Say Goodbye for Now

I got this book last evening when it dropped into my Kindle. I read it in less than a day. I couldn't not. It's the kind of story that, while you're reading it and the dogs have to go out or you have to eat dinner, it's an annoyance to have to stop to attend to those everyday events that you normally look forward to. It's the kind of book that, when you know you're getting to the end, you read a couple of pages and stop, and then go back to it and read a couple of more pages. You know the end of the story is coming, but you don't want it to get here.Catherine Ryan Hyde is a masterful story teller. She has hundreds of stories to tell and will tell them all, I believe, just as excellently as she has told this one. I have read most of her books, and I have loved them all, but this one is the best one. Full stop.Bravery and courage are two different things, and the difference is drawn so well in this story. Courage is mental. Bravery is physical. Each of the characters in this book have bravery and courage, in different amounts, for different reasons and at different times. Abuse, interracial relationships, fear of the unknown and fear of what you know is out there, are all examined here. Leave-taking and coming together are examined. Patience is examined. Love is at the root of it all.Ryan Hyde's books usually involve animals in their plots. This one is no different, but the involvement of the animals brings out the courage of the characters. With the exception of one brave act by one of the animals, the courage and bravery rests with the humans in this book - to face uncertainty, hatred, bigotry, abuse.Read every word of this book. Every word of this book is important. This book is a masterpiece.

So here's the bad news: Every Catherine Ryan Hyde book has to end and that moment just never stops sucking. But the great thing is that she keeps writing and sharing these amazing soul stories with us.What I love/hate most about this book is how timely the message is, even though it's set in the fifties and sixties. I wish the prejudices from which these characters suffer were as unimaginable as their lack of iPads. Unfortunately, the part that hit me the hardest was how deeply we hold onto these ideas that hurt other people. How hard it is for us to let them go.But here's what Catherine does for us and why she is such an inspiring human to me: Each and every one of her books is a voice for the future. Each time she tells a story, she's doing a lot more than entertaining us. She's asking us to imagine a world that's quite a bit better than the one we have right now. She's asking us to believe in humanity. To find the tiny pinpricks of light in the darkness and actively seek to light more because that's the only way anything ever changes.And it DOES change. Though we have so far to go still, this is no longer the same world that wasn't ready for Calvin and Lucy.The future is with Catherine, in her unshakable faith in humans.And so am I.

When I finished Say Goodbye my first thought was what a great book this is. My second thought was surprise. I don't remember ever seeing a book that was rated entirely with five stars. The book deserves this rating. It's themes were interesting and well supported. The characters showed intense feelings that were appropriate to the circumstances. I know I can count on Catherine Ryan Hyde giving me hours of reading pleasure.The basic theme explored in this book is good versus evil. The setting is Texas 1959 and segregation is the norm. Interracial marriage is forbidden.Dr Lucy is a medical doctor who cares for injured and abandoned animals and the occasional criminal to help pay for the animals she saves. She's a prickly sort of person who prefers the company of animals to people.Pete is young boy on his way to go fishing when he discovers an injured dog off the side of the road. It's a big dog and his back leg looks wrong. The problem is how to transport him to the doc. He remembers an old wagon in his garage that might just work. He feels a bond with this dog and doesn't want to leave him but knows he must. When he returns, Pete is able to maneuver the animal into the wagon and heads out to the doc.Justin, who has just moved into the area, sees Pete and the dog and asks if he can walk along with them. As they walk, they get to know one another. It seems they might be friends. Pete's dad doesn't agree. He tells Pete to keep to his own kind (white people) and whips him so hard with the belt he draws blood.I really like Pete. He has a way about himself that is honest and straightforward. It's amazing that he was able to survive growing up with a father who is so brutal. It gets so bad for him that he winds up living with Miss Lucy when his dad disowns him and tells him to never come back.There is so much going on in this story, I can't really do it justice in a review. If you like a story that is compelling and really grabs you right from the beginning and doesn't let go to the very end, read this book now. It is well worth the time it takes to read

From the cover, I expected this to be a doggy tale about boy finding an injured wolf/dog and boy struggling to keep said wolf/dog with the inevitable happy or sad ending. But although the semi wild wolf/dog is the important factor in bringing all the other characters together in the book, this story is so much more. It is a story of friendship and love, racial prejudice and bullying in late 1950s America.The main character Is Pete, a 12 year old boy living with his bullying father after his mother walked out. You can’t help but love Pete. Although there is no mention of Pete having a medical condition in the book, he reminds me so much of my own autistic teenage son, i.e. his ability to see the good in everyone and not judge people by their colour or disabilities, his need to please everyone and apologise for things when he does not need to, and the fact that he matures into a vulnerable but caring young adult. But then again in the late 1950s nobody talked about autism or any of the other conditions many of our young people struggle with today.The book is an emotional read, both happy and sad in parts, but I absolutely loved ii and read it very quickly over a couple of days (thanks to the Christmas/New Year break). I will certainly try more from this author.

On one side, this is a story about racism and the sheer brutality by which some ignorant people live their lives, including stark child abuse. On the other, much more intensely studied, it's a story about four people, two adults and two teenagers, who transcend the ugliness of the world they live in and are simply good at heart, with caring for others, whether human or animal, at the core of their being. In that, it is heartening - no matter how bigoted, bleak and harsh the world may seem at times, there are still genuinely good people in it. The book may be set in 1959 to the late 1960s in rural Texas, but it could just as easily be set today, in 2018, anywhere in the world. Racism and bigotry are still with us, but thankfully so to are love and caring beyond class, colour, creed or sexuality.

Running from a tragic past, Dr Lucy Armstrong leads a solitary life on an isolated ranch in Texas. Unfortunately it’s 1959 and the townsfolk have no interest in a lady doctor so Lucy chooses to utilise her skills in caring for abandoned animals instead.The townsfolk are even less welcoming of the newly arrived African American, Calvin Bell and his son, Justin.When Pete Solomon, a neglected twelve-year-old boy finds a wounded wolf-dog hybrid on the side of the road, he is told to take him to the reclusive Dr Lucy, who cares for stray animals. On the way he meets and strikes up a conversation with Justin, who shares his concern for the dog. This tentative friendship leads to a violent confrontation later between Pete and his abusive and racist father who warns him to stay away from Justin, something that Pete, doesn’t have the heart to do when he see Justin again.The following day, after being spotted walking together by one of his father’s vindictive friends, Pete finds Justin barely conscious on the side of the road after being beaten and left for dead by a group of men. Pete takes Justin to Dr Lucy’s house, an act which sets off a series of events that will change their lives forever.Say Goodbye For Now is my fourth book by the author which sees her tackling the difficult subject of racial prejudice in the late 1950’s. Once again she manages to bring together a unique cast of characters that sneak into your heart and entreat your senses to read on. The chapters alternate between Pete and Lucy’s point of view and is divided into three parts that spans a period of eight years.Taking place in rural Texas between 1959 to 1967, the author beautifully brings together a disparate group of people who find love, healing and acceptance as they struggle with hate and prejudice in a small community.Lucy is an eccentric, strong and outspoken woman. Life’s many disappointments and people in general have left her somewhat jaded, cynical and closed off from forming new attachments. In spite of herself however, she finds herself opening up to Pete, Justin and Calvin. Unfortunately in 1959, it was not widely accepted for a white woman to befriend an African American man and the townsfolk waste no time in making their displeasure known.Pete is an endearing, sensitive compassionate boy who frequently finds himself the focus of his father’s wrath, more so since he has been laid off from work following an injury. I found the scenes where Pete’s father beat him particularly hard to read - his fear coupled with his father’s anger were palpable. Like Leonard, in Love in the Present Tense, Pete tugged at my heartstrings from the offset. I found myself sobbing uncontrollably at his plight and completely forgetting that this was just a book. So real were these characters for me.In contrast to Pete’s loveless and volatile relationship with his father, we have the deep bond shared by Justin and his father Calvin, especially since the death of Justin’s mother several years ago. As villains go, Pete’s father is a particularly nasty antagonist, whose relationship with Pete deteriorates throughout the course of the book. While this is mainly due to the father’s own inadequacies, it is further inflamed by Pete’s friendship with Justin, which ultimately leads him to commit a despicable act.The author has taken on a difficult topic (that is as relevant today as it was in the Civil Rights era) with dignity, grace and candour. Racial tensions in the 1950’s and 1960’s in the South frequently ran high, and Hyde realistically portrays the difficulties faced by interracial couples during a time of miscegenation when couples faced violence and persecution before a change in the law and and cultural attitudes finally caught up with them. Reference is given to the Supreme Court ruling Loving vs. Virginia case which remains a timely story even in today’s world of racial injustice and violence.This was a tense and compelling read that I had a hard time putting down. My only criticism was over the ending which seemed a tad rushed or perhaps it was simply because I was reluctant to say goodbye to Pete & Co which is always the case with Ms Hyde’s characters.Despite many aspects that will tug at the readers heartstrings, it’s important to note that this book contains several dark themes consisting of child abuse, violence, racial tensions, injustice, interracial relationships, miscegenation, civil rights, segregation, sexism etc

Really well-written story, set around the 1950s, in which the author manages to portray a fairly damning social commentary on racial prejudice in America. A totally moving and deep fiction that involves the reader in the characters' individual stories, yet doesn't sink into mushy sentiment. I like that the author didn't provide a suitably literary nasty ending. What a great writer. Uplifting, as with the other books of hers that I have read. It provides hope for a future in an America where, in fact, humanity is fighting a losing battle with capitalism gone mad.

Lovely book set in 50s America in a tiny town where racism is rampant. A young boy saves a wolfdog cross that only the local animal loving female doctor will agree to treat, and on the way to her house he meets a new friend. Thus starts the journey to a new family for the boy with a kind heart & a moral compass that his awful father can’t shake, & the lonely, disheartened doctor. But can they bridge the racial divide in 50s America? I loved this book, moving, realistic but hopeful, reminding us that families aren’t always blood relatives.