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The 158-Pound Marriage

About the Book

The 158-Pound Marriage

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 generally robust, boisterous style. Though Mr. Irving's cool eye spares none of his foursome, he writes with genuine compassion for the sexual tests and illusions they perpetrate on each other; but the sexual intrigue between them demonstrates how even the kind can be ungenerous, and even the well-intentioned, destructive.

The 158-Pound Marriage
by John Irving

  • Publication Date: June 23, 1997
  • Paperback: 176 pages
  • Publisher: Ballantine Books
  • ISBN-10: 0345417968
  • ISBN-13: 9780345417961