Author: Robert Goolrick
Publisher: Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill
Published: March 2009
This is probably my favorite book so far this year. I've already read it twice and I have little time for second readings these days. I collect perfect sentences and A Reliable Wife added several to my list. Goolrick is amazing at using words to pull you into the book and it's characters' lives. In the first pages, he beautifully presents Ralph Truitt and his surroundings and calls up the loneliness and desolation of his life and home with just a few perfect sentences.
Reading each chapter was like unwrapping another package. Each caused my idea of what I was reading to shift. Unlike some books' "surprises", these revelations felt natural and allowed the story to grow in depth, not become formulaic. Reading so much, it's always wonderful to come across something that doesn't feel like everything else I've read. The story of a plotting heir is certainly not new, but Goolrick has made it his own with his wonderful use of language and character creation. This could be described as a mystery, but it's a mystery in the tradition of Charlotte Bronte, not Janet Evanovich.
April 2009 Indie Next List
