Review: The Reliable Wife

Title: The Reliable Wife by Robert Goolrick
Source: Downloaded from B&N.com 
LendMe Status: Available!

This book was surprising to say the least. I had chosen it based on reading the first lines while checking out the Nook before buying it last week, and I hadn't heard from anyone else who'd read it at that point. 

It begins with an ad placed by a wealthy but very lonely man who is looking for a "reliable wife" with whom to share his life. Slowly as the story unfolds we realize that neither the man or his "reliable wife" are what they claim to be, and the past secrets haunt them always. 


Throughout the story, we learn that Ralph Truitt harbors deep convictions that connecting, both physically and psychologically, with a woman will damn him to hell and that a "poison" will kill everything he loves. This fear comes mainly from his mother's very strict and religious ways, but also in their realization in Ralph's own mind when his first child dies very young and his beautiful wife commits adultery and leaves him. He feels that his lust has caused each of these tragedies and has therefore denied himself the pleasure of more then basic human contact his entire adult life.


The highly introspective omniscient narrative encompasses all the characters' thoughts and feelings, leaving the reader with a very thorough view of this small town and its patron.

If you enjoyed the novel Saturday by Ian McEwan, with it deep level of detail and expansive view of a microcosmic event, you'll probably enjoy this novel as it employs a lot of the same tactics to bring the reader into the minutia and create from it the whole world.




If you're interested in this ebook, and have a Nook - leave a comment with your email, and a title you're willing to trade, and I'll send it your way!