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The Four Fingers of Death
- Narrated by: Chris Patton
- Length: 27 hrs and 48 mins
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Publisher's summary
Montese Crandall is a downtrodden writer whose rare collection of baseball cards won't sustain him, financially or emotionally, through the grave illness of his wife. Luckily, he swindles himself a job churning out a novelization of the 2025 remake of a 1963 horror classic, "The Crawling Hand." Crandall tells therein of the United States, in a bid to regain global eminence, launching at last its doomed manned mission to the desolation of Mars. Three space pods with nine Americans on board travel three months, expecting to spend three years as the planet's first colonists. When a secret mission to retrieve a flesh-eating bacterium for use in bio-warfare is uncovered, mayhem ensues. Only a lonely human arm (missing its middle finger) returns to earth, crash-landing in the vast Sonoran Desert of Arizona. The arm may hold the secret to reanimation or it may simply be an infectious killing machine. In the ensuing days, it crawls through the heartbroken wasteland of a civilization at its breaking point, economically and culturally--a dystopia of lowlife, emigration from America, and laughable lifestyle alternatives.
The Four Fingers of Death is a stunningly inventive, sometimes hilarious, monumental novel. It will delight admirers of comic masterpieces like Slaughterhouse-Five, The Crying of Lot 49, and Catch-22.
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Editorial reviews
How would Montese Crandall, our protagonist and a struggling writer whose biggest success is the novelization of a remake of an old horror movie, describe Chris Patton’s performance of Rick Moody’s comic tour-de-force The Four Fingers of Death? It depends which Crandall you ask.
The Crandall we meet in the introduction to Four Fingers sounds as serious as the Moody many people know, the creator of such austere studies of suburban malaise like The Ice Storm and Purple America. This Crandall specializes in distilling his novels down to their essential elements. Then he distills those distillations down even further — and further still until he arrives at diamond-like nuggets of truth. But Crandall doesn’t stop there. No. He goes on and pulverizes those truths even more until all he’s left with is one single sentence: “Go get some eggs, you dwarf.” or “Last one home goes without anesthesia.” This Crandall would probably describe Patton’s passionate reading of Moody’s novel with something like, “My God, he did it!” or “Somebody give that man a scotch.”
Then there’s the Crandall who writes the novelization of the racy remake of The Crawling Hand, a creepy black-and-white B movie from 1963. This Crandall has never met a word or digression he doesn’t love. This Crandall — the bastard child of Tristram Shandy and Moby Dick raised in an ashram by peyote-eating, self-help book-quoting survivalists — revels in the hallucinatory possibility of language. This Crandall would lovingly write page after page about how Patton’s pulsating voice brings the rhythm of Moody’s manic magnum opus to life. Patton reads with gusto Moody’s vision of an America in the not-so-distant future that barely squeaks by and is populated with crackpots, conspiracy theorists, junk scientists, and sex-crazed teenagers who listen to Dead Girlfriend-genre heavy metal. This might sound familiar, except the characters in this novelization of a remake of a movie no one has ever heard of are being terrorized by a powerful, bacteria-infested, perverted four-fingered hand from Mars.
The verbose Crandall would marvel at Patton’s verbal dexterity, his ability to intone the scientific and militaristic techno babble with a straight face one second, then transform his voice into a Valley Girl fashion pop tart or the foul-mouthed son of a Korean scientist desperately trying to reanimate his cryogenically frozen dead wife stored in a refrigerator in his garage.
Yes, Patton pulls it all off, performing The Four Fingers of Death like a one-man Mercury Theater, keeping the audience spellbound as he tells a tale so tall, you smile at the absurdity of it all and anxiously await to hear the next chapter. Because let’s face it. Anything can happen. And that’s part of the absurd, giddy joy of listening to Moody’s latest. —Ken Ross
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David Foster Wallace was the leading literary light of his generation, a man who not only captivated readers with his prose but also mesmerized them with his brilliant mind. In this, the first biography of the writer, D. T. Max sets out to chart Wallace’s tormented, anguished, and often triumphant battle to succeed as a novelist as he fights off depression and addiction to emerge with his masterpiece, Infinite Jest.
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Max avoids hagiography or a sycophant's biography
- By Darwin8u on 06-11-13
By: D. T. Max
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Harry, a History
- The True Story of a Boy Wizard, His Fans, and Life Inside the Harry Potter Phenomenon
- By: Melissa Anelli
- Narrated by: Renée Raudman
- Length: 10 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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With remembrances from J. K. Rowling's editors, agents, publicists, fans, and Rowling herself, Melissa Anelli takes us on a personal journey through every aspect of the Harry Potter phenomenon - from his very first spell to his lasting impact on the way we live and dream.
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Relive the magic!
- By Heather on 03-19-09
By: Melissa Anelli
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My Life with Bob
- Flawed Heroine Keeps Book of Books, Plot Ensues
- By: Pamela Paul
- Narrated by: Eileen Stevens, Pamela Paul
- Length: 6 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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Pamela Paul has kept a single book by her side for 28 years - carried throughout high school and college, hauled from Paris to London to Thailand, from job to job, safely packed away and then carefully removed from apartment to house to its current perch on a shelf over her desk - reliable if frayed, anonymous-looking yet deeply personal. This book has a name: Bob. Bob is Paul's Book of Books, a journal that records every book she's ever read.
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An uncanny mirror and a celebration of book love
- By Cherilyn Parsons on 07-28-19
By: Pamela Paul
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At the Existentialist Café
- Freedom, Being, and Apricot Cocktails
- By: Sarah Bakewell
- Narrated by: Antonia Beamish
- Length: 14 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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Paris, 1933: Three contemporaries meet over apricot cocktails at the Bec-de-Gaz bar on the rue Montparnasse. They are the young Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, and longtime friend Raymond Aron, a fellow philosopher who raves to them about a new conceptual framework from Berlin called phenomenology. "You see," he says, "if you are a phenomenologist, you can talk about this cocktail and make philosophy out of it!"
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Consistent look at incoherent philosophy
- By Gary on 06-19-16
By: Sarah Bakewell
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Reading Like a Writer
- By: Francine Prose
- Narrated by: Nanette Savard
- Length: 8 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
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In her entertaining and edifying New York Times bestseller, acclaimed author Francine Prose invites you to sit by her side and take a guided tour of the tools and the tricks of the masters and discover why their work has endured. Written with passion, humor, and wisdom, Reading Like a Writer will inspire listeners to return to literature with a fresh eye and an eager heart.
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Practical, literate, generous
- By Gare on 04-13-08
By: Francine Prose
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Process
- The Writing Lives of Great Authors
- By: Sarah Stodola
- Narrated by: Andi Arndt
- Length: 7 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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Ernest Hemingway, Zadie Smith, Joan Didion, Franz Kafka, David Foster Wallace, and more. In Process, acclaimed journalist Sarah Stodola examines the creative methods of literature's most transformative figures. Each chapter contains a mini biography of one of the world's most lauded authors, focused solely on his or her writing process.
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Excellent!
- By Davina Rush on 04-10-15
By: Sarah Stodola
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Draft No. 4
- On the Writing Process
- By: John McPhee
- Narrated by: John McPhee
- Length: 6 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
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Draft No. 4 is an elucidation of the writer's craft by a master practitioner. In a series of playful but expertly wrought essays, John McPhee shares insights he's gathered over his career and refined during his long-running course at Princeton University, where he has launched some of the most esteemed writers of several generations. McPhee offers a definitive guide to the crucial decisions regarding structure, diction, and tone that shape nonfiction pieces and presents extracts from some of his best-loved work, subjecting them to wry scrutiny.
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McPhee is the Craft
- By Darwin8u on 09-19-17
By: John McPhee
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Gumption
- Relighting the Torch of Freedom with America's Gutsiest Troublemakers
- By: Nick Offerman
- Narrated by: Nick Offerman
- Length: 11 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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The star of Parks and Recreation and author of the New York Times best seller Paddle Your Own Canoe returns with a second book that humorously highlights 21 figures from our nation’s history, from her inception to present day - Nick’s personal pantheon of “great Americans". After the great success of his autobiography, Paddle Your Own Canoe, Offerman now focuses on the lives of those who inspired him. From George Washington to Willie Nelson, he describes 21 heroic figures and why they inspire in him such great meaning.
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Swagger and mirth
- By Tamara Shope on 09-14-15
By: Nick Offerman
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Montaigne in Barn Boots
- An Amateur Ambles Through Philosophy
- By: Michael Perry
- Narrated by: Michael Perry
- Length: 5 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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"The journey began on a gurney", writes Michael Perry, describing the debilitating kidney stone that led him to discover the essays of Michel de Montaigne. Reading the philosopher in a manner he equates to chickens pecking at scraps - including those eye-blinking moments when the bird gobbles something too big to swallow - Perry attempts to learn what he can (good and bad) about himself as compared to a long-dead French nobleman who began speaking Latin at the age of two.
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A beacon in a dark time
- By Kelsey on 01-13-18
By: Michael Perry
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So We Read On
- How the Great Gatsby Came to Be and Why It Endures
- By: Maureen Corrigan
- Narrated by: Maureen Corrigan
- Length: 10 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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Conceived nearly a century ago by a man who died believing himself a failure, it's now a revered classic and a rite of passage in the reading lives of millions. But how well do we really know The Great Gatsby? As Maureen Corrigan, Gatsby lover extraordinaire, points out, while Fitzgerald's masterpiece may be one of the most popular novels in America, many of us first read it when we were too young to fully comprehend its power.
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Reading Gatsby as an adult reveals its greatness!
- By Mark on 10-06-14
By: Maureen Corrigan
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The Enchanted Hour
- The Miraculous Power of Reading Aloud in the Age of Distraction
- By: Meghan Cox Gurdon
- Narrated by: Meghan Cox Gurdon
- Length: 7 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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A Wall Street Journal writer’s conversation-changing look at how reading aloud makes adults and children smarter, happier, healthier, more successful, and more closely attached, even as technology pulls in the other direction.
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advice to take to heart
- By Brian on 04-30-20
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Poetry in Person
- Twenty-five Years of Conversation with America's Poets
- By: Lucille Clifton, Alexander Neubauer - editor, Eamon Grennan, and others
- Narrated by: Alexander Neubauer
- Length: 5 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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This first audio edition of Poetry in Person: 25 Years of Conversation with America’s Poets (Knopf, 2010), invites listeners into an intimate classroom with eight acclaimed poets. Full of compelling, in-depth conversation about manuscripts and drafts by the poets themselves, plus readings of the finished poems, these historic recordings offer one of the most detailed portraits ever produced of how poems are actually made.
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Fascinating
- By d on 08-28-16
By: Lucille Clifton, and others
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And So It Goes
- Kurt Vonnegut: A Life
- By: Charles J. Shields
- Narrated by: Fred Berman
- Length: 17 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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New York Times best-selling author and biographer Charles J. Shields crafts this fascinating portrait of literary icon Kurt Vonnegut. The first authorized biography of the influential American writer, And So It Goes examines Vonnegut’s life, from his childhood to his death in 2007, and explores how the author changed the conversation of American literature.
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Probably only for die hard Vonnegut fans
- By Watery M on 12-22-12
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Big Magic
- Creative Living Beyond Fear
- By: Elizabeth Gilbert
- Narrated by: Elizabeth Gilbert
- Length: 5 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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People of all ages and walks of life have drawn inspiration and empowerment from Elizabeth Gilbert’s books for years. Now this beloved author digs deep into her own generative process to share her wisdom and unique perspective about creativity. With profound empathy and radiant generosity, she offers potent insights into the mysterious nature of inspiration. She asks us to embrace our curiosity and let go of needless suffering. She shows us how to tackle what we most love, and how to face down what we most fear.
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Biggest Inspiration In a Long Time
- By Gillian on 09-23-15
What listeners say about The Four Fingers of Death
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall
- Aaron
- 12-14-10
Like Pynchon, DF Wallace, PK Dick, Palahniuk?
Then you will probably dig this. If you are looking for your standard "Book 9 in the Adventures of Space Captain Whatever" then skip it. This is what I would call "fatigue lit" - Moody, like the others mentioned, is exhausting and at times waaaaay too clever for his own good. That said, there is far more substance and charming insight to be found here than in, say, William Gibson's last few books combined. Also, the narrator is pitch perfect (including his brief slip around mid way). My advice is to listen to books like this one on double speed - it is too long and exasperating to slog through at standard speed.
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7 people found this helpful
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- Amber
- 10-03-11
barely worth it...
The beginning of this book is unbearable. Fast forward past the first 45min and you might be able to handle the rest. Once the full plot of the book is revealed it is worth the pain and suffering of jumping from one story to the next.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Gregor
- 05-25-21
Moments of interest hidden in stupid verbosity.
There were several story lines that merged together in an interesting way and definitely a decent amount and attention to character building. It was several stories that combined so that part was interesting. Way too much emphasis on graphic sex for no apparent reason. Specifically the homosexual astronaut sex. I am not homophobic but my god that did not enhance the story and just seemed gratuitous for no apparent useful plot developing reason. It made me actually stop reading for a long period of time just because it seemed like “WTF?!?“
Interesting premise with the chimpanzee.
The author has a tendency to use 500 words when six Will do. Almost as if they are showing off their vocabulary that goes far beyond painting the verbal picture of the scene, thought or scenario.
Would I recommend it? Probably not.Were parts filled with interesting premise and potential? Yes.
My favorite part was following the developing sentience of the chimpanzee.
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- Mark
- 06-04-11
Not sure how to rate this one.....
It is all over the map. Honestly I struggled with it. The narrator did an amazing job.
The book was sorta...well....I don't know. I imagine this is one book where folks go crazy and love it....others will hate it. If you like insane random plot this is for you. I gave it up with about 4 hours, I made it most of the way.
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- andy
- 10-20-11
Good concept - perhaps drawn out
I am a massive fan of that ultimate: a great story that is also well written and very long (we all want more for our monthly Audible credit, right?)
FFoD is almost that but i felt that it was tooooo drawn out in the end, and that if some portions of the story were condensed. But a great concept and a great vision of the slightly greater dystopia we will be living in less than 20 years.
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- BazaarPatron
- 05-17-13
Couldn't finish it...
...and I'm the type to usually slug it out until the end. The "Listeners Like Me" feature led me to this book and I find myself wishing I'd read more of the dissenting reviews. I find myself agreeing with them now.
Some praised this book for being meta and complex. I call bull@#$%. I found it was dull and changed gears too quickly. The straw that broke the camel's back for me was the third act where point of view shifted to a profane, idiot teenager. It got to be intolerable.
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5 people found this helpful
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Overall
- N. R. Gawlak
- 04-08-11
A Classic
Great writing, great narration and it is a real mind bender. Yeah, I know. Lots of pretty raw sexual
passages and certain characters can't speak unless they use the "f" word and its kin in every
sentence...sometimes more than once. So. If you can't tolerate foul
language and explicit sexual descriptions then it may not be the book for you. But, somehow,
as with most of the weirdness and idiocy which transpires within the pages, it all seems to
enhance the story, making it, as a whole, much greater than the sum of its parts and a joy to listen to and/or read. . Nothing gratuitous about the smut. Sure, its all fantasy. It could never happen!...probably not. But even in all this make believe, most of Moody's characters
ring true. And, although what they do within the story may surprise us, at times, like all good actors, they stay in character. That is the mark of an accomplished writer.
It is a long, convoluted and detailed story. In a couple of places, the plot changes are
jolting and may cause temporary disconnect. Just hang in there and it will all work out.
Seems to me, "The Four Fingers of Death, as campy as the title is, belongs in the same genre as "Animal Farm", "Brave New World", "1984" and "Fahrenheit 451"...classic socio/political SF. It is an original. And a lot funnier than the other 4 I mentioned.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall
- Mk
- 07-06-11
Boring
The author is full of himself. He tells a supposed tale that gives all appearances to be just about him. I haven't read his bio, so I don't know for sure, but listening to someone talk about himself is BORING
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- Jack Foster
- 12-07-10
I loved this book!!
I had the same reservations as you, the concept could collapse under its own weight, I don't like my sci-fi coming from lit-fic, etc. but I have a lot of time to kill at my job and it's like 23 hours long so I gambled and WON, this book is a total treat! Sufficiently pulpy, slightly satiricritical (the future here reminded me of Super Sad Love Story) but the novel is ultimately pinned to the aching space of the void. The spacewalk is, at its heart, an ode to lonesomeness. The 'introduction' took some getting through, and of the 2 parts I liked the Mars journey more, it had a very similar feel to Chris Ware's "Seeing Eye dogs of Mars" from Acme #19. And the narrator WAS PERFECT FOR THIS! If you're curious give it a shot. I loved it!!
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9 people found this helpful
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Overall
- Dan
- 12-11-10
Review of Part 1
I noticed early on in the book that the characterization of women was "not good": disease ridden, greedy, demented, slutty, treacherous; and their relationships with men were defined by pain and suffering......then it happened (near the end of part 1): an explicitly described gay male sex act.
This is not the kind of material I expect to be peddled in the Sci-Fi section. I believe that there is a more appropriate section for this kind of book. I do not plan to hear the rest of the story so I can't tell you whether or not the authors declaration that "on Mars maybe gay sex was how sex was meant to be", turns out to be true; because, frankly I don't want to know. But, I can say that based on Part1, I do not agree with the high rating this book has received.
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7 people found this helpful