Book Title: Life Long by Ronald L. Ruiz
Category: Adult Fiction, 268 pages
Genre: Literary Fiction
Publisher: Amika Press
Release date: June 9, 2017
Tour dates: Sept 18 to Oct 6, 2017
Content Rating: PG-13 + M (For foul language and questions about the existence of God)

 

Book Description

Ray Lopez is on the run with a duffel bag full of cash. Both drug dealers and the police are after him. But Ray is not a criminal. His last brush with the law was over traffic tickets. Recently released from the hospital with a diagnosis of schizophrenia, he is haunted by voices, auditory hallucinations, that frighten him and cause him to question his every move.

Ray’s journey from California to Laredo is perilous. Like so many Americans before him, he travels through unfamiliar territory with no clear way of knowing who will help and who will harm him. And he may well find himself on the wrong side of the border with a mind that has no borders.

 

My Review

I chose to read this book after receiving a free copy. All opinions in this review are my own and completely unbiased.

Life Long started out a little slow but once I got into it, once Ray was on the run, it got very good all the way until the end. Ruiz does a good job of describing life with schizophrenia as well as delving into some of the social problems for Mexican Americans.

Poor Ray lost his parents and then his grandma. On top of that, he has a psychotic break and is in the hospital for a couple months where he finds out he has schizophrenia and must take his medicine every day in order to keep the voices away. He doesn’t like hearing the voices, they terrify him, so he obsesses over having his medication with him.

If Ray didn’t have a criminal cousin, he’d be a productive citizen but instead he ends up on the run from the police and drug dealers. He finds himself in Mexico with no passport or Visa so he can’t get back into America. And now he’s running out of medicine. Ray is alone and desperate. It was difficult reading about his circumstances not knowing how in the world he was going to get out of the mess he was in. Or would he?

I definitely recommend Life Long. From what I’ve learned about schizophrenia, Ruiz seems to have captured the thoughts a person may have to deal with. He has also captured some of the social problems in our world today.

 

Praise for Life Long:

“Ruiz proves to be a very sharp social critic, and no detail gets past him in this richly imagined book. A highly recommended novel that appeals to both the heart and the head.”
– Kirkus Reviews

 

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Meet the Author

 

 Born and raised in Fresno California – Educated at St. Mary´s College California, University of California Berkeley, University of San Francisco – Practiced law from !966 to 2003 as a Deputy District Attorney, a criminal defense attorney, and a Deputy Public Defender – Appointed to the California Agriculture Labor Relations Board by Governor Jerry Brown in 1974 and later served as the District Attorney of Santa Cruz County California.

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