This is a printer-friendly version of an article from Zip06.com.

Idaho by Emily Ruskovich

Surpassing the descriptor of “dreamlike,” Emily Ruskovich’s Idaho feels more akin to the sensation of having recently woken from a nightmare. The reader is reminded of those brief moments in which one lies confused, awash in sweat, struggling to separate the events of the dream from reality. This disjointed narrative invites the reader to not only witness the rapid deterioration of the principal character’s mental state, but to viscerally experience it. The stark landscape of rural Idaho, coupled with prose that is both dark and poetic, lends a sense of true isolation to this Western Gothic.

Emily, R. J. Julia Booksellers, Madison