“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 sensual, 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 “Deft, hard-hitting . . . What Irving demonstrates beautifully is that a one-to-one relationship is more demanding than a free-for-all.”— The New York Times Book Review “Irving looks cunningly beyond the eye-catching gyrations of the mating dance to the morning-after implications.” — The Washington Post “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 “Deft, hard-hitting . . . What Irving demonstrates beautifully is that a one-to-one relationship is more demanding than a free-for-all.” — The New York Times Book Review "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 Paperback edition. "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 menage 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 Paperback edition. John Irving has been nominated for a National Book Award three times—winning once, in 1980, for the novel The World According to Garp . In 1992, Mr. Irving was inducted into the National Wrestling Hall of Fame in Stillwater, Oklahoma. In 2000, he won the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay for The Cider House Rules —a film with seven Academy Award nominations. 1. The Angel Called “The Smile of Reims” My wife, Utchka (whose name I sometime ago shortened to Utch), could teach patience to a time bomb. With some luck, she has taught me a little. Utch learned patience under what we might call duress. She was born in Eichbüchl, Austria – a little village outside the proletarian town of Wiener Neustadt, which is an hour’s drive from Vienna – in 1938, the year of Anschluss. When she was three, her father was killed as a Bolshevik saboteur. It is unproven that he was a Bolshevik, but he was a saboteur. By the end of the war, Wiener Neustadt would become the largest landing field in Europe, and the unwilling site of the German Messerschmitt factory. Utch’s father was killed in 1941 when he was caught in the act of blow