What I'm Reading

I forgot why I bought this -- whether through a review or something else. But I am enjoying it -- have read about three chapters worth. It's very lyrical as if someone is telling you a story in a slow way. Here's the description from the jacket:

It is the summer of 1948 when a handsome, charismatic stranger, Charlie Beale, recently back from the war in Europe, shows up in the town of Brownsburg, a sleepy village of a few hundred people, nestled in the Valley of Virginia. All he has with him are two suitcases: one contains his few possessions, including a fine set of butcher knives; the other is full of money. A lot of money.

So far, he's arrived in the town, rented a piece of land along the river to park his truck and live there. He then bought the land for $1000 in cash. He got a job in the butcher store by saying he would work for free for a month to show what a great butcher he is. The butcher brought him home for dinner to meet his wife to see her opinion if he should be hired. There appears to be some sort of electricity between him and the butcher's wife, but it's all vague and mysterious and that's as far as I've gotten.

Now I remember why I bought this book. The author also wrote "A Reliable Wife" which I loved and read in like two days. It's about a man who orders a mail-order wife in rural Wisconsin early in the last century. It turns out to be a very dark story as well. If this interests you at all, I note that Amazon has used copies of this book for 1 cent -- which means you pay something like $2.89 for shipping and handling plus one cent for the book. I highly recommend this book.