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I had heard so much about this book - all of it good - and I was not disappointed. It grabbed me from the first page. A widower in early 20th century Wisconsin advertises for a "reliable wife" and a much younger woman answers. She arrives by train on a snowy, wintry day, and the Wisconsin town with its blanket of white becomes as much a character as any of the people.
The woman is not who she appears to be, and the man has had a terrible past. The story of their relationship is told, as well as t ...more
The woman is not who she appears to be, and the man has had a terrible past. The story of their relationship is told, as well as t ...more
This book was a strange combination of hypnotic, purple, lavish literary writing and a really active plot, though mostly internally. I give three stars for a book that I neither regret reading nor am glad I read--it just is. I feel that way about this book. It's very much about lust and compulsion--there's a weird undercurrent about madness in general, and how it exists in the world, that only makes sense thematically, and not in any practical way. But mostly it's about people who are driven by
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Pretty compelling gothic potboiler set in the frozen winter of 1907 in Wisconsin. A woman with a racy past has answered a rich widowed industrialist's advertisement for a wife, and she is determined to present herself as the perfect demure candidate. But all is not as it appears, and more than one character is playing a longer game.
A little overwritten, but still fun to read. ...more
A little overwritten, but still fun to read. ...more
Despite a slow start, this book kept me turning pages right until the surprising conclusion. Great characterization and settings, but definitely a depressing story about people with few other options who desperately need love.
Utterly, utterly bleak. I (barely) managed 85 pages before I gave up: it's cold, it's dark, people apparently go mad a lot in the town (probably because they spend so much time standing around on the train platform waiting and waiting and waiting - for 25 pages - for it to arrive, but I don't even care about reading enough to find out if Goolrick ever explains why), Ralph Truitt is eye-rollingly obsessed with sex, and why should I even care about Catherine (if that's her real name; I don't care
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Atmospheric, but ultimately kind of dull and schleppy.
Ick. And yuck.
I can't believe I read this whole book. Only a man could have written this. Allow me to present Exhibit A:
"It was his own masculinity he was making love to, which drove him as he rode inside her, rapture at his own skill, his own pleasures, the tenderness, the savagery, ripping through her as though for the first time."
Ew. GROSS. ...more
"It was his own masculinity he was making love to, which drove him as he rode inside her, rapture at his own skill, his own pleasures, the tenderness, the savagery, ripping through her as though for the first time."
Ew. GROSS. ...more
I wasn't exactly sure where the author was going with this, but I ended up liking it.
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Feb 24, 2010
Anna
marked it as to-read
Jul 11, 2010
Lainey
marked it as to-read
Aug 24, 2010
Erin
marked it as to-read
