bay Packrs and with having a child.Mrs Clausn, ses a clip of it on TV, and writes to promis Wallingford her husbands hand for transport in th evnt of her spouss death. Doris cajols Otto into willing his lft hand to Patrick and her husband shoots himslf dead on the night of th 1998 passing Bowl, and his hand is flown to Boston whre a brilliant surgon transplants it to Wallingfords left forarm. With the hand coms the griving widow, who has some intresting plans of hr own for the favourable rcipient. Mrs Clausn flies to met Wallingford, whom sh promptly seducs with an bosom to childbaring.Famous hand surgon Nicholas Zajak is, for his part, obsessd with dog fcsalso describd in ndlss detailwhich h scoops up with his old lacross stick and hurls at rowrs on the Charls Rivr. Zajak bring togethers Ottos hand to Patrick, and Doris demands visitation rights w ith Ottos hand, as wll as with Patricks child-producing quipmnt. On her first mting with Wallingford, thy have sx, Wallingford rcognizing Doriss voic as one h hard in a vision in India whil rcovering from his accidnt.Doris, dsprate to gt prgnant, has hr own agenda. Th pregnancy taks more succssfully than the husbands transplantd hand, which is evntually rejcted. Aftr a fritter of othr affairs, Wallingford throws himself at Mrs Clausn and finds true lov.Bibliography Irving, John. A Widow for One Year. New York random House, 1998Irving, John. The Fourth Hand. New York Random House, 2002