The 158-Pound Marriage

John Irving

158 Pound Marriage is supposedly one of the lesser Irvings (Garp and Owen Meany and Cider House Rules and one or two others are the "big" Irvings; at least that's the general consensus). I don't argue with these unofficial categories except to put in a word for the much overlooked but very enjoyable Water Method Man. But 158 Pound Marriage has never made it big and it's easy enough to see why.

The story concerns the narrator, his wife Utch, and another couple, Edith and Severin Winter. The foursome are engaged in, well, a sexual foursome. A vigorous, open, contented foursome. Except perhaps not so contented after all. And since it's hard enough to imagine a menage a quatre free of sexual tension in real life let alone in literature the underlying pain and jealousy has to come to the surface by the end of the book. Which it does, but in a rather limp fashion.

Many of the usual Irvingisms are in here: Austrians, wrestling, "mothers" and the rest. And Severin Winter is a great Irving character, as enjoyable a creation as any from the other novels. But the other protagonists are utterly colourless. I make that a one-in-four hit rate. Not nearly high enough to fire up this Irving fan.