9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
"Leaving" Is Unforgettable, March 5, 2002
"Leaving" is absolutely remarkable. I thought I would be the worst possible audience for such a book -- as an individualist, I think the current climate of "special pleading" for various races and ethnicities and religions and genders and orientations and ages and handicaps has created a pernicious cult of victimization that poses an enormous threat to this country and to every individual in it, and some of the characters in Richard Dry's book are violent members of the underclass, people whose skin we are invited to get inside and whose viewpoint we are asked to share or at least understand -- and yet the book knocked me out. Through a combination of personal experience, research, and an enormously powerful imagination, Dry has made a world that in real life I would go out of my way to avoid, real and immediate and important.
And none of this conveys the beauty of a novel I never thought I'd like, but one that wound up haunting me.
-- Paul Guay
Co-screenwriter of "The Little Rascals," "Liar, Liar" and "Heartbreakers"
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Left Wanting More...., January 14, 2004
This review is from: Leaving: A Novel (Paperback)
Leaving is Richard Dry's debut novel and it is excellent!! It is the story of Ruby Washington's family - three generations and their actions and reactions to survive against all odds. In 1959, Ruby, poor and pregnant, hastily leaves small town Norma, South Carolina for Oakland, California with her younger half brother (Easton) in tow. She moves in with her father and his lover and finds work as a seamstress. Dry then blends in the political and social happenings of the time and we watch how Ruby struggles to hold her family together despite racism, incest, domestic violence, and the influx of drugs in the community.
Weighing in at 450 pages, Dry gives the reader a lot to consider. The interrelationships of the characters are complex and engaging. Dry provides up close and personal perspectives of the movement through the eyes of a college age Easton when he ventures south to participate in a Civil Rights march in Selma, Alabama. Another supporting character embodies the Black Panther philosophies; Lida (Ruby's daughter) resorts to prostitution to support a drug habit; Love (Ruby's grandson) grows up with heroin-addicted parents and experiences the juvenile justice system. Every character has a unique voice/view and a heartbreaking story, which Dry tells with compelling realism. Interweaved within the story are historical (factual) citations and references that shaped race relations and influenced the Black experience in America.
Dry writes with conviction and purpose as evidenced in the title reference and the theme of "leaving" is echoed in the character's actions, a few examples are: Ruby's exodus from South Carolina is necessary to avoid racial violence; whereas Love escapes to the same South Carolina to avoid the ills of urban gang life. Lida's choice to leave Ruby's home is a result of her fleeing pain and unresolved issues; Marcus (Lida's husband) leaves for three years to launch a musical career, etc.
This book was simply a good read -- the characters and plot were well developed; pacing was sound and the story moved quickly (which made the 450 pages easier to digest).
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
somber contemplation of African-American life merits praise, May 4, 2004
This review is from: Leaving: A Novel (Paperback)
Some fifty years from now, Richard Dry's brilliant debut novel "Leaving" will be given the same homage Ralph Ellison's "Invisible Man" now receives. "Leaving" is a somber, chilling and compelling contemplation on the nature of African-American life since World War II. The novel blends gut-wrenching dislocation, ironic perception and terrifying alienation in its provocative commentary on racism's lingering impact. Dry, through brilliant characterization and taut narrative drive, extends his vision to the entire scope of the African-American post-war experience, from disintegration and despair to reclamation and redemption. The result is a spellbinding saga of three generations of Blacks, each of which is scarred by the impact of racial oppression, each of which develops its own capacity to comprehend and confront life's hurtful circumstances.
Deftly interweaving three cross-cutting narratives, "Leaving" traces the evolution of Ruby Washington's family, from its rural South Carolina roots to the coarse, drug and violence-saturated streets of Oakland California. It is a novel which treats not only the arc of personal odysseys, but how the individual lives of the Washington family fit in the historical stream of African-American history. Indeed, an anonymous prisoner, whose words reverberate consistently throughout the novel, underscores this historical consciousness when he insists that African-Americans "dive into your history." He warns that "without the knowledge of your past, you're likely to" repeat the same mistakes past generations made in trying to understand racism. Without knowledge, without a sense of self, the nameless prisoner scolds, African-Americans will "pace back and forth" on the raft of history, "like a beast in this jail-cage."
"Leaving," however, is much more that a book that elevates consciousness. It is a novel that elicits our most profound emotional alliances with its characters, even when the men, women and children portrayed repel and repulse us with their shortcomings. Even in its depiction of depravity, the novel gains transcendence. Despite its overwhelming portrait of urban material and spiritual poverty, "Leaving" encourages hope. The repository of that hope, curiously enough, is the oldest member of the Washington family, Ruby Washington, who suffers the memory of witnessing the murder of her beloved intended Ronald after the latter has challenged the reigning white supremists in his small South Carolina community. Ruby is a living martyr, sacrificing her life to the care of her conflicted half-brother Love Easton, her drug-riddled daughter Lida and her two tormented, blighted grandchildren, Ronald Love and Paul "Li'l Pit" LeRoy.
Dry offers no pat answers to racism. His characters carry horrific scars but often choose paths that can only carry them to greater degradation and self-effacement. "Leaving" provides little solace to those who believe that we are winning the battle against drugs in African-American communities. Given the prevalence of anti-social influences in Oakland's African-American community as depicted by Dry, readers may well conclude that our nation has fractured into disparate racial nations. Yet, despite the preponderance of accusatory evidence, "Leaving" never wavers in its belief that human struggle results in victories: hard-earned, seemingly insignificant and even incidental. But victories nonetheless.
(...)
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