A Reliable Wife

by Robert Goolrick | Mystery & Thrillers |
ISBN: 9780349122366 Global Overview for this book
Registered by L1nda of Newcastle, New South Wales Australia on 3/3/2010
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3 journalers for this copy...
Journal Entry 1 by L1nda from Newcastle, New South Wales Australia on Wednesday, March 3, 2010
From Publishers Weekly
Set in 1907 Wisconsin, Goolrick's fiction debut (after a memoir, The End of the World as We Know It) gets off to a slow, stylized start, but eventually generates some real suspense. When Catherine Land, who's survived a traumatic early life by using her wits and sexuality as weapons, happens on a newspaper ad from a well-to-do businessman in need of a "reliable wife," she invents a plan to benefit from his riches and his need. Her new husband, Ralph Truitt, discovers she's deceived him the moment she arrives in his remote hometown. Driven by a complex mix of emotions and simple animal attraction, he marries her anyway. After the wedding, Catherine helps Ralph search for his estranged son and, despite growing misgivings, begins to poison him with small doses of arsenic. Ralph sickens but doesn't die, and their story unfolds in ways neither they nor the reader expect. This darkly nuanced psychological tale builds to a strong and satisfying close.

Journal Entry 2 by L1nda from Newcastle, New South Wales Australia on Sunday, March 14, 2010
I loved this book, it had me hooked from the first page. The characters are all so flawed but you grow to love them, particularly Catherine. It's quite a gloomy story but you just can't stop reading.

Journal Entry 3 by L1nda at Newcastle, New South Wales Australia on Thursday, May 27, 2010

Released 13 yrs ago (5/27/2010 UTC) at Newcastle, New South Wales Australia

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

Mailing off to VeganMedusa in New Zealand as part of the Southern Cross Book Exchange 2010 on Book Obsessed

(due to the beta BC site I was unable to release by mail as previously)

Journal Entry 4 by VeganMedusa at Invercargill, Southland New Zealand on Monday, June 14, 2010
Thanks heaps for this lovely-looking book, which I've kept forgetting to journal!

Journal Entry 5 by VeganMedusa at Invercargill, Southland New Zealand on Thursday, June 21, 2012
I was quite surprised by this book, by how dark and twisted it all was. I'm not sure how I feel about it, but it was captivating.
Now on a long journey to the next reader.

Journal Entry 6 by lils74 at Kathmandu, Bagmati (incl. Kathmandu Valley) Nepal on Monday, July 16, 2012
Received this today--thank you, VeganMedusa for sending it so far! It looks like an interesting, creepy read--really my kind of book :)
Thank you again and I will let you know my thoughts after finishing it.

Journal Entry 7 by lils74 at Delta Gate in Los Angeles CA (LAX), -- Airports & Planes -- USA on Monday, June 3, 2013

Released 10 yrs ago (6/2/2013 UTC) at Delta Gate in Los Angeles CA (LAX), -- Airports & Planes -- USA

WILD RELEASE NOTES:

This was a really interesting book. I'd brought it with me from Nepal specifically to read while travelling in the US, visiting family.
It was not what I expected, but nonetheless it kept me reading, reading, sucked in until the last page. But at the end, I didn't really know how to say what I thought of it. (Does that make any sense?)
There was, I felt, a lot of sadness in the main characters. I liked the parts set in Wisconsin best--the St. Louis interlude felt out of step with the rest of the tone, but perhaps that was the intention?
And I had to wonder, in those days, in rural Wisconsin, could they really have built such a house and had such a troupe of artists there (referring the the time described with his Italian wife)?
Also, there was so much about sex in the book, not that I am a prude at all, but even before sex happens, it seems to be all the characters think about, for pages and pages. That seemed a little overdone.
I found it fascinating to read the endnote about the odd Wisconsin book that had inspired the author to write this one.
Overall, an engrossing read.

I left it at a Delta Gate in LAX (sorry, can't remember which gate) with some colorful Bookcrossing papers on it. Happy Travels, Little Book!

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