Another character in this work is ridiculed for the apparent loss of his thumbs because compensation payments are only made for the loss of whole hands.  
One character in this work issues a lawsuit over his wife's inability to fulfill her "marital responsibilities" after a plane crash, and that character is later revealed to have been injured in the war when one of his own companions threw a fragmentation grenade under his bed.  Another character in this work is ridiculed for the apparent loss of his thumbs because compensation payments are only made for the loss of whole hands.  The protagonist is outraged when she discovers that the flowers sent to her friend in the hospital were arranged as a cross, and the protagonist's brother is killed in a plane crash over South Africa along with Senator Teakell.  Controversy arises from a typhus outbreak when people drink the bottled water from the Pee Dee River, where Wayne Fickert was drowned while being baptized by Reverend Ude.  After being fatally struck on the head, the protagonist is unable to answer a phone call from McCandless.  FTP, name this third novel by William Gaddis.
One character in this work issues a lawsuit over his wife's inability to fulfill her "marital responsibilities" after a plane crash, and that character is later revealed to have been injured in the war when one of his own companions threw a fragmentation grenade under his bed.  
Carpenter's Gothic