What is it with Robert Goolrick's A Reliable Wife? I came across this title via Library Thing. It was a book offered as part of their Early Reviewer's Program and caught my eye. Set in rural Wisconsin in 1909 it's about a mail order bride, but not the cheesy sort of story you might imagine. This one sounds very Gothic in flavor where neither of the pair is exactly as expected. The LT blurb mentioned "echoes of Wuthering Heights and Rebecca", which completely sold me. As there were only 15 copies to be had I went to the public library's online catalog and got in line....behind about 45 other people. What had they heard that I hadn't? Usually I'm pretty up on new books, but this was the first mention of it I had encountered. Went back to LT and put my name in the hat after all--not expecting to have a ghost of a chance of getting one.
Lo and behold, guess what I found out today? Out of 1,465 members requesting a copy, I actually was picked and should (fingers crossed now) be receiving one. What were the chances of that happening? Then I read this review (only read the first paragraph as I am looking forward to reading the book and don't want it spoiled):
"Don't be fooled by the prissy cover or that ironic title. Robert Goolrick's first novel, A Reliable Wife, isn't just hot, it's in heat: a gothic tale of such smoldering desire it should be read in a cold shower. This is a bodice ripper of a hundred thousand pearly buttons, ripped off one at a time with agonizing restraint. It works only because Goolrick never cracks a smile, never lets on that he thinks all this overwrought sexual frustration is anything but the most serious incantation of longing and despair ever uttered in the dead of night."
To be honest (no offense Washington Post) I don't find the cover prissy in the least--it was what first made me stop and look, and I like irony under the right conditions. After reading this I thought 'sheesh', I'm not at all surprised that there were already 45 people in line at the library ahead of me! Apparently with this novel I'm in for quite a ride read! I've always had a high regard for Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill as purveyors of good literature, so even though I was a little slow to clue in on this book, I'm very excited to be getting a copy.
I've had very good luck with Library Thing lately, receiving a book a month for the last three months, which means I had better go and get going on the first one, Elaine Dundy's The Old Man and Me. Such a hardship to be forced into picking up another book to read.