The 158-Pound Marriage

Irving, John

ISBN 10: 0394484142 / ISBN 13: 9780394484143

Published by Random House; (1974), NY, 1974

About this Item

First printing of the author's third novel, very good with no dust jacket. Small triangular "BTP" sticker at top of front pastedown, small hole in front gutter that appears to be caused by a binding flaw. The top edge of the page block is a little spotted, and the top corners are bumped. A tight, square copy without names or other markings. Seller Inventory # 020458

Bibliographic Details

Title: The 158-Pound Marriage

Publisher: Random House; (1974), NY

Publication Date: 1974

Binding: Hardcover

Condition: Very Good

Dust Jacket Condition: No Jacket

Edition: First Edition

About this title

Synopsis:

"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 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.

"One of the most remarkable things about John Irving's first three novels, viewed from the vantage of The World According to Garp, is that they can be read as one extended fictional enterprise. . . . The 158-Pound Marriage is as lean and concentrated as a mine shaft."
--Terrence Des Pres

From the Publisher:

8 1-hour cassettes