Book Chatter

A Reliable Wife
By Robert Goolrick
(Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, Paperback, 9781565129771, January 2010, 305pp.)

The Short of It:

There is a grittiness to this story that gets into the folds of your clothes and reminds you at every turn that these people are not what they appear to be.

The Rest of It:

Ralph Truitt is a simple man, looking for an honest woman. He places an ad in the paper for a reliable wife and what he gets in return, is Catherine Land.

Ralph and Catherine, seemingly proper, are anything but. Deep down, each possess desires and wants that the other is at first, unaware of. They assume their roles without too much fuss but what Goolrick does next is strip them bare. In just a few pages, you quickly realize that these characters are more like animals than human beings. They become creatures… conniving, desperate creatures hunting for the one thing they believe can make them whole again.

This book is wrought with sexual frustration and desire. Catherine’s every move flames Ralph’s desire for her and let me tell you, frigid, she is not! Except, she has some secrets and then things get really bad for Ralph. During this dark moment in time though, Catherine and Ralph seem to evolve into something else and throughout all of it, the book is literally glued to your hands.

I could not put this book down. Catherine and Ralph fascinated me to no end. Did I tire of the endless sexual tension? Not really. I think in the hands of another writer, I would have been turned off by its relentlessness, but in Goolrick’s hands I found myself completely taken with the characters and curious about what makes them tick.

It’s not a bodice ripper, but it sort of is. It’s not a psychological thriller, but it could be. It’s multifaceted and complex and like its characters, this story could be many things. I loved this aspect of it. And the fact that I could relate to these characters, was even more surprising. Considering I’ve never quite met a character like Catherine…although she did remind me a little of Cathy from East of Eden. Notice the similarity in names? Coincidence? Maybe.

I feel quite silly for not having read this book sooner. If you have it, pull it out and read it and if you don’t, get a copy soon because I’d love to discuss it with you.

Source: Purchased

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links.

This week is Fall Break for my kids. This used to mean a week off for all of us but now that The Boy is in middle-school, he only gets two days off. So, we aren’t going anywhere. But, I decided to take Friday off (just for me) and spent the day reading. I have a stack of library books that are due soon, so my goal is to get through at least half of them.

I finished A Reliable Wife. Wow! What a book. This is the book that I bought twice, by the way. I’m not even mad that I bought it twice anymore.

I am about 100 pages into The Night Circus. It was slow going for me in the beginning but I’m enjoying it now. I love the striped end papers!

I am also reading The Map of Time with Patty. We got this ARC at the same time and decided to save it for October. Should be good!

On a side note, I pulled We The Animals off the library shelf which surprised me, because I had no plans to read it and hadn’t really given it much thought, but I read the first page and got sucked in. So…I am reading it along with the others.

So this time off of mine has been spent doing what I love…reading! I feel quite happy and content over it. I have the next few days off and then I am back to work mid-week but then off again on Friday to celebrate The Girl’s 8th birthday.

Oh, and I almost forgot, The Boy and Girl received callbacks for the roles they tried out for (Alice in Wonderland). The Boy got called back for one role and he auditioned again last week. The Girl got called back for a role too but blanked out. According to her, she stood there with her mouth hanging open and said nothing. This surprises me because she is very chatty and animated and knew those lines. But for whatever reason, she froze. I won’t have an update until Thursday. I didn’t want to get all stage mom over it, but she KNEW those lines. I felt really bad for her. She was really upset. Poor kid.

As for tonight, I just had a really nice dinner that I slaved over and will settle down with a nice cup of coffee, and continue with The Night Circus. Hope you all had nice weekends. It was over 90 degrees both days for us here in So. Cal. I am ready for some cooler weather. Can anyone spare some of theirs?

Chatting with friends about books and life…