RANDOM HOUSE. NY 1974. Fine. 1974. First Edition. Hardcover. 0394484142 . First edition. About fine in fine dust jacket. (Ghost of sticker on the front paste-down. Small crease at base of rear jacket flap) Author's THIRD book. (B) .

Synopsis

The 158-Pound Marriage, author John Irving's third published novel, revolves around an unidentified narrator, a college professor, and a mediocre novelist. The narrator met his wife Utch, an orphaned survivor of WWII, in Vienna while doing research. They are a relatively happy couple; their family rounded out by two children. At a faculty party, they meet Severin Winter, a Viennese-born professor and coach of the college wrestling team, and his wife, Edith. The couple's interests (Edith is an aspiring fiction writer, and Severin has a commonality with Utch's upbringing in Austria) and resulting infatuations between the couples lead to after-dinner partner-swapping. At first, the swinging goes smoothly, but eventually, uneven feelings and obsessions throw the couples off track. The title, The 158-Pound Marriage , refers to the 158-pound weight class in wrestling, which Severin, the coach, feels is the most competitive. The book is small, only 176 pages, compared to Irving's later weighty tomes, like the 610 page The World According to Garp ( 1978) and The Cider House Rules (1985), which is 973 pages.

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Details

Bookseller: Waverley Books (US)
Bookseller's Inventory #: 2864
Title: THE 158-POUND MARRIAGE.
Author: Irving, John
Format/Binding: Hardcover
Book Condition: Used - Fine
Edition: First Edition
ISBN 10: 0394484142
ISBN 13: 9780394484143
Publisher: RANDOM HOUSE. NY 1974
Place of Publication: New York
Date Published: 1974
Keywords: 0394484142, Modern Fiction/john Irving/220
Bookseller catalogs: List168;

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Glossary

Some terminology that may be used in this description includes:

First Edition: In book collecting, the first edition is the earliest published form of a book. A book may have more than one first edition in...
Jacket: Sometimes used as another term for dust jacket, a protective and often decorative wrapper, usually made of paper which wraps...
Fine: A book in fine condition exhibits no flaws. A fine condition book closely approaches As New condition, but may lack the...
Paste-down: The paste-down is the portion of the endpaper that is glued to the inner boards of a hardback book. The paste-down forms an...