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A review by slichto3
Idaho by Emily Ruskovich
2.0
I don't think that Idaho is a bad book... I just really didn't like it. It has intricate prose, and a deep dive into some characters and relationships, but this is a mostly joyless book. It can be a slog to read, but even when it flows, it is emotionally draining and unsatisfying. Maybe a smarter, more refined person would enjoy that, but I'm dumb and coarse, so this is the review you get!
The story is told through the eyes of a handful of characters but mostly focuses on Ann, Wade, and Jenny. Wade and Jenny used to be married. They had a couple kids: June and May. Then one random day Jenny murdered one of the daughters, while the other daughter ran away. Some time after this incident (although not that much time afterwards) Wade marries Ann, a local schoolteacher. Wade, it turns out, has a family history of dementia, and during his marriage to Ann his forgetfulness and odd behavior gets worse and worse. It seems like a pretty miserable marriage for Ann, but she seems to troop through it. So our story is the relationship between Ann and Wade, Wade's gradual deterioration, some exploration of Jenny and who she is, some exploration of May and some rando named Eliot, and Ann's thoughts into what the hell happened with this murder.
It's all somewhat unfocused. It's not exactly clear what the point of the story is. The blurb makes it seem like it's some mystery: Ann is trying to figure out the truth of the murder of Wade's children even as Wade forgets the details of the incident because of his disease. In truth, that sort of story occupies a small, small portion of the book. Otherwise, it's mostly exploration of the different characters' thoughts. This was quite interesting for the first portion of the book. Later, it struck me how utterly unhappy every character seemed to be. Their monologues kind of trudged along, and none of the characters really seemed to find anything positive in life. It was all just noticing stuff, and mostly noticing bad stuff. Now, of course, the story is about some pretty crappy stuff: the murder of children and dementia. But the character's don't think about that all the time in the book - instead, they also focus on other dull and melancholy topics. I guess you can tell that I wasn't too riveted with the prose.
I also found the characters to be mostly lackluster. They were kind of boring. And I didn't feel that I understood them all that well. Ann seemed very weird to me in this book. Her story just didn't make much sense. She seemed utterly alone at the beginning of the story - mostly by choice. Then Wade pops into her life, and all of a sudden she's like "now I'm ready to be with someone." Except Wade is pretty much nobody to her! She never seems to be particularly enamored or interested in him. Later, she says that she loves him, but the story never really makes you feel or see that love. We are told, we are not shown. To a lesser extent, Wade was also a bit of a mystery. He's given a few more plot points that are meant to explain who he is, but... there's still a lot missing gaps. I got to the end of this story and thought "who are these people? They still feel like strangers." Maybe that was the point, but it wasn't something that I really enjoyed.
Overall, there wasn't a ton that drew me into this book. The prose is intricately crafted, and, while it wasn't really my cup of tea, I would understand if someone was swept away by it. The characters seemed odd and somewhat underdeveloped, but maybe that was in service of some larger point that I am completely oblivious to. I didn't like this book, but I would encourage other people to give it a shot, since I suspect you may think differently.
Now for my more detailed thoughts, which involve spoilers:
The ending: incredibly disappointing. It explains nothing! Jenny's act is still completely, absolutely random! How can I be invested in a story where a major plot/character point occurs for no reason? It feels so arbitrary. It feels like the author was like "I will make this story interesting by introducing something crazy! People will love that!" But without any reasonable justification, it all felt pointless! Jenny just seemed like the weirdest, most random character. I found her scenes in prison to be some of the most interesting parts of the book, but how does the book not even attempt to explore her feelings and her thoughts about it? Was there supposed to be some clue to it all that I just missed? The more I write about this, the more I get irritated by the book. I just don't get the message or the point of it all. Probably smarter people do, but... I'm stumped.
The story is told through the eyes of a handful of characters but mostly focuses on Ann, Wade, and Jenny. Wade and Jenny used to be married. They had a couple kids: June and May. Then one random day Jenny murdered one of the daughters, while the other daughter ran away. Some time after this incident (although not that much time afterwards) Wade marries Ann, a local schoolteacher. Wade, it turns out, has a family history of dementia, and during his marriage to Ann his forgetfulness and odd behavior gets worse and worse. It seems like a pretty miserable marriage for Ann, but she seems to troop through it. So our story is the relationship between Ann and Wade, Wade's gradual deterioration, some exploration of Jenny and who she is, some exploration of May and some rando named Eliot, and Ann's thoughts into what the hell happened with this murder.
It's all somewhat unfocused. It's not exactly clear what the point of the story is. The blurb makes it seem like it's some mystery: Ann is trying to figure out the truth of the murder of Wade's children even as Wade forgets the details of the incident because of his disease. In truth, that sort of story occupies a small, small portion of the book. Otherwise, it's mostly exploration of the different characters' thoughts. This was quite interesting for the first portion of the book. Later, it struck me how utterly unhappy every character seemed to be. Their monologues kind of trudged along, and none of the characters really seemed to find anything positive in life. It was all just noticing stuff, and mostly noticing bad stuff. Now, of course, the story is about some pretty crappy stuff: the murder of children and dementia. But the character's don't think about that all the time in the book - instead, they also focus on other dull and melancholy topics. I guess you can tell that I wasn't too riveted with the prose.
I also found the characters to be mostly lackluster. They were kind of boring. And I didn't feel that I understood them all that well. Ann seemed very weird to me in this book. Her story just didn't make much sense. She seemed utterly alone at the beginning of the story - mostly by choice. Then Wade pops into her life, and all of a sudden she's like "now I'm ready to be with someone." Except Wade is pretty much nobody to her! She never seems to be particularly enamored or interested in him. Later, she says that she loves him, but the story never really makes you feel or see that love. We are told, we are not shown. To a lesser extent, Wade was also a bit of a mystery. He's given a few more plot points that are meant to explain who he is, but... there's still a lot missing gaps. I got to the end of this story and thought "who are these people? They still feel like strangers." Maybe that was the point, but it wasn't something that I really enjoyed.
Overall, there wasn't a ton that drew me into this book. The prose is intricately crafted, and, while it wasn't really my cup of tea, I would understand if someone was swept away by it. The characters seemed odd and somewhat underdeveloped, but maybe that was in service of some larger point that I am completely oblivious to. I didn't like this book, but I would encourage other people to give it a shot, since I suspect you may think differently.
Now for my more detailed thoughts, which involve spoilers:
Spoiler
The ending: incredibly disappointing. It explains nothing! Jenny's act is still completely, absolutely random! How can I be invested in a story where a major plot/character point occurs for no reason? It feels so arbitrary. It feels like the author was like "I will make this story interesting by introducing something crazy! People will love that!" But without any reasonable justification, it all felt pointless! Jenny just seemed like the weirdest, most random character. I found her scenes in prison to be some of the most interesting parts of the book, but how does the book not even attempt to explore her feelings and her thoughts about it? Was there supposed to be some clue to it all that I just missed? The more I write about this, the more I get irritated by the book. I just don't get the message or the point of it all. Probably smarter people do, but... I'm stumped.