MixedThe RumpusIf you come away from reading The Leavers with a sense of disconnect, that’s no surprise—disconnectedness is its central theme, its structural and stylistic touchpoint, and the emotional engine driving its main characters. … When the truth is revealed, it comes freighted with a general lack of agency that strains credulity. Polly, previously portrayed as a relentlessly resourceful soul striving her way illegally from Minjian to New York, decides a few forgotten and disconnected phone numbers are enough to conclude ‘my family was lost.’ Other central figures maintain inexplicable silences … For all the challenges of the book, the real takeaway is Ko’s bristling talent. Her characters are constitutionally adverse to action, her scenes overburdened with exposition, yet a sense of engagement pervades, a soulful sincerity that pulls the reader through.
