Twenty-four hours after completing A Reliable Wife, I don’t know what think. It was amazing. A novel filled with rage, fear, pain, redemption and forgiveness. So much emotion poured into one book, so much to reflect upon.
Catherine Lands answers an ad: Country Businessman seeks reliable wife. Compelled by practical, not romantic reasons. Reply by letter. Ralph Truitt, Truiit, Wisconsin. Discreet. She writes back “I am a simple honest woman.” Thus the lies start.
Catherine is anything but simple, Ralph is much more then a country businessman. Truitt, Wisconsin is anything but hospitable in the winter of 1907. Goolrick examines the pain families can cause to each other, the rage dishonesty can bring, the fear of a life unsettled, and the redemption and forgiveness that can happen to anyone once they bring themselves to that point.
This book is sadly, believable. Dysfunction of individuals and families creep up daily. Forgiveness does not easy come easily or to everyone, but to those it comes to is sweet. I may not know what to think of A Reliable Wife because any dealing with family, in a certainly biographical story, is hard. That does not keep it from being wonderful.