The Wash

by Clyde Derrick

Like the torrential flash floods that plague the town of Vista Linda, California, The Wash sweeps you up, drags you beneath its currents and desperately tries to drown you in the silt below. Clyde Derrick's excruciatingly intimate prose follows a boy contending with his mother's disappearance in the flood, a catatonic father, a racist brother, murderous ancestors and a grandmother's mistaken profession in a brothel. The Wash weaves a powerful family tapestry that proves even the strongest of us survive the turmoil as changed, and perhaps wiser, people.

234 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 2014

About the author

Clyde Derrick is a third generation Californian who received his B.A. in English literature and creative writing from Pomona College, where he won the Dole King Kinney Prize for fiction. He earned an MFA in Cinema at the University of Southern California; his lauded short film Strider’s House has aired on PBS. He worked in the film industry as a screenwriter for Universal Pictures as well a story analyst at several studios, and as a development executive for producers Kathleen Kennedy and Frank Marshall. Projects he worked on during his Kennedy-Marshall Company tenure included "The Sixth Sense," "Snow Falling on Cedars" and "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button."

Clyde most recently won the Omnidawn 2020 Fabulist Fiction Chapbook / Novelette contest for his work "The Ghost Trio," published in January 2023. His first novel, "The Wash," won the Sol Books fiction prize in 2011. He has also written experimental fiction which captured third prize in the “Considering Gertrude Stein” competition at UCLA. His original plays "Angel’s Flight" and "Teshuvah," for which he also contributed original music and lyrics, have been produced at Write Act Repertory in Los Angeles. Clyde has worked extensively in nonprofit fundraising, most recently for UC Riverside, and lives in Claremont, California.

Reviews

[Deborah Shelar · Rating 5 out of 5]

First off I would like say I was so excited to win a first read and to thank Clyde Derrick for his promptness in getting The Wash to me. I have got to say this is one of the best books I've ever read. Just as promised The Wash pulled me into the flood. I have been inundated with emotions from the first page to the last. I've laughed, I've cried, I've been taken back in time. I've relived part of my childhood through Cluny. That coming of age time when everything seems to assail you and you aren't sure how to process it all, so you simply accept it; it is part of your life and will help you become who you are going to be, how you will feel about others to life in general. You choose what to take from all those around you to endure your journey. It brought back memories that had been stored away in the depths of my mind; some good, some bad, but all the same a part of me. Thank you again Clyde Derrick for helping me remember my Wash and coming to terms with it.

[Colleen Estep · Rating 5 out of 5]

"The Wash" by Clyde Derrick that I received free through Goodreads was by far the most heart touching book I have read in ages. This era and generation were the ones that I grew up in and I connected immediately. We grew up in one of the many suburbs of Seattle that were popping up everywhere, with the pool, tennis courts and club house. My father the building contractor sold the first home to a black family, there were the petitions, late night calls and at ten I found out that I could beat boys in a fist fight. Not bad for a tomboy girl.
It was a wonderful generation to grow up in, and this book brought it all back, Vietnam, freedom marches, Kent State, the gay movement, equality for women and so much more. Mr. Derrick's story is a wonderful coming of age in a world of changes book. His loss of his mother and knowing why was heartbreaking. Growing up with him as he finds himself is amazing, you'll be drawn in from page one. I understand he has a second book out and I can't wait to buy it, as for "The Wash" five stars are not enough!