BOOK: A Reliable Wife by Robert Goolrick

A Reliable Wife by Robert Goolrick, 291 pages

Gothic Reading Challenge

Ralph Truitt advertises for a reliable wife, something a rich man can do in the early 1900s in Wisconsin. Catherine Land answers his advert, and hijinks ensue. No, not really hijinks; more like a gothic, twisty plot ride. The cover states "Suspenseful and erotic... Good to the riveting end." And it was, and it wasn't. Let me explain.

I like pizza, but I'm not a huge fan of mushrooms. I wouldn't gag on a mushroom, like I might with squash (I hate squash!), but I would never pick mushroom flavored food. It's too bad because mushrooms are added to a lot of food. If a mushroom makes it onto my pizza, I'll eat it. It's still pizza after all. I can manage to eat a lot of food that have mushrooms in them, but they don't add to my enjoyment at all. This book was a mushroom pizza to me.

She thought of her garden. She thought of her life, her patchwork quilt of a life, pieced together from castoff scraps of this and that; experience, knowledge, clairvoyance. None of it make any sense to her. p 146

Something about the writing just didn't match in my head. I couldn't get lost in the story. There was nothing wrong with the writing, just wasn't what I like, although I didn't dislike so much that I put the book down. I did like the story.  This book came to me highly recommended by a friend at work who usually gives me great books. People seem to either love it or not.

I found this great review at librarything: 
I think I have figured out what it is about Goolrick's writing that bothers me. His prose is very repetitious. He tends to repeat himself. He repeats himself to create a certain tone. He repeats himself and we get it already. ( posted by scratch)

also reviewed: lori at she treads softly; rhapsody in books' book club meeting; rhapsody in books weblog review; tiny little librarian's reading room;