<p>"Blending personal insight with sharp-eyed cultural analysis, the author celebrates the West and Western identity without ever losing sight of the myriad complexities that underlie both. An eloquent and perceptive memoir in essays."-<i>Kirkus Reviews</i></p> "<i>Anything Will Be Easy after This</i> traces Maile's evolution from a girl suckered by a busted-down story to a more knowing woman who discovers a new narrative that enchants without deluding."-<i>Entropy</i> “<i>Anything Will Be Easy after This</i> pairs old school journalistic immersion with formal ingenuity and weds Maile’s healthy skepticism to her legit enthusiastic love for the West’s stories. Half excellent memoir and half blade-sharp cultural critique, this terrific book made me a convert to the complicated appeal of the state.”-Ander Monson, author of <i>Vanishing Point: Not a Memoir</i><br />   “Gorgeously written, vividly imagined, and poignantly observed, Maile’s open-eyed essays are a heartbroken love song to Idaho: what it was, what it never was, what it is, what it might yet be. Whether she is contemplating motherhood or mustangs or Ray LaMontagne, rodeo queens or Dairy Queen, <i>True Grit</i>, or the gut-wrenching shame of genocide, Maile is a brilliant new voice in and of the West.”-Kim Barnes, author of <i>In the Wilderness: Coming of Age in Unknown Country</i><br />   “Bethany Maile writes with the emotional clarity of William Kittredge and the historical attention of Timothy Egan. In this wise, wide-ranging debut, Maile roots her inquiry in the old western concerns of authenticity, mythology, land, and family, yet her approach is fresh, fun, even postmodern.”-Joe Wilkins, author of <i>Fall Back Down When I Die</i><br />