The Road to Delano

John DeSimone

Dec 2019 · Highbridge Audio · Narrated by Ramon De Ocampo

About this audiobook

Jack Duncan is a high school senior whose dream is to play baseball in college and beyond-as far away from Delano as possible. He longs to escape the political turmoil surrounding the labor struggles of the striking fieldworkers that infests his small ag town. Ever since his father, a grape grower, died under suspicious circumstances ten years earlier, he's had to be the sole emotional support of his mother. With their property on the verge of a tax sale, Jack drives an old combine into town to sell it so he and his mother don't become homeless. On the road, an old friend of his father's shows up and hands him the police report indicating Jack's father was murdered. Jack is compelled to dig deep to discover the entire truth, which throws him into the heart of the corruption endemic in the Central Valley. Everything he has dreamed of is at stake if he can't control his impulse for revenge. While Jack's girlfriend, the intelligent and articulate Ella, warns him not to do anything to jeopardize their plans of moving to LA, after graduation, Jack turns to his best friend, Adrian, a star player on the team, to help to save his mother's land. When Jack's efforts to rescue a stolen piece of farm equipment leaves Adrian in a catastrophic situation, Jack must bail his friend out of his dilemma before it ruins his future prospects.

Ratings and reviews

I received a free electronic ARC of this excellent novel from BookSIRENS, John DeSimone, and Rare Bird Books. Thank you all for sharing your hard work with me. I have read this novel of my own volition, and this review reflects my honest opinion of this work. John DeSimone writes a fast-paced, compelling story with heart. He is an author I will follow. The Road to Delano is an intense look into the politics and realities that infested the lush valleys of Southern California in the late 1960s. Water has always been more important than land in the U.S. Southwestern and Western desert and high plains. Still today there is continual drought and growing populations that need water to live, and even small towns without a creek or a seep will grow until a dire summer makes it impossible to maintain life there. Farmers have a problem, as they are the salad bowl of their communities, and if they are without water, their communities are going to bed hungry. But with all the water in the world, those tables would still be empty without the workers who plant and prune and harvest those crops. Cesare Chavez is often misunderstood. I have heard perfectly normal educated people refer to him as a communist, a socialist, etc. Yet without his work in California, we would be living in a much different world. It took his many hard examples in peaceful protest to make any headway in improving the lives of those persons who help bring the fruits of their labor to our tables. Many of the arguments for both sides of this problem are presented in this novel, as are the problems and expectations of the teenagers who were facing adulthood in that era of Vietnam and striking workers. This is an excellent book, one I am happy to refer to friends and neighbors.

This was my introduction to John DeSimone and I found his storytelling to be absorbing and deeply insightful. He implanted me so thoroughly in his tale I felt the scorching heat as well as tasted the bitterness of the times in my mouth. I was vaguely aware of Cesar Chavez as a child of the ’70s, although as a white child, his name was not spoken reverently in my parents’ home and as was typical, so often paired with several unflattering slurs that I likely thought it was part of the man’s name. Embarrassing true story, and it happened more than once. The storylines were well-crafted, profoundly perceptive, distressingly realistic, and adroitly captured the tumultuousness of the period as well as the unfettered arrogance, assumed privilege, blatant corruption, and abuse of power enjoyed at all levels. I remember gaining that same sense of staggering epiphany and awareness of the unfairness and hypocritical inhumanity experienced that was by the teenaged characters as if waking up to the not so well kept secret as a naïve and poorly informed bumpkin, and marveling at how entire communities silently allowed it to not only continue but to flourish. John DeSimone’s powerful and emotive word choices hit all the feels and a sharp punch to the gut while reminding me of that oh, so, uncomfortable time. I found myself deeply invested in this hauntingly unsettling tale and fearful for all the characters as I knew it wasn’t going to end well for anyone. And along the way, I was well-schooled on baseball, card-playing, and grape growing in the most interesting fashion. Anyone who can get to me like that deserves far more than 5-Stars.

About the author

John DeSimone is a published writer, novelist, and teacher. He's been an adjunct professor and holds an MFA in creative writing from Spalding University. He is the author of the critically acclaimed novels Leonardo's Chair and No Ordinary Man.

A graduate of Carnegie Mellon, Ramon de Ocampo is best known for his television work, especially for his recurring roles on many hit TV shows, including The West Wing, Notorious, 12 Monkeys, and Sons of Anarchy. A longtime audiobook narrator, Ramon is an Audie Award nominee and has won eleven AudioFile Earphones Awards.