“A Reliable Wife” Book Club Meeting Report (Reread Part II)

Yesterday, I posted a review of my second reading of A Reliable Wife by Robert Goolrick for our book club. Since I had chosen this book, it was therefore also my responsibility to provide the food. I brought a number of “decadent” items, and at the center of the table placed a blue bottle (representing the blue bottle of arsenic in the book) and put a skull and crossbones “poison” label on it. (No one drank from it, which wasn’t a bad idea. It was blue Gatorade, and didn’t look very appetizing!)

I loved this book, and loved it even more after reading it the second time to refresh my memory for the book club. To my utter shock, however, many book club participants did not like it much. Here is a report on their reactions.

First I should explain how we conduct the discussions. Initially, we go around the room and give one word, which encapsulates our impression of the book. Then we go around again and expatiate on our reactions. For this book, words given by the thirteen participants included “love,” “lust,” “forgiveness,” “redemption” and so on. (You can also give evaluative words, like “meh.”) Jim and I both wanted to use the word “suggestive” – he meaning: great idea to advertise for a [more] reliable wife [than he has], and me meaning: great idea to poison my husband. We changed at the last minute to “unconditional” (me) and “timing” (Jim).

During the “expatiation phase,” several readers complained that the sex between Catherine and Antonio was repetitive and boring. I thought they missed the point. The sex was not supposed to be a life- and love-affirming act; rather, it was an act of losing oneself and also debasing oneself. It was, in my opinion, supposed to be boring, because there were no feelings at all toward the other person involved in the act.

Several readers thought the story was over the top. One chose the word “operatic” and one “preposterous.” But for the two of us who read the author’s memoirs (The End of the World As We Know It) the plot seemed much less outrageous than the author’s real life. As three different authors averred at the recent Tucson Festival of Books, the hardest sell with readers tends to be incidents taken from real life – they often seem too outrageous and they have to “tone them down!” But “such things happen,” as Goolrick says in the book.

Two members of the club voiced the equivalent of “so a person had a bad childhood – he or she should get over it already.” I offered them a drink from the blue bottle…

There were also some interesting analyses.

One member used the word “frozen” and talked about how the frozen landscape was reflected in the fact that the adults were “frozen” in their childhood pain.

Another pointed out all the attention to the details of clothing in the book, and analyzed how Catherine changed her personality each time she changed her style of clothing. We discussed how accurately “clothes make the man” in this book.

But perhaps the most inexplicable (to me) comment of the evening came from a member who looked at the three chocolate desserts on the table and said, “isn’t there anything that isn’t chocolate?”

Trader Joe's Tiramisu Torte - one of the 3 chocolate desserts

Sometimes, there’s just no accounting for taste!

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