Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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8 of 8 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
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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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Richard Dry has just arrived!, July 25, 2002
Richard Dry's debut novel, Leaving takes us three generations deep touching history harkening back to the era of civil rights and wrenching wrongs. This is about a family in turmoil and their quest to make in against harrowing odds, and their story being told in a poignant and persuasive way by this author. The matriach and central figure of this tale is Ruby Washington, who struggles to keep her family intact against insurmountable odds battling the signs of the times. The year is 1959, the era of sharechopping just a stone's throw from yesteryear, but close enough for Ruby to remember how hard it was for her parents. Unable to cope with the vile and villanous world she lives in, she decides to leave her native South Carolina for foreign territory, taking with her Easton, her thirteen-year old half brother. To complicate the issue, she's pregnant, newly widowed, and weary from the violence that forced her to flee in the first place.What amazes me about this story, and others like it is how the legacy of the Black female continue to be the anchor of strength, and how writers uphold this truth. In this case, Mr. Dry give creedance to the importance of strong familial ties and what it takes to persevere. But perseverance in the face of fate usually renders one to uncontrolable circumstances, and Ruby succumbs to it during the turbulance of 1960s Oakland. Civil rights activism, the Black Panther Party, and drugs only add fuel to fires raging too prevalently to eradicate without reasonable cause. Through the years Ruby adheres to the 'rob Peter, pay Paul syndrome to make ends meet amid angst hoping for better days. Subsequently, Ruby gives birth to daughter Lida who, as time progresses, has a family of her own often repeating the problems she experienced with her mother. To compound the aforementioned, Lida struggles with a drug problem and the burden of a hurtful family secret. It doesn't get any better as Lida's sons must strive to make ways for themselves, criss-crossing the nation searching for acceptance and legitimacy. The tone and tenor for this family throughout this saga gives the reader reason not to abandon it, despite the hefty 452 pages. As such, the book starts out slow and a little uneven, but gains balance in the later chapters. Books of this magnitude where there's vestiges of historic harangue amid what it took to keep families intact tend to make for good storylines as long as the characters support a moving plot. Richard Dry, in my opinion delivers. He gives us not nly a good story, but a sense of realism that forces you to wonder could things have been different otherwise. When you think along those lines you know that you've read a good book. Read this one for yourself and draw your own conclusions!
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