Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    A Reliable Wife
    A Reliable Wife
    A Reliable Wife
    Audiobook8 hours

    A Reliable Wife

    Written by Robert Goolrick

    Narrated by Mark Feuerstein

    3.5/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    Robert Goolrick's riveting debut novel is both foreboding and sensual. When a wealthy man first meets his mail-order bride in 1907, he realizes this statuesque beauty is anything but a "simple missionary's daughter." But he doesn't know of her devious plan to leave Wisconsin as a rich widow. Nor does she know of the furious demons he longs to unleash during the lonely months of snowbound isolation. "A sublime murder ballad ."-Kirkus Reviews, starred review
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRecorded Books, Inc.
    Release dateMay 8, 2009
    ISBN9781440718168
    A Reliable Wife
    Author

    Robert Goolrick

    Robert Goolrick was the author of the bestselling novels A Reliable Wife, Heading Out to Wonderful, The Fall of Princes, The Dying of the Light and the acclaimed memoir The End of the World as We Know It.

    More audiobooks from Robert Goolrick

    Related to A Reliable Wife

    Related audiobooks

    Literary Fiction For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Trouble Brews In Minnesota

      Jul 29, 2019

      Edith and Helen Calder haven’t spoken in decades. The sisters’ rift began after the death of their father, who left all the money from the family’s farm to Helen so she could fulfill her dream of opening a brewery. In J. Ryan Stradal’s The Lager Quee

      1 min read

    • Article

      Crimes of the Heart

      Nov 5, 2016

      Like many of his novels, Spanish author Javier Marías’ new book, Thus Bad Begins, isn’t exactly a mystery, though it is mysterious. Here, the 65-year-old perennial Nobel favorite tells the story of Juan de Vere, a young man working for a film directo

      1 min read

    • Article

      'The Heart's Invisible Furies' Is the Funny, Touching Story of an Irish Everyman

      Sep 1, 2017

      Boyne's new novel follows its protagonist throughout the decades, from birth in 1945 to age 70, and the story encompasses a great deal of history.

      3 min read

    • Article

      Under The Whispering Door

      Nov 3, 2021

      ▶ RELEASED OUT NOW! 376 pages | Hardback/ebook/audiobook ▶ Author TJ Klune ▶ Publisher Tor An uneven yet goodhearted hybrid of Dead Like Me and The Good Place, Under The Whispering Door ponders what happens when you don’t start actually living your l

      1 min read

    • Article

      Fiction

      Jul 9, 2020

      Hilderbrand’s latest novel is perfect for cosy weekend reading. This time she focuses on former lovers who now lead separate lives but share an island idyll once a year. Captivating and bittersweet. (Available Jul. 23) Inseparable twins Stella and

      1 min read

    • Article

      Book The Good Sister

      Oct 29, 2020

      Laced with her usual quirky humour, sass and darkly charming tone, Australian author Sally Hepworth brings her latest tome – tipped to be her breakout – to shelves. Delivering a knockout novel about the lies that bind two sisters, Hepworth tells the

      1 min read

    • Article

      The Millions Top Ten: September 2017

      Oct 16, 2017

      This month marks the entrée of two newcomers. The post The Millions Top Ten: September 2017 appeared first on The Millions.

      1 min read

    • Article

      Jonathan Franzen’s New Novel ‘Crossroads’ Is Set In The Chicago ‘Burbs And Launches A Trilogy. He Knows You Already Have An Opinion About It.

      Oct 20, 2021

      Jonathan Franzen’s New Novel ‘Crossroads’ Is Set In The Chicago ‘Burbs And Launches A Trilogy. He Knows You Already Have An Opinion About It.
      8 min read

    • Article

      Secrets, Lies And Mysteries

      Sep 8, 2020

      Adelightful,discombobulating read from the author of Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell. It’s set in a dreamlike house inhabited by the singular and self-sufficient Piranesi, who is not sure how he got there or who he is. Attempting to unravel his story

      1 min read

    • Article

      New Year New Books

      Jan 1, 2020

      Hill Women by Cassie Chambers (Ballantine Books) Before graduating from Yale College and Harvard Law School, Cassie Chambers grew up in the hollers of Eastern Kentucky. Surrounded by poverty and decay, Chambers managed to beat the odds and explore li

      1 min read

    • Article

      The Minders

      Oct 7, 2020

      RELEASED OUT NOW! 448 pages | Paperback/ebook/audiobook Author John Marrs Publisher Del Rey John Marrs’s latest near future, high-concept techno-thriller isn’t so much a sequel to The One (DNA dating app has dark secret) and Passengers (autonomous ca

      1 min read

    • Article

      This Family Saga Finds Grace And Beauty In Ordinary Lives, Fully Lived

      Jun 10, 2021

      Simon Van Booy's new novel Night Came With Many Stars follows several generations of a Kentucky family, their crossroads and choices, their curses and hard memories, their luck and their chances.

      3 min read

    • Article

      21,915

      Jul 7, 2022

      21,915
      2 min read

    • Article

      21,915

      Jul 7, 2022

      21,915
      2 min read

    • Article

      Left To Lose

      Jul 10, 2022

      Around the time she gives up her name, it starts to feel like this entire revolution isn’t worth it anymore. The world is probably lucky that Kelian—she still remembers Kelian, in spite of everything—is there to pick up the pieces, the way he always

      11 min read

    • Article

      We All Have Our Stories

      Mar 1, 2021

      We All Have Our Stories
      14 min read

    • Article

      The Art of Loading Brush

      Sep 1, 2017

      The Art of Loading Brush
      27 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for A Reliable Wife

    3.5/5

    1,907 ratings231 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 3/5
      This is the story of a lonely, rich older man who places an ad in the newspaper for a "reliable wife." Catherine Land replies, and soon finds herself in a remote Wisconsin town, the lady of a luxurious mansion, and wife of a wealthy man. Her scheme is far from over - she is planning to poison her husband and live in his house with her lover, who is also his son.The description on the back of this book prompted me to read it in one sitting in the Barnes & Noble cafe. I can never resist a Gothic story, and this one involved love triangles within the family, lonely manor houses, and a villainous heroine? I had to read it.This book was, yes, Gothic and twisted, with just the right amount of refined eeriness to it. The author was good at throwing in small details that furthered the dark atmosphere.However, there were simply too many problems to ignore. All in all, this book felt very much like a guilty pleasure. After I got a little ways through it, I found myself laying it flat down on the table, embarrassed to be seen with it.In the hands of a great writer, it would have been amazing. In the hands of a lesser one, it takes on a distinct soap opera air.The plot, which was the strongest aspect of the book, got a bit lost. The author was trying so hard to create a twisted story, that it ended up getting TOO twisted, sent tripping out of control.The beginning was good, but when Catherine journeys to St. Louis to find Antonio, the plot line begins to dim and lose focus. The whole thing with Antonio was, though a good idea, poorly executed. Catherine has known Antonio long before she knew his father, Ralph Truitt, and yet the reader is not privileged to learn this fact until Catherine has met up with Antonio a few times.When Goolrick finally did reveal that Catherine and Antonio had a history together, I simply felt confused, far from surprised or delightfully shocked. Why would Catherine treat Antonio like a stranger, and then acknowledge him a few visits later? It didn't make sense, as if the author loved keeping his readers out of the loop so much, he couldn't resist drawing it out just a little longer.It would have been far better if Catherine had (very unexpectedly) fallen into Antonio's arms when she first saw him.As much as the progression of the plot rests on it, the Antonio thing just never really came across to me. It never seemed believable, and was just... Wrong, somehow. I don't mean morally wrong (the author got that right, at least), but written wrong. I can't quite put a finger on it, but something was off.Perhaps it was because there were some gaping holes. Such as, the fact that Antonio and Catherine have apparently been planning this together. But how is this possible? Catherine wouldn't have known that it was Ralph Truitt (her lover's father) posting the mail order bride ad in the paper. It also would have been impossible that Antonio knew about it and told her, since he and his father are estranged and haven't seen or heard from each other in over ten years. So this perfect plan of theirs is, at its basis, ridiculously impossible.Much like Antonio, Catherine also has a dubious encounter with her sister, Alice Land, while in St. Louis. Again, the entire situation seemed contrived and poorly written. Why was Alice even there? Coincidence? Perhaps it showed a glimpse into Catherine's past, but that could have been done in flashbacks. The introduction of her unfortunate sister seemed rather suspicious and nonsensically pointless.The characters went from almost well written (Ralph), to cliche and poorly written (Catherine), to ghastly (Antonio).Ralph, the older man whom Catherine marries, was the first character we are introduced to in the story. He is a tortured, lonely man - longing for love, terribly self conscious, quiet, and noble. I loved him, and he was the only one in the book who seemed real to me. Through it all, I sympathized with him, never with Catherine, our heroine. He was the innocent of the story, the sufferer. Catherine, the main character, was interesting in so much as the idea of her. A smart, beautiful woman who is in love with a father and his handsome son, who has lied her way into a wealthy marriage, and is now planning to poison her husband. You must admit that it does sound intriguing (if not cliche). While the idea of Catherine is what I wish she had been - shocking, devious, clever, seductive - her actual character in the book is not half so good. She is cardboard, doing whatever furthers the plot - or, more commonly, what doesn't exactly further the plot but tangles it up and makes it go in random circles - and having too many changes of heart to fathom. She loves him, she doesn't, she hates him, she loves him, she will poison him, she won't, she poisons him, she doesn't poison him, she saves his life, she sleeps with him, she doesn't sleep with him.... And so on.Is this the author's idea of complex character? Um... no.And finally, the character of Antonio was even worse. I have already said that his appearance in the story was shaky at best. That feeling that something I can't quite touch upon is wrong continued with Antonio's character for the entire story.The author has him do a few things that set him up as the bad guy. (He seduces a girl and then tosses her aside, causing her to hang herself. When everyone goes to her funeral, he stays home and plays merry piano tunes. All of this was told in one paragraph.) Antonio was a character that we never get to know. We never get inside his head. However, the even bigger problem was that the author constantly gives you the impression that he thinks differently. He seems to think that yes, he HAS given you a powerful glimpse inside the villain's mind. In reality, Antonio is a laughable attempt at a brooding, evil-but-sexy bad guy.Those are really the only three characters - there was a housekeeper who appeared a few times, but the book mainly had only three people in it.It was interesting the way that Goolrick portrayed sexuality here. Ralph tells the reader that when he was young, he asked his mother what hell was like. His mother took a sewing needle and jabbed young Ralph in the hand with it, twisted the needle, and said "That's what Hell is like." She then told him he was wicked. As a result of his mother's cruel teaching, Ralph views sex as something wicked. He both hates and loves sex, in the way that people both loathe and relish pleasurable things that they know are wrong. He says at one point that he loves having sex with bad girls, because he doesn't mind ruining them. Ralph constantly imagines the sexual lives of others around him, like imagining what horrible sins a pastor may have. Sex is mentioned quite a lot in the book, though not necessarily only in the actual sex scenes. The author wanted a sexually charged, sexy book, I can gather that much.In a way, he succeeded. In a dark, black, repulsive sort of way, "A Reliable Wife" does come across as sexual.On the other hand, I often felt like rolling my eyes at the author's many references to night time lovemaking. After awhile, they seemed thrown in simply to give a certain thought a character has extra sleaziness or perverted-ness (I know that isn't a word, sorry, Grammar Gods...), just because he could.It got old.Even though this book was entertaining reading for 1 hr, 36 minutes, I wouldn't recommend it. Did I enjoy it? Well... *blush* Yes.But I also would enjoy eating an entire carton of ice cream tonight.Read another book instead. Believe me, you can find better than this light soap opera. It comes dangerously close to teetering on the bodice-ripper line (yes, there is one scene where a bodice is, indeed, ripped... ugh). Entertaining, but not recommended.
    • 3/5
      Reason for Reading: The description of the book intrigued me: the time period, the small town, gothic atmosphere and I always take a second look at "mail order bride" stories from the 19th cent. and this was close enough. Comments: Ralph Truitt, 54, is a wealthy owner of the manufacturing business that employs most of the population of a small town in Midwestern Wisconsin. A widower of twenty years he places an Ad for "a reliable wife" and after a certain amount of correspondence a ticket is sent and Catherine arrives to become his wife. Both parties have deep dark secrets and alternative reasons for embarking on this marriage of convenience. Mr. Truitt soon comes clean and spills his soul to Catherine, before the wedding, telling the tale of his past and his ultimate purpose for her to perform as his wife. Catherine, on the otherhand, keeps her own past a carefully hidden secret and goes to great lengths not to have her devious intentions become known.This is a hard review for me to write because as I was reading the book I started off not liking it, then I would be ok with it, then I did not like it and back and forth until the ending chapters which were tense and hard to put down. Whether I liked it or not, the plot kept me reading and at no point after "Part One" did I think of putting the book down."Part One" had me thinking I'd made a big mistake with this book and that it was just going to be romantic drivel. I do not read pure romance books and found myself rolling my eyes and hoping something more than two people hating each other, having constant conflict, then secretly falling in love and finally admitting they love each other was going to happen. Fortunately, that was not this book and much more did happen. The plot is intriguing; it goes places one doesn't expect. Both Catherine and Ralph are very complex characters though their personalities and actions did not leave me caring much about either of them. I had no concern as to whether either of them had a happy ending though I was intrigued as to what happened to them, if that makes sense. The greatest theme running through the book is that of Ralph who has confessed and is now accepting and living his life as penance for his past life of lust, violence and lack of family commitment. Catherine's life is similar, though she is at a different stage.One thing that bothered me was the s*x. There was lots of it. Not graphic, but what I would call descriptive and it really wasn't that, that bothered me but the constant presence of it. If the main characters were not having s*x, they were thinking about past encounters or fantasizing about present encounters and future encounters. When not doing any of those they would imagine the s*x lives of the people they passed on the street or drive by houses and wonder what s*x took place within those buildings. Not that this was a past time they did together, it was simply something within each of them that they naturally thought about all the time when they were alone. It was really overkill for me.As I've said, even though there are certain parts of the book that I did not like or that annoyed me, the plot is intriguing and meaningful. Characters are not likeable but are compelling. I'm glad to have read it. I would also most likely read another book by the author if the subject matter interested me. He does recommend a photographic book to read in his note at the end which I have put in an ILL request for which he based his atmosphere on in this book: the long, seemingly non-ending Wisconsin winters that seemed to drive people at the end of the nineteenth century to a certain kind of madness.
    • 3/5
      A blurb on this book's cover called it "intoxicating." I don't know that I'd go that far, but it definitely gripped me for the few days it took to read it! I liked that the characters were so carefully deceptive, with one another and with everyone else. I didn't like that they were so sex-obsessed, seemed way too melodramatic. I enjoyed the writing style - the story evoked memories of reading The Great Gatsby. A good choice for book club!
    • 5/5
      Haunting and beautiful. Goolrick understands the human heart like no other.
    • 5/5
      What a story! "Intoxicating" as proclaimed by The Washington Post is putting it mildly. The writing just pulled me in and I could not put it down. My heart broke for all the characters for their upbringing and issues and emotional baggage.
    • 2/5
      Pros: If you enjoy dark, tortured types, then this is for you. The book is relatively quick to read because the writing is not complex syntax-wise.

      Cons: Too dark..even for me. I got tired of the numerous contradictory thoughts of the characters. Found myself skimming in parts instead of reading. I didn't buy how the characters treated on another in the end. I know it's a homage to darker writing from the past, which I guess is why it didn't work for a contemporary like me.

      Bottom line: A book you like you hate I think. You gotta be a dark mood to fit in with it. Not for most. Oddly, (here's a contradiction for you) I would find talking about the characters enjoyable. Does the wife ever love her husband for example would be enjoyable to debate.
    • 2/5
      The plot was interesting and had so much more to offer if explored. I was creeped out by the authors obsession with sexual thoughts and actions that overpowered the plot and characters as a whole. i forced myself to finish and had to skip many pages because of the constant writing about sexual desires. Really would have given it a better rating if it wasnt for all that.
    • 5/5
      Catherine Land came into Ralph Truitt's life expecting to kill him & become a rich widow. She became a part of his life, the town which his family business built, and learned to love him. She gained an inner strength that she lacked when she first married Truitt. Rather than blindly follow the wishes of someone who would wish harm to Ralph Truitt, she chose to follow her heart.
    • 5/5
      A lie from the first moment they met....Ralph knew she wasn't the girl he had placed an ad for. But Catherine never thought twice about how she lied to this man she was going to marry and how her destitute life before Ralph made her such a phony…but the lying didn't even faze her. Her life before Ralph Truitt was always in her blood and on her mind...the men, the late nights, the lights, the music. But she had to not let it interfere with her life as she knew it now. She pretended that her previous life never existed even though she longed for her old life style. She had to "play" the part of a reliable, demure wife who had no history. Neither had been honest with each other. Both Ralph and Catherine had plans after the marriage took place, but her plans were not the same plans Ralph had for her. Too bad they were not on the same page. Deceit, unfaithfulness, poison, a life that was a lie, regret, unbelievable forgiveness, and a hint of mystery.....that is what A RELIABLE WIFE was made of. And.......an incredible writing style that will keep you reading way into the night, and one you will not want to put down.
    • 1/5
      I did like this book II enjoy the idea but Robert lost me with lust Ab Catherine was a prisonto her lusting like Robert
    • 4/5
      I was quite surprised by this book. I picked it up at my local textbook shop half off left over from some other course. It takes place in Wisconsin in the early 20th century. Since I live in Wisconsin and enjoy a historical novel from time to time, I thought I'd give it a shot. It was a good choice. The characters are developed extremely well and very honestly. You get all the good and bad of Ralph (Husband), Catherine (Wife) and Antonio (Son of first marriage). At times I found I really liked and sympathized with a character only to turn around and want to scream at their cruelty a few pages later. The focus on the surface appears to be how we relate to love and passion. However, I feel like it says a great deal more about honesty and how in any relationship our fears are what we truly fight against. The characters seemed to be always struggling to find their passions when in reality they were just running from their insecurities and fears. It's a compelling narrative that is thought provoking but not mind numbing or unapproachable. I definitely think it merits a weekend read some cold winter weekend.
    • 5/5
      I was on the fence during the first two chapters and then suddenly I couldn't put the book down and finished it in less than 24 hours (and I'm not a particularly fast reader). This story about the intertwining lives of three characters reads like a grand, sweeping narrative. I found myself talking to the characters, arguing with them not to do this or instead to do that. And every time I thought I knew where the book was headed, something unexpected but completely in line with the characters' motivation would happen and throw me off course...and keep me turning the pages. Goolrick is a master at character development--I really felt the pain, hopes, and desires of each character, even the minor characters. One reviewer claims that there's gratuitous sex, but I disagree. The sex is completely in line with the characterizations and simply part of the landscape of the story. I can't wait for Goolrick's next novel!
    • 2/5
      Ralph Truitt places an ad for a "reliable wife" in a Chicago paper, hoping to finally have someone around who could ease his loneliness. He expects Catherine Land to be a plain woman. Instead, she turns out to be beautiful, and very much not the person in the picture she sent. He knows she's hiding something, but he doesn't feel like he can send her away when it's so cold out (his home is in an isolated area in Wisconsin). When he injures himself and she helps care for him, he decides that he'll allow her to stay and be his wife, even if she wasn't the woman he expected and likely has ulterior motives.Catherine does, in fact, have ulterior motives. She has brought a bottle of arsenic with her and, after her marriage to Ralph, intends to slowly kill him and inherit everything he has. Except she starts to actually like Ralph, and suddenly it becomes difficult to hold onto her original plan. All she has to do is ask for something and he gives it to her - is it really necessary to kill him?Ralph has his own plans. He wants Catherine to help him convince his now-adult son to come back home. However, that won't be easy to manage, nor will it necessarily be the best thing for Ralph and his dreams of a family.This was not for me, at all. Some books leave you with warm and hopeful feelings about humanity. This book does the opposite. There's despair, madness, loneliness, and people being just plain awful to each other. It all feeds on itself and produces more awfulness until there's nothing left. Any feelings of peace or happiness are momentary at best, and rooted in lies.I probably should have DNFed this book early on, when Ralph annoyed me with his constant obsessive thoughts about sex - the sex everyone besides him must be having. It's amazing the guy was so good at business, considering every stray thought of his seemed to be about sex.Granted, he had a horrible childhood, with a mother who literally stabbed him with a needle to show him what Hell is like. She also made him think that sex was something only a filthy, awful, and corrupt person would enjoy, so when he started getting interested in girls, he figured he was corrupt and awful too. When he finally fell in love with someone and tried to have a happy life with her, she cheated on him. Everyone else in his awful, remote little town also had miserable lives, so he grew old thinking that "miserable" was the way things would be for him forever. Adding Catherine to his life was supposed to at least help him be less lonely.I didn't like Ralph, although I occasionally felt sympathy for him. The same went for Catherine. They were two incredibly damaged and emotionally stunted people who, oddly enough, likely would have been perfect for each other if things had gone a bit differently. Unfortunately, like I said, pretty much everyone in this book was some degree of awful, and when they all ended up in the same house together, it was a recipe for disaster.I finished this book, but I can't say that I'm happy I did. Reading it was like watching something rot. It was effectively done, but that's not necessarily a good thing.(Original review posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.)
    • 1/5
      Amazingly, amazingly disappointing. The publisher obviously hired a great copywriter to generate the book jacket, because it lures you into a story that almost is and never quite materializes.

      In the first fifteen pages or so, I came to the conclusion that Goolrick has some mastery of language, but that the story was not going to move me. In fact, the story is worse than boring...it's packed full of potential that it never fulfills, teasing the reader with something profound that waits just over the horizon and never materializes. Periodic breaks of character don't help, and the editor certainly missed some critical copy mistakes that pull you out of the story at times.

      Speaking of the characters, they were so complex...potentially. But it's never realized. There were so many themes that could have been explored...despair, a messy theological statement about redemption, even a commentary on the evils of captialism and an industrialized culture...and none of them received more than a surface gloss.

      The plot had me at moments, it did. But then it didn't. Goolrick tried really hard to make this a work of fiction that could be a thriller, but couldn't quite pull of the pacing or the descriptive prose. Yet, he toyed with character development and thematic issues that begged (and leaves the reader aching for) more development. One of Goolrick's strengths as a writer is his dialogue. The dialogue flows like a good play, and you can't just read it...you have to pause and hear it. The moments when he permits the characters to speak are golden...and the moments when he attempts to prosaically bring the reader into their thoughts fall hopelessly flat, or become terribly cliche. I imagine seeing this story performed on the stage, because the themes could be treated so much more in depth, and the characters could be permitted to come alive. I think Goolrick would make a much better playwright than novelist. This was a great effort at an interesting story that fell victim to the wrong medium of delivery.
    • 4/5
      Read for the second time for book club Monday, first time was 2009. I remembered liking it in spite of the darkness. Still did, but now I see the "Wisconsin Death Trip" similarities in the flawed characters, and the cold dreary winter. Juicy, historic and interesting.
    • 4/5
      Adult fiction. Fully-absorbing, fast-reading, lots of intrigue and treachery.
    • 3/5
      A riveting story with a strong message. Unfortunately, the theme of desire, love, money and greed and how they all get intermixed felt like it was pummeled into me. The prose became very repetitious as did the dialogue.
    • 3/5
      I’m not sure if this is a genre, but this novel would fit nicely into a category called Gothic Erotica. A Reliable Wife is like Rebecca on Viagra.

      The story is set in Wisconsin in the winter of 1907, a lonely man places an ad for a “Reliable Wife,” and a “simple, honest woman” responds and is accepted. Both have ulterior motives filled with secret desires and deceptions. Goolrick creates an atmosphere of winter claustrophobia heavy with sexual tension, madness, despair and revenge. He skillfully dissects love, with all of it’s manifestations in passion, lust, obsession, and revenge.

      His writing style is in turn overwritten at times and spare at others. As one reviewer put it, “Raw and lyrical at the same time.” Because he wants to surprise the reader with a twist in the tale, there are incongruities in the character’s stories (he is not very adept at this and should probably read some early Jeffrey Archer short stories to see how this is done.) I had the “twist” figured out pretty quickly. But even knowing where the story was going I still found it a compelling and entertaining read and finished it in a couple of days.
    • 2/5
      This is the second book I have read by this author. It will be the last.
    • 5/5
      bought A RELIABLE WIFE after I saw it recommended on a forum, back in February. I finally got around to reading it a couple of weeks ago and I am glad I did so. There are many twists in the plot, as the sins of the father are visited on the son and then upon himself, and then the sins of the son are visited on the father. It was by turns an intensely pleasurable and an excruciating read, but I couldn't stop turning the pages until I began to read more slowly because I didn't want it to end.

      What remains constant throughout the novel is the psychological exactness of each protagonist's thoughts and actions. All of it is totally believable. The woman, at the beginning of the novel, is of "rather loose lifestyle" but as the novel progresses we see that it was by no real choice of hers and she blossoms as a human being and, in fact, a reliable woman.

      What stayed with me, when I closed the book, was how human kindness shone through an examination of human evil.
    • 4/5
      Dark and erotically charged tale of a lonely man, the deceptive woman who came to be his wife, and the ways in which both love and hate can live for decades.
    • 4/5
      Read this in one day, a real gothic novel in the same vein as Rebecca, with waaaaay more sex! The descriptions of the Wisconsin winter are stellar, most of the characters are well developed (with the exception of the son) and the writing is spare and evocative. I wish I had saved this to read on a warm summer night!
    • 1/5
      This book is described as a Gothic novel. At best, it is Gothic lite. The narrator (audio book) did not improve its romance novel-like quality
    • 1/5
      OK. Tried this back in fall '10 - didn't get far, like not out of the train station. The main character was soo self-involved.... actually they both were.
      The author did have moments, some awesome description... which saved this review from being a total stinker (that and there's no 1/2 star).
      I hated it.
      All the depression of the villagers, the horrible deaths... and then the fear and hate over sex.
      I hated it.
      Tried the audio book also and the reader did a good job.... but can't make a silk purse from a sow's ear.
    • 4/5
      I really, really enjoyed this book. The depth of each character was brilliant. I was completely engrossed in their psychology and how they each realized the effect that their choices had on their lives and those around them. The difference between young romantic passionate love and the enduring mature love of long term companionship is so beautifully described and realized. I loved that the redemptive moment was not at all melodramatic, but realistic in a very positive way.
    • 2/5
      No. I thought this was a romance - that's the way it's framed. But it's a "literary" effort, which means both the hero and heroine are...obsessed with sex. Really? This is what makes a deeper story? He's convinced he's an irredeemable sinner because he feels lust - it's all because of his mother. And she's used her body and anything else she had to get along, because her mother died when she was small. Honestly. I suppose referencing Freud is literary, or something. Oh yeah, and people keep going mad in the town because of the snow - the hero's first chapter dwells at length on people going mad and what they do (from streaking to murder). I read...three chapters, I think; skimmed forward and landed on a rape scene; read the last scene with the garden and decided that I really didn't _care_ how they got to that point, not going to waste my time.I'm sure some people would think this was a wonderful story, but there's nothing here for me.
    • 1/5
      It's never a good sign when you have to force yourself to finish a book. While predictability isn't always bad in a story, there's nothing else here to redeem it. The characters are wooden, and the author's long-winded descriptions of liaisons between characters are boring, not erotic as he probably intended. There's describing passion to your readers, and then there's beating a dead horse over and over and over.
    • 4/5
      A compelling, erotically charged story that relies heavily on Cornell Woolrich's plot from WALTZ INTO DARKNESS. The setting and the background, however, were inspired by Michael Lesy's classic WISCONSIN DEATH TRIP ( a brilliant photo-journal that used the photographs taken by Charles Van Schaik, a Black River Falls photographer,and material from the archives of THE BADGER STATE BANNER, Mendota State Asylum, and quotations from Hamlin Garland and Glenway Westcott).
    • 4/5
      "Wisconsin Death Trip" is a book that I read way back in the 70s, and it contains strange pictures of little dead children in coffins, black-clad, somber-looking families in depressing situations, and text from newspapers citing horrific murders and suicides that took place in Wisconsin - all true. The author of this book, in his afterword, references "Wisconsin Death Trip" as the major inspiration for "A Reliable Wife" - he said that it has stayed with him and he has never forgotten it. I feel the same way - it is rather horrifying. As such, you can imagine that this book is somewhat strange with a looming sense of foreboding throughout, but the end is ultimately satisfying and illuminating.
    • 4/5
      This book was pretty good. The whole time I was reading it I was wondering "who are you? what do you really want?" This did remind me of that movie with Angelina Jolie and Antonio Banderas...whatever that movie is called. So I wasn't too shocked when everything was revealed. Pretty good though.