Severin Winter is not a man to take things lightly. His loving, like his wrestli
ng, is decidedly heavyweight, a fact not lost on Utch, a lonely Viennese lady wh
ose husband is rather taken (literally) by the delicate Edith, Severin's underwe
ight wife. A bizarre menage a quatre is the result of these convoluted desires a
s Irving blends farce and tragedy in another bubbling and brilliant novel.