Leaving, Roxana Robinson, author, Hannah Choi, narrator
This book explores the meaning of promises kept and promises broken, contracts made and contracts ignored, loyalty and disloyalty, love and the absence of it, respect and disrespect, responsibility and irresponsibility, justice and injustice, as it is portrayed through the actions of the two main characters. Sarah and Warren. In the present day, Sarah, once a curator at a museum, now works on art exhibitions; Warren is an architect. The story begins while they are both at college. Although the narrator does an excellent job reading it with appropriate expression and emphasis in every scene, a few words are mispronounced. Also, although occasionally, the author will insert politics into the narrative, as in climate change, health insurance, housing, and the Iraq war, it is not offensive.
This novel will raise many questions about the meaning of the title. Is it leaving with respect to family and children, marriage and divorce, action or inaction, conversations or silence, life or death? Leaving will be explored regarding relationships, families, life styles, and life itself. Whose life is most important? Whose wishes supersede all others? If we ask others to sacrifice for our sake, and then they ask the same, whose request is ultimately most important? What are we willing to sacrifice to find happiness? Is the ultimate sacrifice necessary or even an option?
Although Sarah and Warren were an item in college, both from similar backgrounds, he made a fatal mistake when he asked the sheltered Sarah to go traveling with him when they graduated. He suggested a trip to a place she feared, a communist country, and instead of asking him about it, she impulsively broke off her relationship with him. At that time, she had already met Rob, the polar opposite of Warren, and she was beginning to prefer him, anyway. With no explanation, Warren, who was thoughtful and kind, and who had expected them to marry, found himself abandoned and alone.
Sarah went on to marry Rob, and years later, Warren met and married Janet. It seemed right at the time for both of them. Sarah had a son, Josh, 30 years old and single. Her daughter Meg was 36 and married with two children. Sarah was a grandmother to Eleanor and Nate. Warren had a daughter who was 24 and single. Lots of time had passed and their lives had changed. However, both marriages seem to have left a lot to be desired for both of them, but while Sarah divorced, Warren remained married for 34 years.
Suddenly, after about 4 decades, Sarah and Warren found themselves in the same theater by happenstance. They rekindled their friendship, with Sarah reprimanding herself and demanding that it go no further than that, even though she was starved for affection and love. After all, Warren was a married man. Then she wondered, if she was not married, was she really doing anything wrong? She decided it was Warren who was doing something wrong. She decided she was blameless, so she willingly participated in their affair. Do you agree with her decision?
When Warren realized that he could not go on with his marriage, and had to marry Sarah, he demanded a divorce from Janet. Janet was as horrified, as Sarah’s husband Rob had been. Neither had expected it. In addition, like Sarah’s children, Warren’s daughter Katrina was incensed. Although Sarah’s relationship with her children suffered, eventually, as she changed her expectations of them, that rift resolved itself, though imperfectly. Would this same problem reconcile itself for Warren and his daughter? Could he risk losing Kat when he abandoned Janet? Could either Janet or Kat change his mind? Did Sarah approve of or want him to divorce Janet? Would she feel guilt or shame or any responsibility for their pain, if he did? In the world they lived, the times dictated that they satisfy their own needs first and put other’s needs last.
Would Warren’s family accept his demands? Would they make demands of their own? Did each character have a right to their own demands for personal happiness, even when the demands contradicted each other? Could one of them expect the other to meet their demands but then refuse to meet theirs? Is it acceptable to break marriage vows after decades of marriage? Was Warren right to simply expect his family, Janet and Katrina, to accept his behavior and set him free? Is divorce simply between the parents, or do the children have a say in the matter? Aren’t they impacted by the decisions of the parents? Aren’t they being divorced as well? Would Kat come around and accept the divorce the way Meg and Josh, Sarah’s children had accepted it? Could Warren stand his life without Kat, if he left Janet, even though he felt he couldn’t stand his life without Sarah? Which one of them was the most important to him?
In today’s world, we are supposed to put our own needs above the needs of others. Our own personal happiness is most important. Do you agree with that philosophy or do you think it is selfish? Ultimately, who was the most selfish character, and who was the least selfish? Did some characters exhibit both selfish and unselfish qualities?
Can happiness be measured? Can guilt or shame be measured? Can selfishness be understood or measured? Is Suicide an act of anger or possibly revenge? What is an appropriate reaction when forced into an untenable situation over which you have no control? Should the person who knowingly breaks up a marriage be held responsible for causing so much disruption and pain? How much loyalty is owed to the person you promised to love till death do you part or how sacred are the marriage vows? Is an unhappy partner entitled to have a change of mind? Is that person doomed to suffer for the rest of their life?
These and other questions will trouble you as you sort through all the possible variations of the meaning of the world leaving. It isn’t simple, after all, is it?