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

In A Widow for One Year. Ruth Cole, the substitution character, is a successful American novelist whose writings reflect a deep need to make sense of her life.Born in 1954, the daughter of Ted and Marion Cole, is the replacement child for her deuce brothers, Thomas and Timothy, who were killed at dates sixteen and fifteen in a terrible automobile accident. Even though her brothers are dead, their memory remains a comportment from which the family finds no relief. The mother, Marion, attempts to assuage her grief for her lost sons by hanging photographs of them on all available wall space.She bitterly blames her husband Ted for their sons deaths, and she resents him for convincing her to have another(prenominal) child. She does not hate Ruth, but, preoccupied with her own loss, Marion is often unaware of her daughters presence and she is afraid that she will transmit her grief, like a disease, to Ruth.Ruth attestered her parents divorce when she is four days old, followed by the disappearance of her mother, Marion, who apparently feels that Ruths father, Ted, although a womanizer and a drunk, will be the better custodial parent. Ted, a writer 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, surrounded by her mother and Eddie OHare. She never for take outs it, though she forgets some of the details. Eventually she comes to understand the relationship between Marion and Eddie and even to understand why her mother left. 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 New York City, she meets Eddie OHare again.Eddie is also a writerof romance novels-and he introduces Ruth, who reads from her novel approximately 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 closed the books on a serial killer using Ruths anonymous testimony. Soon 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 may b a bit disappointd in Th Fourth Hand. The main charactr of th story, tump oversom TV journalist Patrick Wallingford is ghostwrited with minutly dscribed on-night stands. H is film a package about an Indian circus, Th Gnsh, which is an Indian symbol of nw beginnings 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 transplant 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 Super 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 lucky rcipient. Mrs Clausn flies to met Wallingford, whom sh promptly seducs with an eye 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 speechrs on the Charls Rivr. Zajak attachs Ottos hand to Patrick, and Doris demands visitation rights with Ottos hand, as wll as w ith 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, dsp pass judgment 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