About this title: Set in rural Wisconsin in 1909, Ralph Truitt stands alone on a train platform waiting for the woman who answered his newspaper advertisement for "a reliable wife." But when Catherine Land steps off the train from Chicago, she's not the "simple, honest woman" that Ralph is expecting.
Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is described below.
Edition: First edition.
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill
Date Published: 2009
ISBN-13:9781565125964ISBN:1565125967
Description: New in new dust jacket. First Edition, First Print. Glued binding. Paper over boards. With dust jacket. 291 p. Audience: General/trade. read more
Binding: Hardback
Publisher: LITTLE, BROWN BOOK GROUP Country = UNITED KINGDOM
Date Published: 2009
ISBN-13:9781408701935ISBN:1408701936
Description: BRAND NEW HARDBACK. 304 pages. * ingenious and twisty, this is a story that will have the reader enthralled from first page to last (Hardback) read more
Binding: Softcover
Publisher: Harper Collins, New York
Date Published: 2009
Description: Book Soft cover. ADVANCE READER'S EDITION. NEW, unread copy. A review copy and thus printed on the cover 'not for sale' to avoid it being sold in retail stores as a new trade copy. Very Good with light wear to covers. read more
Description: Very Good. 1565125967 hardcover in very good condition. Pages are clean, binding is tight. Cover has slight shelf wear. Appears gently read. Satisfaction Guaranteed. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Algonquin Books
Date Published: 3/31/2009
ISBN-13:9781565125964ISBN:1565125967
Description: New. FIRST EDITION STATED. Hardback w/ DJ. You are buying a Book in NEW condition with very light shelf wear to include very light edge and corner wear. Buy it Now! ! ! As always, thank you for buying this book from International Book Source, YOUR ONE source FOR ALL your BOOK related NEEDS. Please remember to CHOOSE carefully how QUICKLY you would like to RECEIVE this material FAST, or standard (on next page). Thanks again! ! ! ! read more
Description: Good or better. May have price sticker and/or some shop wear-Because of our high volume, we can not accurately describe each book, so we list the MINIMUM condition you can expect; most are better than the condition listed. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Algonquin Books
Date Published: 2009-03-31
ISBN-13:9781565125964ISBN:1565125967
Description: Very Good. Chapel Hill, NC: Algonquin Books, 2009. First edition, first printing. Hardcover. 291 pp. Fine, in near fine unclipped dust jacket. Very light wear along top edge of jacket. First edition of author's debut novel. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill
Date Published: 2009
ISBN-13:9781565125964ISBN:1565125967
Description: Very good in very good dust jacket. (A147_5/9)Book is in good condition. Glued binding. Paper over boards. With dust jacket. 291 p. Audience: General/trade. read more
"This well-written book is both engaging and disturbing. It's 1907 and Ralph Truitt is waiting at the train station in a small town near the Canadian border for the train to arrive. The train that is bringing the woman he is going to marry. He had advertised for "a reliable wife" in newspapers across the country and he has selected Catherine Land from among dozens of women who responded. With him at the station are dozens of citizens of the small town, all of whom know the back story that led Ralph to advertise for a wife. Unfortunately, he realizes as soon as Catherine alights from the train that she is not the woman whose picture he was sent earlier in the summer. He decides to take Catherine home while he decides what to do. And then the true story begins and the layers on layers begin to be revealed. To tell any of the details of the story would be a spoiler. But suffice it to say that the lives of Ralph, Catherine, and several other characters will never be the same. An easily read story about all of the positive and negative aspects of love that will stay with the reader after the book is finished."
Appearances are definitely deceiving in this mediocre, Great-Gatsby wannabe. The book probably does not even warrant the one-star! Set in 1907 in small town northern Wisconsin, the three main characters, Ralph Truitt, Catherine Land and Tony Moretti do nothing but torture themselves and each other...and have sex. Ralph advertises in a Chicago paper for a "reliable wife" and he gets Catherine, who is reliable - only to make the wrong call EVERY TIME. She arrives in town on Ralph's private rail car (yes, he's UBER rich) with a secret. The secret unfolds as Mrs. Catherine Truitt travels to St. Louis (again on the private rail car) to find Ralph's long lost illegitimate son, Tony (his first wife's...clearly Ralph's really good at picking reliable wives). Tony and Catherine have a "sexy" history together and it continues as the secret is revealed. Catherine has married Ralph only to poison him at Tony's request. Anyway, she does poison Ralph but stops just before he dies, nurses him back to health and decides she loves him. Tony comes to visit and make amends with Ralph and out Catherine. Tony tries to rape Catherine, she stabs him twice with scissors. Ralph walks in as this is happening, chases Tony out of the house and onto an icy lake. Tony drowns and Catherine and Ralph live happily-ever-after...
In short...this is Goolrick's fiction debut and the writing is atrocious, the characters shallow and boring.
It definitely does circulate though, and many patrons recommended it. - Heather"
"This really deserves no stars!! I pride myself on reading a book from cover to cover; no matter what. And, this was the first book in a very long time that I could not finish reading. It is deplorable. The book jacket made the story very intriguing: Set in the early 1900s within Rural Wisconsin, Ralph Truitt, an older, rich businessman puts a mail-order bride ad in the paper. The overview pulls you in with intrigue and mystery centering on the young; beautiful; mysterious woman who answers the ad, Catherine Land. And, that is where it ends! The authors writing style, whereby he overly describes the scenes; characters - makes you want to pull your hair out. By the time Catherine is traveling on the train we know exactly what her mysterious past/secret is. If her clothes wasn't a dead giveaway, her thoughts about the appearance of her train car tell you everything you need to know. And Truitt's incessant over analysis of himself and his ability to withstand sex for 20 years is painful to keep reading after 30 pages of the author's descriptive narractive. I tried to skim over the repetitive sections but I still couldn't get myself to completely finish this story."
"A wonderful book with a couple of game-changing twists. The story is great, and unique. I was occasionally put off by the spare--sometimes self-consciously spare and repetitive--prose. The writing fits with the setting and the story, however: stripped down and evocative of another time and place. In using the bare language, however, Goolrick occasionally stalls the flow of the plot--and it's definitely the plot that keeps us reading.
The book stuck with me, as the lessons for living are not explicitly spelled out, but pass through consciousness after the story is told. Goolrick speaks frequently in the book of the madness and despair people are driven to in such isolation and harsh weather--and at the end he mentions another book that influenced his choice of northern, rural Wisconsin as setting. But the references to how climate and isolation shape character come across as jarring rather than embedded in the story; they feel like the one point that the author wants to drive home."
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