Name: A reliable wife
ISBN: 9781554685035

Robert Goolrick

A widower advertises for "a reliable wife" and he chooses Catherine. To her surprise, Catherine learns to love Ralph and must, as a result, abandon the remaining traces of her former life and cope with the haunting effects of family secrets.

a novel

A reliable wife

Edwin Lang

I enjoyed Robert Goolrick's The Reliable Wife very much. The story flowed and did not ever disappoint. I liked Catherine Land the best. I found her character authentic. It seemed she held onto that element of goodness, that mustard seed, that sometimes dim pilot light, and it was enough. There is much despair, and when not despair then the temptation to succumb to despair. As Catherine noted near the beginning 'I am among barbarians'. I wondered, how do people after millenia of civilization end up in houses without books, not reading, being no less than barbarians. Ralph Truit's anguish brought to mind this morning as I walked the dog that for many of us - perhaps all of us really - life only really begins after 50. That everything before this is prelude. Perhaps this is why suicides among the young is so tragic, because all the mistakes, all the love, even the anger, is so formative. Goolrick in his twilight is doing darn well. Edwin

A reliable wife a novel

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