John Irving is my hands-down favorite author. I have read and re-read this one and while I enjoyed the book and Irving's tone that I know and love, it is not nearly as beloved to me as Garp, Cider House, Owen Meany and Hotel New Hampshire. If you love Irving, read it-- you'll like it-- but if you are just trying him out, this is not the one to begin with.

Kind of boring. I like John Irving, but lately finding out he's hit or miss. A Prayer for Owen Meany is great, but books like this one and Widow for a Year stink.
Couldn't get into any of the characters in this book and the story got old real quick. It's about two couples that swap wifes/husbands. It's predictable and no surprise ending really. Thankfully, it's only 250 pages. Avoid and read a Prayer for Owen Meany instead.

i recently saw a louis theroux documentary about "ethical non-monogamy". at one point someone quips that polyamory is just slow divorce. this book made me think of that line. that swinging should exacerbate underlying relationship issues instead of solving them should not be surprising to anyone.

this book is a very mean account of two couples who have decided to become a foursome. this goes about as well as you might expect. the narrator is one of the husbands and his recounting of the story is not very sympathetic to any party.

Based on the reviews and the questionable subject matter, I was unprepared to actually *like* this book. What a pleasant surprise! It is deeply moving, tragic, and painful -- the story of four children playing an adult game whose consequences they are unwilling to consider. The story arc, which mirrors real life in this situation, wraps up as untidily as it would in real life, with no real growth of any of the characters, no happy ending, no real promise, even, that the characters won't repeat their mistakes again. But that's real life ... and I loved it! John Irving is a brilliant master of human emotions; I have yet to read a book of his all the way through that I haven't loved (though I am struggling to get into one of his most acclaimed: The Cider House Rules.) The 158-Pound Marriage isn't for everyone; however, if you're not discomfited by loose ties, no morals, and messy human emotions, it's a terrific read.

Das waren sehr mühsame 278 Seiten und ich habe ehrlich gesagt keine Lust noch mehr Zeit auf dieses unheimlich zähe, mir leider nichts sagende, Buch zu verschwenden.

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 wouldn't have liked them. The story was banal and told with such heavy-handedness as to make the banality even more irritating. But, I do already love John Irving, and this book, written early in his career, had enough of the stuff he would later turn into those genius books that I adore, that I enjoyed it anyway. It was like, even though I didn't like THIS book, it reminded me enough of the ones that I DO like that I was able to enjoy reading it.

Two stars for being the first real book I've been able to read since having a baby (and the second since getting pregnant). And in related news, I've been wearing all my pants with the stretchy band to hold them together during and after pregnancy, but I just went to the bathroom and thought, Why not give it a go? and MY PANTS FIT!!! First book and first time closing my pants in a long time. Things are getting back to normal.

Re-read in airports for my first plane trip in 9 years. Perfect size and story to keep me entertained at the gate!

Для 1974 года, когда был выпущен этот роман, скорее всего, он стал откровением. Множество на самом деле пикантных сцен, разговоров, не говоря уж о скандальной тематике.
Без предисловий и лишних уверток мы с самого начала узнаем о странных любовных отношениях между двумя парами. Пары эти вполне благополучны внешне, имеют стабильный доход, детей и занимают соседние дома. Однако видимо что-то все же не так, если простая семейная жизнь не приносит им сладости нужной концентрации.
Кажется, будто новые добрососедские отношения принимают форму квадрата - две пары параллельных прямых, четыре острых прямых угла и ни одной категорично лишней линии. Но вот незадача - человеческий индивидуум пока не придумал способа существовать в такой фигуре, - слишком много побочных эффектов в виде ревности, жалости, глупой привязанности, а иногда и откровенной жестокости. Люди в таком квадрате сходят с ума и лишаются собственного пути, а потом ломают то, что построили силами четырех.
Не то, чтобы проблемы этих двух пар были мне особо близки. По-моему, это очередная история двух неудавшихся браков, участники которых не теряют надежды спасти самих себя в созданных ими самими историях. Насколько необходимы такие поиски спасения лично мне судить сложно, но раз уж автор это придумал, то почитать можно, хотя и не без легкого недоумения излишнему трагизму ситуации.

3.5⭐
Turbūt pirmas romanas, kurį teko skaityti, apie dvi poras ir jų santykius, kai jie tarpusavyje pradeda keistis partneriais.
Tikėjausi daugiau ir įdomiau, bet lūkesčių neišpildė. Matyt dėl to, kad man tokie keitimaisi yra nesuvokiami ir nepriimtini.
Prie gero jie tikrai nepriveda, ir pasakykit man kaip galima dalintis mylimu žmogumi su kitu???

It's John Irving. One cannot go wrong with John Irving.

Not bad... Irving continues to develop themes that would inform his work from Garp to the present - Vienna, wrestling, infidelity, perversity, etc...

Recommended if you've become an Irving fan after reading his post-Garp novels.

The best way to describe this book is daring, bold, and erotic.

This is John Irving's third novel—the one he wrote before "The World According to Garp," the book that truly ignited his career. Published in 1974 at the height of the sexual revolution, "The 158-Pound Marriage," is warning salvo about the dangers of free love and the havoc it can wreak on hearts and marriages and lives.

The unnamed narrator is a history professor at a small New England college, who writes mundane historical fiction novels on the side. He is married to Utch, an Austrian who was orphaned during the German occupation in World War II and adopted by a Russian general. They have two boys. They meet Severin and Edith, who are married with two daughters. Severin is a German professor and the college's wrestling coach, while Edith is a wannabe novelist. One thing leads to another and the couples decide to switch partners, which then becomes a regular way of life until it spirals out of control. It's adultery on steroids. Even though they try to avoid falling in love and becoming obsessed with one another, trouble erodes this life of sexual freedom in difficult and heartbreaking ways.

The title of the book, according to the Afterword by Terrence Des Pres, refers to "a middle-weight wrestling match, where falls are fast and expected." And that is an apt description of the plot and characters. We have two marriages which were both solid, although a bit boring, and the couples' sexual adventures together did create falls that were both fast and expected.

The book is filled with wrestling imagery beginning with the title and continuing through most of the chapter titles and then throughout the text in what would become classic Irving style in many of his future novels. It can get a bit tiresome, but John Irving fans know how much he loves wrestling. (And bears. But there are only a few passing mentions of bears in this book.)

Note: Most of the sex scenes (and there are a lot of them) are quite explicit.

This is a good book, but not a great one. If John Irving is one of your favorite authors, this is a must-read; otherwise, you might want to skip it.