Book #73: A Reliable Wife

Book #73: A Reliable Wife by Robert Goolrick

February 4, 2014


I've had this particular book on my library ebook "wish list" for several months. Any time that I thought it would be time to check it out, it was never available, so I would move on to something else. But I'd been wanting to read this book since reading the synopsis on the library's website, so last week I broke down and put it on hold. And so, I was finally able to check it out for myself.

I was interested in reading about the hidden motives of Ralph Truitt and Catherine Land, two people who marry when they barely know each other. There was a shady plot, on  Catherine's part, but Ralph's motivation was much more honest. He, a very wealthy businessman in very northern Wisconsin in the very early part of the 20th century, put out an ad for a wife because he wanted two things: a sexual partner, and someone who could lure his estranged son (or not-son) home to him.

I sympathized with Ralph because, even though he committed atrocious acts against young Antonio years before, he had been trying to find the boy and atone for it all. I did find myself wondering, though, how Ralph would have gone about it if he weren't so fabulously wealthy. He used his money to draw Antonio to him (though it was Antonio's desire for revenge that brought him back); he basically admits at one point that he doesn't love Antonio, but he does want to love him, and wants to try to make things up to him.

Catherine is brought into the mix as Antonio's partner in the scheme to kill Ralph. Catherine responds to Ralph's ad; she presents herself as being a simple, honest woman, when she is anything but. When her past life is revealed, she is another character to sympathize with. Indeed, the three principal characters of this book, while all morally reprehensible in many ways, are also all victims of circumstance. Catherine was a prostitute, but it was desperation and love for her sister that drove her to do it. Antonio was greedy and selfish, but he had suffered a traumatic childhood. And Ralph had caused Antonio's suffering, but he had been treated cruelly by his wife (whose affair had resulted in Antonio's birth), and had lost his sweet mentally handicapped daughter, and had had a very complicated relationship with his mother. In trying to atone for his own sins, Ralph had not had a lover in two decades. But he was a sexual man by nature (something that his mother had taught him was wrong), and getting a wife helped him there, obviously.

So Catherine is planning to poison Ralph, and she even begins to do so, with arsenic, after an attempt to go to St. Louis and bring Antonio home (Ralph not knowing that Catherine was his son's lover, at least not until his private detectives met her; he knew all about her long before she realized it). Ralph's even ready to let her do it; he basically gives her permission, because after realizing that Antonio would never forgive him, he felt that he had nothing. But Catherine felt bad; she and Ralph actually fell in love with each other. And why not? They'd both been hurt, and they'd both opened themselves up to one another. Even as they lied, they were honest with each other in other ways. The premise of their relationship was twisted, but it was believable that, in the midst of all the craziness, in the middle of winter in very northern Wisconsin, where people in the countryside go crazy and commit acts of insanity, that these two could fall in love.

When Antonio arrives at Catherine and Ralph's home, the whole situation becomes even more twisted. It ends violently and suddenly. The entire book keeps up a quietly intense tone, and even the descriptions of Ralph's attempt to beat Antonio to death (after walking in on him raping Catherine in the greenhouse) and Antonio's drowning are almost calm in their tone. Catherine and Ralph reconcile with how it all went down, and she's going to have his baby. And that's that.

An interesting story, and a pretty quick read as well. This book is another one that echoes the message that has resonated so loudly for me: that living with regrets, that not letting things go, is poison for you. The book pretty much includes that very metaphor. It made me think of Wuthering Heights, for its harsh country setting and its haunted characters. I like to think that at this point in my life, I've living with my eyes forward. I was thinking the other day about how much I've changed in recent years, since graduating college or since moving back to my hometown. I've let go of a lot of shit from the past, and I've made some exciting personal discoveries about myself. I don't know if I can attribute all of these changes and revelations to the lessons I've learned from reading, but it certainly doesn't hurt. At worst, it's validating what is becoming a philosophy for my life. I can honestly say that I am a happy person and I look forward to the possibilities of my life. Contrast that sharply with someone like Antonio, who simply cannot let go of the past, who cannot see the possibilities of his life (especially with Ralph's money at his disposal; he knew that at that point, Ralph would give him anything). Worse, he can see them, but he doesn't think they are possible for him, he doesn't think he can get rid of the pain of his past. What I wish everyone would realize is that the pain of the past can be forgotten. Even if it's difficult, it can and must be done in order to live a good life. It's worth it.