- Hardcover: 304 pages
- Publisher: Little, Brown (4 Jun 2009)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 1408701936
- ISBN-13: 978-1408701935
- Product Dimensions: 14.4 x 22.3 x 3.2 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (22 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 643,296 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
A Reliable Wife: When Passion Turns to Poison
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More About the Author
Product Description
Product Description
COUNTRY BUSINESSMAN SEEKS RELIABLE WIFE. COMPELLED BY PRACTICAL REASONS. REPLY BY LETTER. Rural Wisconsin, 1907. In the bitter cold, Ralph Truitt, a successful industrialist, stands alone on a train platform waiting for the woman who answered his newspaper advertisement. But when Catherine steps of the train she's not the woman that Ralph is expecting. She is both complex and devious. And, haunted by a terrible past, she is motivated by greed. Catherine's plan is simple. She will win Ralph's devotion. Later, she will leave him as a wealthy woman. What Catherine has not counted on however is that Ralph might have plans of his own for his new wife ...
About the Author
Robert Goolrick is the author of the highly-acclaimed memoir THE END OF THE WORLD AS WE KNOW IT. He lives in New York.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
I have just finished this book after starting it, and not being able to put it down, now 12 hours ago. I feel as if I have been changed by the reading of it, despite being unfamiliar with the time and place and location of the story: a snowbound Wisconsin, circa 1907. Not a time/place I am normally drawn to, but the story is beautifully paced and revealed by Mr. Goolrick. The shifting emotions of the central characters are savagely drawn, and compelling. It is a tale of destitution, disease, betrayal, loss, disappointment and hatred. Redemption and love are in there, too: such extremes of emotions, and what I would normally think of as histrionic, laughably exaggerated and off-putting. I prefer subtlety, and for reality to be drawn in more quiet shades. But this book held me and held me and held me. The interior and existential journeys each of the central characters takes never loses a sense of being grounded in the savage social and economic circumstances of the times. Turn of the century Illinois and Wisconsin were far from pleasant times, and we come to understand the psychic toil they took on the inhabitants of the times. Mr. Goolrick's writing helps, too. The longing Truitt expresses for Catherine in a single moment, and in the line "...he had felt that something in him would break forever if he didn't touch her." is so beautiful, and will stay with me for a long time.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
A Reliable Wife is the most gorgeously descriptive book I have read in a long time. You can imagine standing on the platform waiting for the train with the townsfolk looking on; the blinding brightness of the snow; the warmth of the bodies of the lovers; the grand decadent decay of the first wife's home.
This book seems to get off to a slow start, but much like the lovers it soon builds up to a blissful climax. With near-Gothic tendencies, Goolrick weaves his tale of Ralph Truitt and Catherine Lands in rural 1907 Wisconsin into the most beautiful cloth. Their passions, real and imagined, for each other and others are so real that you can nearly reach through the pages to touch them. I read A Reliable Wife in two sittings, and can highly recommend it.
This book seems to get off to a slow start, but much like the lovers it soon builds up to a blissful climax. With near-Gothic tendencies, Goolrick weaves his tale of Ralph Truitt and Catherine Lands in rural 1907 Wisconsin into the most beautiful cloth. Their passions, real and imagined, for each other and others are so real that you can nearly reach through the pages to touch them. I read A Reliable Wife in two sittings, and can highly recommend it.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
An excellent example of the gothic novel but the author didn't quite get the romance aspect of it right for me. The novel is a very easy read and moves along at a good pace. In terms of the structure of the novel; each chapter is a good length and the sections of the book are three very different parts of the lives of the characters.
The tag "when passion turns to poison" is brilliant and if you approach this novel knowing nothing about it then as the plot unfurls it has meaning on many different levels. There are two main characters - Ralph and Catherine. The terms of their meeting comes about because she has replied to an advertisement placed by Ralph in a newspaper.
Considering how much I enjoyed the plot and the characters I can still only award this novel 4 stars. This is because of the silliness of some of the sex within the story. It wasn't so much the actual sex scenes but I just got tired of reading about how the characters wanted to cut themselves open to dampen the fires raging within their souls, as an example. A further example is continual reference to the number of prostitutes the male characters used and what they did with them. It was just too much.
Overall it was an atmospheric novel and well worth hanging on in there if you find the narrative too overpowering at times. Gripping until the very end.
The tag "when passion turns to poison" is brilliant and if you approach this novel knowing nothing about it then as the plot unfurls it has meaning on many different levels. There are two main characters - Ralph and Catherine. The terms of their meeting comes about because she has replied to an advertisement placed by Ralph in a newspaper.
Considering how much I enjoyed the plot and the characters I can still only award this novel 4 stars. This is because of the silliness of some of the sex within the story. It wasn't so much the actual sex scenes but I just got tired of reading about how the characters wanted to cut themselves open to dampen the fires raging within their souls, as an example. A further example is continual reference to the number of prostitutes the male characters used and what they did with them. It was just too much.
Overall it was an atmospheric novel and well worth hanging on in there if you find the narrative too overpowering at times. Gripping until the very end.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
"Come home - he'll be good to you. He's good to me."
"Country businessman seeks reliable wife. Compelled by practical reasons. Reply by letter." Catherine, who replies to this unpromising notice in a Wisconsin newspaper, is not what... Read more
Published 1 month ago by Eileen Shaw
Not my usual choice of book
I came across this book par hazard in the library...initially thought I would be in for a long slow paced read if I continued but I'm glad I did persevere... Read more
Published 2 months ago by J. Charlton
A Great Find.
I can not remember how I managed to stumble upon this book but I'm glad I did. I'd say it might even make my top ten list - it certainly sits on the 'favorites' shelf in my... Read more
Published 2 months ago by Miss C. Thomson
Not My Cup of Tea
When I read the back cover copy of A Reliable Wife, I was intrigued. I was convinced that this would be a page turner that would describe romance between two ordinary people. Read more
Published 5 months ago by Marion Marchetto
Feverishly Good
I loved this book. I found it deeply moving as well as a real page turner. The book focuses on characters who have made terrible mistakes that cannot be undone. Read more
Published 8 months ago by Veronica
Enthralling Read!
I would recommend this novel. I found that I just couldn't put it down. He has a very real way of writing.
Published 8 months ago by Antonia Brennan
Worst read for several years.....
I have just finished this book and wanted desperately to give up half way through and that says a lot as I very rarely allow myself to do that. What a lot of melodramatic pap!! Read more
Published 9 months ago by Loonywoman
Wow!
Like other readers, i could not put this book down! It is beautifully written and tells a searing love/hate story. Read it!
Published 14 months ago by Jan King
excellent thriller
Read it in Greek (very good translation) and absolutely loved it. An excellent thriller, passionate characters, I strongly recommend it to other readers. Read more
Published 14 months ago by nassia
Trying too hard
We are in Wisconsin in the very early 20th century. Ralph Truitt, a rich but lonely businessman with a haunted past, advertises for a wife a Chicago paper. Read more
Published 19 months ago by Book 1981
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