Review: A Reliable Wife by Robert Goolrick

About the Book: Rural Wisconsin, 1909. In the bitter cold, Ralph Truitt, a successful businessman, stands alone on a train platform waiting for the woman who answered his newspaper advertisement for "a reliable wife." But when Catherine Land steps off the train from Chicago, she's not the "simple, honest woman" that Ralph is expecting. She is both complex and devious, haunted by a terrible past and motivated by greed. Her plan is simple: she will win this man's devotion, and then, ever so slowly, she will poison him and leave Wisconsin a wealthy widow. What she has not counted on, though, is that Truitt — a passionate man with his own dark secrets —has plans of his own for his new wife. Isolated on a remote estate and imprisoned by relentless snow, the story of Ralph and Catherine unfolds in unimaginable ways.


My Review: The hype for this book preceeded it by about a thousand miles, so I decided I had better read it before I read too many other reviews.

This is a very engrossing book and I have to admit that when I first started reading it, I wasn't sure that I actually liked it. It's pretty dark and the opening of the story reminded me a lot of the movie Original Sin. Since I had heard this book was incredibly fresh, I wondered if everyone else had missed that movie? The language was gorgeous, though, enough to keep me reading as it pierced me through. The precision and accuracy with which Goolick describes the internal torment, desires, longing, loneliness, and brokeness of his characters is nothing short of outstanding.

The plot does take a turn about 1/3 of the way in. While I predicted what I think was maybe meant to be a twist, it raises the stakes of the entire novel in new ways.

Ultimately, this book is very dark. But it's dark in a way that gives us a glimpse of the state of our souls, the despair of our situations, the destructive force of our pasts, in a way that helps us to value the glimmers of hope that can be found in our lives, and the precious fragile nature of our intimacies. It's been awhile since I've been able to read a book in one day, but I completely devoured this one. When I finished the book, I closed it and thought, "that was amazing." But after letting it sit in my head for awhile, I've to the conclusion that no it wasn't amazing, it was brilliant. I have no doubt it will live in my mind for a long time to come. Highly Recommended.

Rating: 5/5
Things You Might Want to Know: there is in fact a lot of sensuality to this book. And some sex.

Is my endorsement not enough? Two of my favorite bloggers are also reviewing this book today, S.Krishna and Devourer of Books.