Leaving A Novel [Paperback]

Winner of the Joseph Henry Jackson Award
Pushcart Editors' Prize Nominee

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,Leavingis a blend of history and intimately-observed everyday life.

Richard Dryis an English instructor at Las Positas College and a former Senior Mental Health Assistant who worked with emotionally disturbed youth.Leavingwon the Joseph Henry Jackson Award from the San Francisco Foundation and Intersection for the Arts and was nominated for the Pushcart Editor's Prize. Dry lives with his wife in El Cerrito, California.

1. How does the structure ofLeavingcontribute to the themes explored in the novel?
2. What do the characters attempt to leave in this novel other than physical places? Can the act of leaving be applied to historical and psychological contexts?
3. To what degree are the characters successful or unsuccessful at leaving?
4. What role do the slave narratives and historical documents play in the book? Look at each Santa Rita chapter and discuss the relationship it has to the dlS±