Closer to three and a half. I'm catching up on my pre Garp/Cinderhouse Irving. Seeing bits and pieces of the greatness to come, better than his earlier yet stuff. Did not care for any of the main characters. Liked the story well enough, no spoilers here, but if you're looking for any kind of "normal" relationships in this book, you're in for some surprises!
Can recommend this to only hardcore John Irving fans.

I think that this is a book that some bored housewife would probably enjoy. For me, there was nothing interesting, it took too much time to built the main characters and the rest of it was just sex. I barely had the energy to finish the book.

this is about a foursome, an experiment in switching partners with another couple. taking couple vacations with another couple, dinner and sleepovers house hopping. its difficult for me because i don't like the narrator. he's too goopy. and the children have no presence. but i keep reading. its really intense and relationshippy

I still love Irvings style of writing fiction in a biographic way of storytelling. His way of interrupting the story with storys of the characters past is a great thing to deepen the backstory and helps to build up the differnt characters. This story had a lot of Irvings classic elements and his writing is good! But the story itself was not my thing, I guess.

3,5

It builds and builds and goes nowhere. I was interested in the backgrounds of the four main characters but then, nothing. Perhaps I missed the point. If the point of this was this has the seed of its own destruction, I guess I hoped for more. In some sense this is very dated in the era of free love and even the cold war. Two couples are deeply into what we used to call wife swapping, today it might be called spouse swapping. Very erotic, very consuming, very hedonistic, very empty. And yes, lots of wrestling and because this is John Irving, some maimed or missing body parts. Perhaps this would have worked better as a short story. The saving grace here, it's not a tome.

This was the first novel by Irving I’ve read. Not coincidentally, it is precisely what I had wanted from “The Good Soldier” (one of the opening epigraphs comes from there) and the story was a beautiful reworking of it. I absolutely adored every minute and would highly recommend it. Missing a star, however, because I am not sure I will remember it after this year, which is more my failing than Irving’s.

Read this a while ago. It's bizarre thinking of Irving writing sex scenes that take place in the same room where I had freshman gym.

Kai knyga pirkta dar litais, o skaityta dabar - ji tikrai labai ilgai laukė savo eilės. Manau, kad Irvingo galima persisotinti, bet tuo pačiu prie jo norisi grįžti. Tai viena trumpiausių jo knygų, kurią teko skaityti, todėl laikas su knyga nė kiek neprailgo. Skirtumas nuo kitų jo knygų buvo, kad šokiruojantis elementas buvo pačioje knygos pradžioje.
Iš esmės, tai knyga apie 2 svingerių poras, jų besiklostantį romaną, tarpusavio santykius, priešistorę ir tai, kaip poroms sekasi šiandien.
Knyga švelniai banguojanti, su įdomiomis įžvalgomis („Vyrų ji buvo pažinusi ne tiek daug, juolab sportininkų, ir nežinojo, kad jie, kaip ir moterys, yra pratę dažnai persiranginėti ir daro tai sklandžiai ir nerūpestingai.“) bei geru humoro jausmu („Jis juos skusdavo kas savaitę ir visad kažkaip sugebėdavo įsipjauti, kovodamas su tais šešiais ar septyniais plaukais.).
Taigi, ką pasiimu iš šios knygos sau.?
Vidutinio svorio santuokoje, kaip jau įprasta radau veikėjus - rašytoją, imtynininką/ imtynių trenerį bei šokiruojantį elementą - tai ko ir tikėjausi iš šio autoriaus.

Irving's third published novel and clearly getting into his stride, with his idiosyncratically eccentric characters and lyrical insight into the complexities of romantic relationships on show in this accessible portrait of wife-swapping amongst post-WW2 Austrian émigrés.

Vienna, Klimt, Schiele and plenty of sex scenes. What's not to like?

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 I don't know where I am in time and place. The narrative voice is first person, weaving in memory after memory-- it gets confusing. Irving often dances around being a mysoginist asshole and in this novel he just IS one...but I forgive him...because I a forgive him his sins. If I were to meet John I would ask him why he is so into wrestling...I must say it baffles me but the more I read his books the more I want to watch a wrestling match.