The darker vision and sexual ambiguities of this erotic, ironic tale about a ménage a quatre in a New England university town foreshadow those...
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Jun 28, 2007
Ryan
rated it: 
relationships really aren't all about the sex. john irving kicked even more ass before he was widely read. read it.
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Sep 03, 2007
Tory
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It's John Irving. One cannot go wrong with John Irving.
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Jul 29, 2011
Jamie
rated it: 
A tale about the trials and tribulations of relationships that are fraught with infidelities, an area of expertise in the writing mind of John Irving, I was expecting a whole lot more from this book than I actually got. As with most Irving novels, there's plenty of Vienna for the reader to sink their teeth into (after all the John Irving I've read over the years I feel almost as intimate with Vienna as I am with my own Toronto, and I've never even been there!), and no bears to mar or confuse th
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Jun 30, 2011
Rebekah
rated it:
I LOVED The Hotel New Hampshire, The World According to Garp, and A Prayer for Owen Meany, and really liked A Widow for One Year. I read this even though it didn't look that good because I have a three-month-old and no time or attention span for reading anything anymore but John Irving is always pretty quick-moving and this book looked short.
If I didn't already love John Irving I would have hated this book. The characters were pretty unconvincing and if I had been convinced then I More...
If I didn't already love John Irving I would have hated this book. The characters were pretty unconvincing and if I had been convinced then I More...
May 22, 2010
Ruth
rated it: 
255 pages. Donated to charity 2010 May.
Professional Reviews
"Irving looks cunningly beyond the eye-catching gyrations of the mating dance to the morning-after implications."
--The Washington Post
The darker vision and sexual ambiguities of this erotic, ironic tale about a ménage a quatre in a New England university town foreshadow those of The World According to Garp; but this very trim and precise novel is a marked departure from the author's ge More...
Professional Reviews
"Irving looks cunningly beyond the eye-catching gyrations of the mating dance to the morning-after implications."
--The Washington Post
The darker vision and sexual ambiguities of this erotic, ironic tale about a ménage a quatre in a New England university town foreshadow those of The World According to Garp; but this very trim and precise novel is a marked departure from the author's ge More...
Oct 03, 2011
Glendalee
rated it:
I can't seem to get sick of Irving. This is one of his shortest novels I've read and that threw me off a bit because I've been reading a lot of Irving lately and all his novels are thick. I picked this book up because I heard that it was similar to the world according to garp (which I loved). This book was about two married couples that enter into a foursome. At first it was a bit unclear how this foursome started and Irving was a bit vague about that but once you get deeper into the story it s
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Aug 08, 2009
Jaslo
rated it:
I love John Irving. I really, really love him. I was very curious to read this because it is one of his early novels and I was told it was bad and very mean spirited. I think it is still better than most novels and only mildly mean spirited. Irving demonstrates his usual (brilliant) humor, his fascination with physical deformity and physical fitness, and his delightfully complex characters. That being said, I found the transitions from scene to scene vague and quick. Several times in this novel
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Aug 05, 2011
“Look,” he said, “she just needs to get her pride back. I know, because I have to get my pride back, too. It’s really very simple. She knows I didn’t really want the whole thing, and she knows you were thinking more about yourself than about, her. We were all thinking more about ourselves than about Utch. And you were all thinking mode about yourselves than about me. Now you just have to be patient and continue to do as you’re doing – only a little less aggressively. Help her help to hate me, bu
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Jan 24, 2008
danielle
rated it:
as always, john irving creates beautiful characters. each of the four main characters represent a different angle in an approach to life and it is easy to align your loyalties with one of them while still completely understanding the others.
severin scares me a little because i think that's who i relate to the most.
severin scares me a little because i think that's who i relate to the most.
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Sep 12, 2011
wally
rated it:
chapter 1: the angel called "the smile of reims" which has to do w/a sculpture...and when the sculpture was destroyed, opinion was divided. an angel, smiling, a saint, not smiling.
i take it we are introduced to the four who figure big big in the story. utch, the eye-narrator's wife...severin winter and his wife edith. some background on all.
there is some stuff in this chapter that harkens....harkens?...back to irving's other two stories, setting free the bear More...
i take it we are introduced to the four who figure big big in the story. utch, the eye-narrator's wife...severin winter and his wife edith. some background on all.
there is some stuff in this chapter that harkens....harkens?...back to irving's other two stories, setting free the bear More...
Jan 13, 2011
Anna
rated it:
I found the premise of the story – long-term wife-swapping – rather disturbing. It's hard for me to understand seeking out another couple with whom to have "fun" and not to expect any negative ramifications. As the story develops, this is shown to be the case, as each individual (and each couple) has different expectations for how the relationship should evolve. As the relationships of all four people involved deteriorate, you wonder how they got to this point in the first place – w
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Jan 30, 2009
Tatiana
rated it:
more about sex and life and marriage...though I don't quite share the same view on marriage personally it's quite a lusty little book!
AND I learned a LOT about wrestling....
I read every John Irving novel I could get my hands on after The Hotel New Hampshire...all in a couple months span. I became obsessed with him
Even wrote the man an e-mail telling him what an impressive writer he was to make his readers feels so much love, joy, pain, and bittersweetness. This one More...
AND I learned a LOT about wrestling....
I read every John Irving novel I could get my hands on after The Hotel New Hampshire...all in a couple months span. I became obsessed with him
Even wrote the man an e-mail telling him what an impressive writer he was to make his readers feels so much love, joy, pain, and bittersweetness. This one More...
Jul 30, 2011
This novel, Irving's third was surprisingly short considering the tomes he usually puts out. I enjoyed it but not as much as his other works. I have now read everything he has published and this one was my least favorite. There were some sexy bits ( the book deals with two couples that swap partners) but overall, there wasn't much else to it. His other books have so many other levels and subplots that make them so much more meatier than this one. I recommend "Garp" of course but also t
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Jan 23, 2011
Hannah
rated it:
I love you, old before-you-started-sucking John Irving. Sooo much.
Mm, okay, well . . . I love-D you, maybe I should say. You were 31 when you wrote this! That is how old I am! So maybe when I was seventeen you seemed awfully saucy and sophisticated in ways that you can't seem to me now? GROSS I HOPE NOT because then wtf is gonna happen when I go back to my reeeeal babies, Ciderhouse & Owen?? Guhh!!! I bet you are okay there, though. If you're not I'll sure as shit hunt you do More...
Mm, okay, well . . . I love-D you, maybe I should say. You were 31 when you wrote this! That is how old I am! So maybe when I was seventeen you seemed awfully saucy and sophisticated in ways that you can't seem to me now? GROSS I HOPE NOT because then wtf is gonna happen when I go back to my reeeeal babies, Ciderhouse & Owen?? Guhh!!! I bet you are okay there, though. If you're not I'll sure as shit hunt you do More...
Jan 24, 2012
Matthew
rated it:
I'm making my way through the remaining books I own by John Irving that I've not read. After A Son of the Circus I needed to read something of his that didn't seem so dense. So I picked up the smallest novel I had of his: The 158-Pound Marriage.
It was compact and well written, there wasn't a lot of fluff and it really hit on the points that could really destroy your ménage à quatre. The two husband and wife pairs that entered and fell out, no, crashed and burned out of the relations More...
It was compact and well written, there wasn't a lot of fluff and it really hit on the points that could really destroy your ménage à quatre. The two husband and wife pairs that entered and fell out, no, crashed and burned out of the relations More...
Mar 05, 2011
Gossymotto
rated it:
I really like most of John Irving's books but some of them for me, are just okay. This one is well written as are all of his books, but the story fits in the "just okay" category for my taste anyway. I was expecting the story to go somewhere further than it did and I find it hard to relate to the characters. I kept thinking to myself, "Are these people really that clueless?" And I know there are people like these characters but I found it frustrating to read about them.
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Sep 22, 2011
Tim
rated it:
Not Irving's greatest novel, but somewhat enjoyable nonetheless. I started it a few months but have been putting it off for a while. The four-person love-rectangle was an interesting concept but the characters lack any real depth. Unlike some of Irving's greatest characters, namely Owen and Garp, the foursome in this novel lacked any real appeal...and sadly, by the end of the novel I found myself not missing a single one of them.
That all being said. Irving is a great writer and I'll ke More...
That all being said. Irving is a great writer and I'll ke More...
Jan 26, 2011
Joe
rated it:
This was my weight class. I had read GARP a couple of years after I stopped wrestling. The story got me at a very deep level. I knew that John Irving had truly challenged himself in this great sport.
I was amazed when I learned he had written 158 POUND MARRIAGE. I once again quickly related to the wrestling coach, who was once a wrestler. This was a very provocative novel for me. It challenged my ideas of relationships and I didn't agree with it until the end. This is one of the reas More...
I was amazed when I learned he had written 158 POUND MARRIAGE. I once again quickly related to the wrestling coach, who was once a wrestler. This was a very provocative novel for me. It challenged my ideas of relationships and I didn't agree with it until the end. This is one of the reas More...
Feb 04, 2011
Sarah
rated it:
It is, at its center, a cautionary tale of having your cake and eating it too. But there is also the interesting debate of which makes a better lover/partner -- someone who is inheritly the same as you, or someone totally different?
There are some interesting twists and turns, some less expected than others. It was also more explicit in its descriptions than I had expected. And yet it ended just about exactly as I would have predicted. Like most cautionary tales, it is not when it will go More...
There are some interesting twists and turns, some less expected than others. It was also more explicit in its descriptions than I had expected. And yet it ended just about exactly as I would have predicted. Like most cautionary tales, it is not when it will go More...
Aug 04, 2011
No my favorite book ever, but there is alot going on under the surface here: How does your marriage effect your children? What does it mean to be in a 4-some, can it ever really work? I found the ending uncomfortable and didn't like the male main character 'Severin' - though perhaps both are intentional. The wrestling analogy is intriguing - 158 lbs, perhaps just all a bit too much.
May 03, 2010
And now a public service announcement from John Irving: Wife swapping will probably not improve your marriage.
I guess it was the 70's, so this PSA had some more oomph at the time. Pardon the expression, but I couldn't get it up for this foursome of middle-ages sexplorers. There's definitely a reason why this is the one John Irving book you've probably never heard of.
I guess it was the 70's, so this PSA had some more oomph at the time. Pardon the expression, but I couldn't get it up for this foursome of middle-ages sexplorers. There's definitely a reason why this is the one John Irving book you've probably never heard of.
Oct 21, 2009
Karen
rated it:
I am not a fan of John Irving. He frequently rubs me the wrong way because he sacrifices authenticity and believability for symbolism and effect. I am a very character-driven reader and if I can't believe in a character I lose interest. I never did understand the point of this book. It wasn't terrible but it just didn't go anywhere interesting or meaningful.
Oct 21, 2011
James
rated it:
Unfortunately none of Irving's early novels leave you with the breathless wonder of his later work, and this is no exception: I found this book a little tedious, without the wit of Garp, the intensity of Owen Meany, or the shock of the Fourth Hand. A tale of two couples who swap partners inside their marriages and the emotional corruption that ensues, it was full of sexual explicitness that felt more disgusting than erotic, although perhaps Irving's intent was to make it repulsive, as marital vo
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Dec 19, 2009
Sarah
rated it:
Definitely not a recruiting tool for marriage. These are some screwed up people in some bizarre relationships. And yet, it was compelling and I kept reading. I wanted to know what would happen, even if it ended with them all imploding in a hothouse of their own misery and dysfunction (that is not what happens). Irving gives good disfunction.
Jan 08, 2009
Victoria
rated it:
The characters were intriguing but not terribly likeable; the narrator was not quite distinct enough as his own character (I don't know if he had a name, but there was very little rounding out); this is no Garp or Prayer for Owen Meany or Cider House. It feels like a short story that kept growing. Didn't like the ending, if there was one. I still enjoy reading everything John Irving writes - he guarantees irony and humor - but this is one of his earlier novels and I believe he improved.
May 30, 2011
Adam
rated it:
A not so favorite by a favorite author.
The story of the two couples just never resonated with me in a way that I felt connected to any one of them. It is precisely the connections to characters that Irving's usually instills that has compelled me to devour his work.
The sexual deviance is there, the great detail, north-east setting, wrestling, writing and many other Irving's standards are all present. But, it just didn't do it for me.
The story of the two couples just never resonated with me in a way that I felt connected to any one of them. It is precisely the connections to characters that Irving's usually instills that has compelled me to devour his work.
The sexual deviance is there, the great detail, north-east setting, wrestling, writing and many other Irving's standards are all present. But, it just didn't do it for me.
Dec 13, 2009
Zac
rated it: 
The book was centered on two married couples spouse swapping, and it was supposed to be about how that relationship affected their lives. Very little was actually written on that and the bulk of the book was Irving describing them having sex. He put more effort into how and where they had sex rather then how it shaped their lives.
Jul 15, 2011
Jim
rated it:
Not too impressed with this novel. It seems to be a retread of The Water Method Man. The book is about wife swapping (again!) and the ravages and salutary effects wife-swapping can have on a marriage.
The story is told in the first person by, as it turns out, a third-rate clueless author. Overall, not recommended. I am done with this author.
The story is told in the first person by, as it turns out, a third-rate clueless author. Overall, not recommended. I am done with this author.
Apr 05, 2011
hcelvis
rated it:
Partnertausch, um eine Ehekrise zu bewältigen? Was anfangs zu funktionieren scheint, entpuppt sich als fatale Fehleinschätzung: Scheinbar spielt nur einer nicht richtig mit, aber was in den anderen dreien vorgeht, weiß auch keiner genau.
John Irving beschreibt dieses Liebesdrama großartig und menschlich, man kann sich in die Figuren hineinversetzen, man lebt und leidet mit. Auch wenn sein schräger Humor und sein Gespür für skurrile Szenen hier nicht ganz so ausgeprägt zu sein scheinen wie be More...
John Irving beschreibt dieses Liebesdrama großartig und menschlich, man kann sich in die Figuren hineinversetzen, man lebt und leidet mit. Auch wenn sein schräger Humor und sein Gespür für skurrile Szenen hier nicht ganz so ausgeprägt zu sein scheinen wie be More...
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Aug 02, 2011
Maria
rated it:
The question is, Where does John Irving get his stories from? Real life?, soul searching?, plain imagination? This was just OK for me. It failed to convince me, I did not buy the meanness of the characters. Maybe I'm too naive; but I think I know what love is, and this wasn't it.
