{"product_id":"158-pound-marriage-book-john-irving-9780345367433","title":"The 158-Pound Marriage","description":"\u003cb\u003eIrving looks cunningly beyond the eye-catching gyrations of the mating dance to the morning-after implications.--\u003ci\u003eThe Washington Post\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e The darker vision and sexual ambiguities of this sensual, ironic tale about a m nage a quatre in a New England university town foreshadow those of \u003ci\u003eThe World According to Garp\u003c\/i\u003e; 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. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cb\u003eOne of the most remarkable things about John Irving's first three novels, viewed from the vantage of \u003ci\u003eThe World According to Garp, \u003c\/i\u003e is that they can be read as one extended fictional enterprise. . . . \u003ci\u003eThe 158-Pound Marriage\u003c\/i\u003e is as lean and concentrated as a mine shaft.--Terrence Des Pres \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cb\u003eDeft, hard-hitting . . . What Irving demonstrates beautifully is that a one-to-one relationship is more demanding than a free-for-all.--\u003ci\u003eThe New York Times Book Review\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ WELL_READ \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49588955414801,"sku":"GOR012320998","price":0.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":49946721845521,"sku":"CIN034536743XG","price":5.08,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ WELL_READ \/ SBYB","offer_id":50348395069713,"sku":"CIN034536743XA","price":4.36,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":51776236388625,"sku":"CIN034536743XVG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/034536743X.jpg?v=1751134460","url":"https:\/\/www.worldofbooks.com\/products\/158-pound-marriage-book-john-irving-9780345367433","provider":"World of Books ","version":"1.0","type":"link"}