Book Review: Idaho by Emily Ruskovich

Purchase on Amazon! $12.99 Kindle | $11.59 Paperback

Published: November 7, 2017

Pages: 336 Pages

My Copy Came From: Amazon

Read Via: Hard copy

My Like Level: 2.5 thisclose to a 3.

“Perhaps it’s what both their hearts have been wanting all along—to be broken. In order to know that they are whole enough to break.”
― Emily Ruskovich, Idaho

“The revelation of kindness hurts worse than cruelty. There is no way to equal it. Nowhere to put her gratitude, and so it thrashes in her body.”
― Emily Ruskovich, Idaho

I had to buy a hard copy! I live in the state of Idaho. This will be a beautiful addition to my book shelf.

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Book Synopsis From Amazon:

A stunning debut novel about love and forgiveness, about the violence of memory and the equal violence of its loss—from O. Henry Prize–winning author Emily Ruskovich

Finalist for the New York Public Library’s Young Lions Fiction Award

Ann and Wade have carved out a life for themselves from a rugged landscape in northern Idaho, where they are bound together by more than love. With her husband’s memory fading, Ann attempts to piece together the truth of what happened to Wade’s first wife, Jenny, and to their daughters. In a story written in exquisite prose and told from multiple perspectives—including Ann, Wade, and Jenny, now in prison—we gradually learn of the mysterious and shocking act that fractured Wade and Jenny’s lives, of the love and compassion that brought Ann and Wade together, and of the memories that reverberate through the lives of every character in Idaho.

In a wild emotional and physical landscape, Wade’s past becomes the center of Ann’s imagination, as Ann becomes determined to understand the family she never knew—and to take responsibility for them, reassembling their lives, and her own.

Praise for Idaho

“You know you’re in masterly hands here. [Emily] Ruskovich’s language is itself a consolation, as she subtly posits the troubling thought that only decency can save us. . . . Ruskovich’s novel will remind many readers of the great Idaho novel, Marilynne Robinson’s Housekeeping. . . . [A] wrenching and beautiful book.”—The New York Times Book Review

“Sensuous, exquisitely crafted.”—The Wall Street Journal

“The first thing you should know about Idaho, the shatteringly original debut by O. Henry Prize winner Emily Ruskovich, is that it upturns everything you think you know about story. . . . You could read Idaho just for the sheer beauty of the prose, the expert way Ruskovich makes everything strange and yet absolutely familiar.”—San Francisco Chronicle

“Mesmerizing . . . [an] eerie story about what the heart is capable of fathoming and what the hand is capable of executing.”—Marie Claire

“Idaho is a wonderful debut. Ruskovich knows how to build a page-turner from the opening paragraph.”—Ft. WorthStar-Telegram

“Ruskovich’s debut is haunting, a portrait of an unusual family and a state that becomes a foreboding figure in her vivid depiction.”—The Huffington Post

My Thoughts:

I recently moved to Idaho from California after living there all my life. When I saw this book called Idaho in Amazon’s new release section, it was yet another sign in my mind that this move was a great thing for our family. We are all settled now, but to say it’s been a busy couple of months is an understatement! I told myself that I would hold off on reading it until I was officially a resident of Idaho. Fast forward to about a month ago when I started reading it. I’m not going to lie, it took me awhile to finish. It wasn’t because I didn’t enjoy it, but more because the writing is so full of prose and colorful imagery that many of the sentences needs to be analyzed and re-read multiple times to take it all in. While I love colorful writing, I do get tired of it about halfway through the book. That’s just a problem of mine. My mind starts saying…”OK, OK, get to the point please.” I definitely felt that way with this book. The story was interesting and tragic, but the way it was told was a bit disjointed for me. It was told by multiple people through different time periods. There were even some characters who had chapters written from their perspective that really didn’t need to be written (in my opinion). The story gets further complicated with the added dementia diagnosis one of the main characters suffers from. I found some of the characters motivations odd, especially Ann’s. Her odd relationship with Wade’s first wife Jenny seemed unrealistic. The prison element of the story was my least favorite. I didn’t enjoy the relationships between the women, and couldn’t seem to ever really grasp the intensity of the women’s friendship or the motivations behind Elizabeth’s attack on Sylvia. I know these names mean nothing to you at the moment and I promise that I’m not spoiling anything by mentioning their names and some of the things they did. The last few pages of this book provided some very interesting details about the story from the author herself so I highly recommend reading on past the end. Emily gives explanations behind some of her characters, the location of the story and her style of writing. This book was full of poetry style writing which some of you will love. Like I said, I like it about half of the time myself. Let me know if you pick this up and your thoughts after you’ve read it.

As I am re-reading this review, I’m not loving my style of writing either. Maybe I’m just in a reading funk? I am going to read a book completely different than this one next so maybe I will snap out if it. 🙂