![]() Along with Anne’s search for closure as she tries to understand her husband, Wade’s, character, “Idaho” follows Jenny’s life in prison and path to self-forgiveness, Wade’s descent into dementia and the sisterly relationship between the lost girls from years earlier. “Idaho” jumps from contemporary times to the sequence of events leading to Jenny’s unexplained crime. The anthology-style chapters also annoyed me at first, since the vignettes created a choppy flow. Since Ruskovich enjoys writing poetic passages, I grew to appreciate her careful word choice since she imbues every detail and action with significance, making the characters’ ultimate fate more tragic or rewarding. I’m usually impatient when it comes to flowery prose and long, complex sentences with double meanings. Under normal circumstances, I wouldn’t have picked up a book like “Idaho,” but I grabbed it on impulse one late night at the library. ![]() ![]() Years later, second wife, Anne, of the girls’ father tries to decipher the events of that fateful day. ![]() At first, I found the premise of the book incredibly pretentious: a mother, Jenny, suddenly kills one of her daughters for no apparent reason while the other girl runs away. It turned out the be one of the most substantive novels I’ve ever read. Over winter break, I read “Idaho” by Emily Ruskovich, a book with a deceptively simple title. ![]()
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