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The 158-Pound Marriage (Black Swan)
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Product Description
Product Description
Severin Winter is not a man to take things lightly. His loving, like his wrestling, is decidedly heavyweight, a fact not lost on Utch, a lonely Viennese lady whose husband is rather taken (literally) by the delicate Edith, Severin's underweight wife. A bizarre menage a quatre is the result of these convoluted desires as Irving blends farce and tragedy in another bubbling and brilliant novel.
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Severin Winter is not a man to take things lightly. His loving, like his wrestling, is decidedly heavyweight...a fact not lost on Utch, a lovely Viennese lady whose husband is rather taken (literally) by the delicate Edith, Severin's underweight wife.
A bizarre menage a quatre is the result of these convoluted desires as Irving blends farce and tragedy in another bubbling, brilliant novel.
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First Sentence
My wife, Utchka (whose name I some time ago shortened to Utch), could teach patience to a time bomb. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
My wife, Utchka (whose name I some time ago shortened to Utch), could teach patience to a time bomb. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I have to say this is a lot better than the other reviews suggest. Its an easy and entertaining read in which Irving intertwines a current complex relationship with character histories going back several decades.
In this novel you can see the seeds of Hotel New Hampshire and Garp and the recurrent Irving themes and backgrounds (Wrestling, German, Austria, sex) are very much evident. I very much enjoyed it.
In this novel you can see the seeds of Hotel New Hampshire and Garp and the recurrent Irving themes and backgrounds (Wrestling, German, Austria, sex) are very much evident. I very much enjoyed it.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is an early Irving which, as usual, contains references to wrestling and features the city of Vienna. This is the story of a foursome, quirky stories about their individual pasts and how they all met. But also about where this unusual relationship is going. As often with Irving you wonder "but where does he get this from?!". From Utch's childhood (found hiding in a cow by a Russian army officer), to Edith and Severin's trip to Greece and the watermelon truck, how Edith seems to never be able to differentiate between her two children, Utch's jealous roommates gradually shaving off all their body hair to protest as she got married, the guy with a hole in his cheek, the surprise goodbye ceremony from Severin's friends, and everything about Audrey Cannon (I won't spoil the plot on this one). This is all so original and funny. Irving created very likeable characters. He even managed to convey his passion for wrestling through Severin's character in a rather subtle way.
I was not very keen on reading this book as this is an early Irving which does not seem very popular but I think this is a little gem. Not his best but definitely unpretentious and a great read.
I was not very keen on reading this book as this is an early Irving which does not seem very popular but I think this is a little gem. Not his best but definitely unpretentious and a great read.
4 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is one of John Irving's earlier novels. It does not reach the heights of his work during his best phase, which ran from "The world according to Garp" to "A son of the circus", but I think fans of Irving will find it interesting. Some of his constant preoccupations turn up here (wrestling, Vienna) and the seriocomic elements are firmly in place. It meanders much less than his more recent works. Indeed, beside the gargantuan "Until I find you" (which this reviewer is still reading), it is practically a short story.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
The 158-Pound Marriage: John Irving
The 158-Pound Marriage is John Irving's third novel. The novel explores the relationships between the four main characters who become involved in a bizarre ménage a quatre. Read more
Published 4 months ago by N. A. Spencer
Very Tedious.
I think I have read Irving's best works eg The Cider House Rules, The World According to Garp and A Prayer for Owen Meany, whereas this I found exteremely tedious. Read more
Published 15 months ago by Lexicon
The turnips have gone cold Mildred
The story in the book is very moving in a strange ethereal sort of big outlandishly childish postmodern apocalyptic kinda americo-anglicised french novelist on a bicycle with a... Read more
Published on 17 Nov 1999
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