Leaving A Novel
Leaving A Novel by Richard Dry, published by Macmillan on March 19, 2002, is a first edition work that spans 452 pages. This novel follows the journey of newly-widowed and pregnant Ruby Washington and her thirteen-year-old half-brother, Easton, as they leave rural South Carolina in 1959 for Oakland, California. Ruby seeks to build a new life for her family, but the turbulent events of the 1960s challenge her aspirations and threaten to tear them apart.
Readers will find a narrative that explores themes of family life and the impact of historical events on personal relationships. As Ruby raises her daughter Lida and Easton, their lives become increasingly complicated by the changing dynamics of their Oakland neighborhood. Easton’s involvement in civil rights activism and Lida’s struggle with a painful family secret highlight the challenges faced by African American families during this period. The story ultimately reflects the broader experiences of displacement and the search for belonging across generations.
Official synopsis Publisher
In 1959, newly-widowed and pregnant Ruby Washington and her thirteen-year-old half brother, Easton, board a bus in rural South Carolina, destined for Oakland, California. There, far from the violent events that forced her to flee her home, Ruby hopes to make a new life for her family.
Ruby gives birth to a daughter, Lida, and strives to raise the girl and Easton. But as their Oakland neighborhood changes during the turbulent 1960s, the three are driven apart by forces that Ruby cannot control. Easton becomes involved with civil rights activism and the Black Panthers; Lida, keeping a hurtful family secret to herself, spirals into a cycle of dependency and denial. Finally, Lida’s sons Love LeRoy and Li’l Pit must fend for themselves in the inhospitable streets of America, leaving one city for another, searching for a home.
Centered around three generations of a family and set against the larger dispossession of African-Americans, Leaving is a blend of history and intimately-observed everyday life-a remarkable debut novel.
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