A Reliable Wife by Robert Goolrick

Winter in Wisconsin, 1907 is a stark, sometimes brutal sometimes beautiful season, words that can also be used to describe this novel. Catherine Land, a beautiful, but no longer young woman, has answered a newspaper ad for "a reliable wife." Ralph Truitt, aging, rich, and lonely has selected Catherine from dozens of replies, based on her description of herself as a simple and honest woman and the picture she sent, which is actually of her much plainer cousin India. Despite her obvious deceptions, Ralph goes forward with his plan to marry her.

The reader soon learns that both parties have ulterior motives in mind - Catherine to inherit Ralph's money and live in luxury with her much younger lover, and Ralph to use Catherine to bring his long-estranged son back home and quench his eternal loneliness. The novel quietly twists and turns along these plot lines while each of them realizes that fulfilling their deepest wishes may not be what brings them satisfaction after all.

Goolrick's writing is hypnotizing - his rich visual descriptions drew me in until I could hear, smell, feel and see through the character's eyes. The book quietly seethes with passion and teeters on madness, examining the human condition in all of its capablilities. While it is a book to be savored, it is suspenseful enough to keep the pages turning until the end. I highly recommend this book to fans of gothic or romantic novels, or anyone who is a lover of language. Some readalike suggestions are:

Rebecca by Daphne DuMaurier

My Antonia by Willa Cather

Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen

The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield

The House at Riverton by Kate Morton

Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte

Testimony by Anita Shreve

While I used to read Anita Shreve religiously, I have been disappointed in her last couple of titles. On a whim, I picked up her latest, Testimony, and I am so glad I did.

Set at a prestigious private high school in an idyllic Vermont town, the reader is instantly immersed in the story, as it begins with Mike, the headmaster of the school viewing a scandalous videotape - one that features 3 of the school's basketball stars in compromising positions with a 14 year old girl. Of the three boys, J.Dot, Rob and Silas, Mike is most affected at Silas's involvement. Silas is a well-behaved and respectful student who Mike helped get into the school, so this seems completely out of character. The remainder of the book deals with the circumstances leading up to the events captured on tape as well as the repercussions for everyone even remotely involved.

Told through multiple point of views, including the actual participants of the events, their parents, the local reporter who broke the story, and the headmaster himself, this is a sensitively told story, and although contributions come from several different voices, I never found it confusing or difficult to follow. It ends heartbreakingly, as all the circumstances surrounding the events come to light.

The beginning of the book was difficult to read - it's a little graphic sexually, but once I made it through that I couldn't put this book down. The way the story unwinds throughout the course of the book kind of reminded me of Shreve's The Last Time We Met, which I also highly recommend.