I can usually handle a great deal when it comes to literature. I can handle graphic details of the intimate variety as well as of the violent kind. Those things usually don't bother me. I guess you could say that I am desensitized to these sorts of things, a fact I am not proud of. While I was reading The Reliable Wife by Robert Goolick, I realized that I am not as desensitized as I originally thought. In fact, I had a hard time getting through this book because of the base, intimate details that were found plastered throughout the pages. If i twasn't for the fact that the interesting storyline kept me going, I wouldn't have finished the story. This, though, was a great story. I was hooked from the beginning.
The Reliable Wife is set in Wisconsin in the early 1900's. The story is about Ralph Truitt, who advertises for a wife. The wife he chooses, sight unseen, turns out to be a woman of many secrets. One of those secrets is that she comes to Wisconsin with the intent to kill him.
This story is full of secrets. They seem to pop up just when you think you should give up on the book. The secrets are ingeniously placed to keep you reading. Not only is this book about secrets but it is about forgiveness and that, even amongst the most darkest and basest of situations, you can find beauty. Beauty is present anywhere, you just have to look.
The Reliable Wife was a bit too heavy on detail but it was also lush with excellent writing and an amazing story.