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| | washingtonpost.com: On the Edge |
 | | Richard Dry's Leaving, a well-crafted and haunting debut novel set in Oakland, Calif., is in part an attempt at answering that question. |
 | | Somehow, in the hands of Dry, a former mental health worker who teaches English at a local community college, the story of this memorable set of characters is soft and delicate and, ultimately, uplifting. |
 | | He writes from a place of sympathy, and as a result, his well-drawn characters are never less than human even at their most abhorrent or pathetic. |
| www.washingtonpost.com /ac2/wp-dyn/A29940-2002Mar14?language=printer (761 words) |
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