A Reliable Wife

Robert Goolrick's bestseller A Reliable Wife is one of the best books I've ever read. Honestly. I know I'm young and will probably read many more books that leave the same lasting impression, but I can say without hesitation that Goolrick's first novel thrilled me.

Before we begin, let's take a moment to appreciate Robert himself:

Now doesn't that look like a very learned man? He definitely knows more than the average person. Just look at that scarf! In an interview with Powells.com, Goolrick says about his novel, "The voice of Reliable Wife, I hope, is the voice of a storyteller more than anything else. I don't pretend to be a great literary stylist. I don't pretend to have contributed to literature as art." Well, it turns out you are a great literary stylist. Worse things have happened.

And now for the spoiler alert.  Because this book is oozing with details too intricate and perfect not to discuss.


What you need to know: Ralph Truitt, a rich guy from Wisconsin in the 1800s, finds himself growing old and lonely after losing his family to various cruelties of life. He puts an ad in the newspapers for "a reliable wife." Catherine, a hedonist from New Orleans, writes in application but pretends to be a simple, honest woman ready to be a companion to someone as equally simple and honest. Her aim is to kill Ralph and take all his money.


Thoughts
Goolrick's novel is essentially a tragedy, but not of a particular person or moment. A Reliable Wife runs like a broken record, reminding the reader of how terribly sad life is. He consistently highlights the futile effort to control our own human lives, using the phrase "such things happen" as a common requiem for things lost. Perhaps this is why Goolrick's writing is so accessible and popular amongst readers; who can't relate to the feeling of unrelenting loss or that last tug that can make your whole world seem as if it's spinning out of control. Although accessible, his writing is still beautiful. It reminded me of Jhumpa Lahiri, except with imagery that still has scenes of death and the human condition fresh in my mind.


What I really want to note about the novel, though, is the focus on performance. Every character, almost as if acknowledging that they are a fictional character in a novel, seems to be concerned with their performance, with how people will perceive them. Ralph feels he must keep the appearance of power at all times, so much so that he does not allow himself to lean into the cold in the frigid Wisconsin winter, always standing tall and seeming in control. Catherine is literally performing by pretending to be a simple, honest woman in response to Ralph's advertisement. This is a drastic change from her hedonistic life in New Orleans. Catherine even spends her time making dresses, as though she were making costumes for her new role. This need to constantly perform results in the characters' blurred self identity. Often Ralph, Catherine, and others express the feeling of unfamiliarity with themselves, of not knowing who they've become.

Despite the novel's greatness, I admit I ended my read with a broken heart. And it wasn't because of despair or how sad the circumstances of the characters became, but because Goolrick painted a picture of a world in which there is no life. It is a book about survival, not living. Goolrick's prose will be sure to haunt me for the next several days. Perhaps I will need a cupcake to cleanse my palate before returning to one of my favorite authors later in the month, Sara Gruen.