With a foreword by Cesar Chavez’s spokesman and speechwriter Marc GrossmanA high school senior, Jack Duncan dreams of playing college baseball and leaving the political turmoil of the agricultural town Delano behind. Ever since his father, a grape grower, died ten years earlier, he’s suspected that his mother has been hiding the truth from him about the suspicious circumstances surrounding the … surrounding the death.
With his family’s property on the verge of a tax sale, Jack drives an old combine into town to sell it. On the road, an old friend of his father shows up with evidence that Jack’s father was murdered. Armed with this new information, Jack embarks on a mission to discover the entire truth, not just about his father but the corruption endemic in the Central Valley.
When Jack’s girlfriend warns him not to do anything to jeopardize their post graduation plans and refuses to help him, Jack turns to his best friend, Adrian, the son of a boycotting fieldworker who works closely with Cesar Chavez. The boys’ dangerous plan to rescue the Duncan family farm leaves Adrian in a catastrophic situation, and Jack must step up to the plate and rescue his family and his friend before he can make his escape from Delano.
The Road to Delano is the path Jack and Adrian must take to find their strength, their duty, their destiny.
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The year is 1968 and Jack Duncan is a senior in high school who is hoping for a baseball scholarship to get him as far away from Delano as possible. He and his mother are about to lose the farm that his father started before his death in a car accident ten years earlier. The city of Delano is split between the growers – who have the police and the courts on their side – and the migrant workers who were paid minimal salaries and were forced to live in terrible conditions while they were working for the growers. When someone tells Jack that his father was murdered, he starts his own investigation into his father’s death. His mother is upset with him and he is in jeopardy of losing his scholarship. Despite the fact that his mother wants him to quit searching for the truth and get out of Delano, he persists in trying to understand what happened. As he gets further into the corruption in Delano, he has to decide if he can risk his life and college career to find out the truth. Helping his in his quest are his best friend Adrian―the son of a boycotting fieldworker who works closely with Cesar Chavez and his girlfriend Ella who begs him to stay safe but is also proud of what he is doing. When Adrian is thrown into jail on trumped-up charges, it’s up to Jack to try to get him out of jail no matter what it takes.
This book is a well-researched look at life in California and the fight between the growers and the workers. It is based on real history and real characters about an often forgotten event in US history. The three main character, Jack, Ella and Adrian were all well written and I was rooting for their success throughout the novel.
The Road to Delano is the path Jack, Ella, and Adrian must take to find their strength, their duty, their destiny. This novel will make you mad and it will make you cry as it takes you to a different time in the history of our country.
High school baseball star, Jack Duncan is at the top of his game. Scouts are scouting at his games, his girlfriend and him have been together for a while and are talking about their futures and that all changes within a matter of moments.
Jack’s father died years ago, and Jack was younger in that he doesn’t remember much. His father had left on some business, and never returned. It was figured that he had fallen back into his gambling habits and got in with some dangerous men again. Jack’s mother never talked about it. But now, years later they are about to lose the last of what their father had built, their house. His mother will do anything it takes to keep the house.
Jack is sent to sell of the last piece of equipment they have, this should helpfully save the house. On his way into town, he gets sidetracked by an old friend of his father’s and the unthinkable happens. This friend steals the combine and leaves Jack stranded not believing what just happened.
Police papers were left with him before the old man took off on him. He now is questions his fathers death as well as how this old man could have taken off and hidden a combine so quickly. A large piece of farm machinery doesn’t just disappear, and they are not easily hidden.
Jack soon finds out that this is just the beginning of their troubles, and there may be more wrapped up in this all than just a piece of machinery. Was his father really murdered, and truly was not gambling like the long held rumor? Jack’s baseball career is starting to be put on the line as he is now worried about life at home, this friend of his fathers who was found dead and his mothers future.
He becomes entangled with those who have no fear of killing someone. While out hunting for the combine he gets tangled within the fieldworkers and has another problem to now worry about when he sees how they have been treated and that maybe it is closer to home than he thought when he asks his best friend, Adrian for help. Adrian is a son of a boycotting fieldworker and has a close relationship with someone who has a lot of pull and say.
Can Jack and Adrian find the combine, save Jack’s house and still be focused on the baseball stars they are? What dangerous road are they going down, and will the truth of his father come out? Very interesting, good read about California and the migrant workers during the 1930’s-1960’s.
Thank you Historical Fiction Virtual Book Tours, and to John DeSimone for the opportunity to read and review this novel. I have not read much about this part of history and it was interesting and sad to read about.
A story that takes place in the late 1960s with our main character Jack Duncan who is a high school baseball player and has dreams to play in college and leave his current corrupt political town in the dust. However, he finds out that his deceased dad who died 10 years earlier may have been murdered and he goes on to try and find out what happened and for what reasons this happened.
This book sets its pace from the beginning and easy to get into with characters that you can relate and/or connect to. This has small town politics and an atmosphere you can enjoy reading about. The ending was a little abrupt and surprising but overall well done. I did appreciate the authors writing and storytelling as it held a lot of balance and attentive details that everyone can adore. If this genre is your jam, I definitely would recommend.
Favorite Quotes:
Coach never yelled. He just stared at that empty space above a boy’s head as if he were wondering what kind of torture would produce one ounce of common sense in the teenager’s brain.
It’s one thing to be poor. It’s another thing to be forced into poverty by men who don’t care that we’re human beings.
He plays like a turkey before Thanksgiving.
My Review:
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 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.
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.
Thank you HFVBT, John DeSimone and
Rare Bird for a complimentary copy. I voluntarily reviewed this book. All opinions expressed are my own.
The Road To Delano
By: John DeSimone
*REVIEW*
I always find books interesting that teach me something about history that I have never heard of prior. The Road To Delano is just such a book. It’s a fictional story, but there are bits of non fiction as well. The hero, Jack, is soon to graduate and has dreams of college and baseball and his girlfriend, but his biggest goal is to get out of Delano. Jack lives with his mother in a large Victorian that was once magnificent, now fallen into disrepair, on a tiny bit of land where there used to be a thriving vineyard. The land has been lost bit by bit through cheating and scheming and, now, a tax sale. Ten years ago Jack’s father, a prosperous grape grower, died in an alleged accident, and things went south after that. Now, Jack is grown up, and he is approached one night by someone with information about his father’s death not being accidental after all. Jack and his best friend, Adrian, begin to unravel the secrets of Delano and Central Valley( California), and they are not prepared for what they find. The corruption here runs deep, and the treatment of the fieldworkers is deplorable. These workers, along with Cesar Chavez, boycott in the late 1960s. Adrian is the son of a boycotting worker, and he, along with Jack, become involved in all of this. It’s a story of fate, loss, family, human rights, corruption, lies and hope. There is much more to the story than I originally thought, and I learned a lot about the grape worker’s strike and Cesar Chavez. The Road To Delano is unassuming but very compelling with an insightful look at a time and a group of people with a rich history to share with all of us. Do give this one a try!
The Road to Delano by John Desimone
1968 is a pivotal year for both Jack Duncan, our protagonist and Cesar Chavez, the labor leader and civil rights activist, lead the Farm Workers’ strike against the Delano area table grape growers. This political climate is the backdrop for our story in this poignant and thought-provoking story.
Jack Duncan has big league dreams and getting out of a small agricultural town in Central Valley to escape a harsh life struggling and living with his mother as a single parent would be an ideal situation. However, recent information about how his father, a prosperous farmer and a leader in the community may have died, under some questionable circumstances is now adding to the stress as their family struggle to keep their home and land.
As a California native with interest in the history of the of the Mexican and the Filipino migrants, I was glad to read about the inclusion of the Filipinos in the backdrop as part of the movement that supported Cesar Chavez not mentioned much if any at all as part of the essential history. Thank you Desimone for making sure the inclusion of all people who were part of the Delano movement.
I highly recommend this book for an amazing story during a time in our history not well written about yet is a pivoting part of our blemished past when prejudice and inequality was rampant against a group of people taken advantaged of.
Hello, my fellow Book Dragons, let us go back in time to see this evening’s Throwback Thursday Gem. See this? Looks like Emerald and Amethyst, doesn’t it? It’s quite fine workmanship. The leaf is made of Emerald and the Grapes are of Amethyst. It gives a fine, warm feeling to hold them, as though you could conquer anything, as if a current of courage runs through the entire piece. This is Gem Maker John DeSimone’s “The Road to Delano”.
Let’s go back in time with DeSimone is sitting here, the fire is burning evenly and we have our coffee. He’s about to tell us the story of Sugar Duncan, the place Vermont hill country, the year 1933. Sugar needs to go to college and while his fellow students are breaking their backs, Sugar has found an easier way to earn his tuition. He’s playing cards. He earns enough to get through all four years and heads for California.
There he continues to play cards, making his living this way and buying farmland a little at a time, in cold hard cash. Remember this is 1933. A little thing called the “Stock Market Crash” has left most folks with little, if any cash. Sugar, who earned his nickname because of the sweet way he could take your money in a card game, spends his wisely.
He meets the girl of his dreams. Marries her and as a promise to her, stops gambling with cards. He starts a whole new huge gamble. Farming. Sugar’s farm makes good money. He and his wife have a good life and eventually a child, a boy, Jack. Seven years later, something goes horribly awry while Sugar is in the city at a farming convention. He doesn’t come home. He will never come home.
Because this is just about a gambler who makes a good life for his wife and child. This is about a man of integrity and how much we pass on to our children, even if we aren’t always there. This is about farmworkers struggling to make a living wage. This is about Cesar Chavez and his peaceful protests and his faith. This is about right and wrong and how we treat those who do the work and how we treat those who supply the jobs. This book is about life in the real world from 1933 to 1968 in California.
And that is where I am going to stop. Because you need to read this for yourself. I loved this book. DeSimone brings to life the times, the places and the people he writes about. He is a Master Storyteller, a Dragon Feeder of the first order. The clothes, the vehicles, the manner in which activities are carried out and the people who do them, the conversations that are had are all spot on. “The Road to Delano” only had one flaw…it ended. I wanted to know what happened to the survivor’s. Where did they go? What happened to the bad guys? Don’t get me wrong.. the book reads absolutely wonderfully, I just wasn’t ready to let this one go.
Thank you for this, Mr. DeSimone. Thank you! This book is available on Amazon in four different types of media and other fine book retailers. Get it and read it as soon as you can, you will be glad you did!
Until I am caught up from my battle with the Bronchopneumonia Beastie, you may see posts on the weekends from time to time.. I hope you don’t mind! Also, don’t forget to go to my Facebook Page and get in on the March Drawing by answering questions, a different question is posted daily!
As always your humble Book Dragon, Drakon T. Longwitten
I received a copy of this book from #TheRoadtoDelano #JohnDeSimone #HFVBTBlogTours Historical Fiction Virtual Book Tours
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The Road to Delano is set between the 1930’s and the 1960’s in California.
When Sugar Duncan travels down the road to Delano in his Model T, he leaves behind his life in Vermont to become a farmer in California. After winning enough money to buy his land and build a new home with his true love he finally settles down and leaves gambling in the past. He becomes a leader in the community and a prosperous farmer.
After Sugar fails to return home from a business trip his wife and son, Jack, learn that he had died under mysterious circumstances. Flash forward years later and Jack is now a teenager and popular baseball player. An old friend of his fathers shows up one day and tells Jack that he has more information on how his father died and who was responsible. He and his mother are on the cusp of losing their farm after a long-time feud with their neighbors over land and water rights, so Jack must figure out a way to keep their home, in addition to finding out why his father was killed.
I haven’t read many books set during this time period so it was fascinating to read about the issues facing the people of the town. Disputes between the farmers, growers, and teamsters and themes on immigration, migration, and racism are touched on in the book.
Jack was a great character and I liked how the author included wonderful secondary characters, especially his friend Adrien who is Mexican which gave the readers another viewpoint of how migrants were treated then. It’s definitely something that we still talk about today, so it just goes to show you that racism and power-hungry people will never truly be eradicated.
Poignant and insightful, I found The Road to Delano to be a fabulous historical and I truly hope you will check it out.
This is the first that I have read by this amazing author and it definitely will not be my last! Jack is trying to leave Delano behind, but when he discovers his father’s death was no accident, he knows he has to find the answers that will lead him to his killers! Filled with heartwarming emotions, as well as, dangerous situations, this great novel has something to keep each reader intrigued. I look forward to reading more of author John DeSimone’s work! I was given this ARC in exchange for my honest review. These are my own thoughts and opinions!
Jack is a high school baseball player with dreams of making it big in the major leagues. However, life tends to get in the way. His best friend is thrown in jail. Plus, he finds out his deceased father was actually murdered. He must find the strength to save his family, his friend, the vineyard and see his father’s murderer in jail.
Jack is such a tough character. I enjoyed his spunk and determination. Nothing is going to stop him. I also enjoyed the wild ride the author puts you through. The migrant workers strike, the small town politics and even Cesar Chavez making an appearance are enough to keep the tension running high all the way through this book.
This is a fierce and powerful novel, basically about struggling through life when it throws you curve balls! Don’t miss this provocative tale!
I received this novel from the author for a honest review.
Have you read a book that made you feel like it was a movie, playing on the big screen? I find them sometimes and I love them! This one was one of those such novels and I was so happy to be introduced to DeSimone’s work. From start to finish of this novel, I was hooked, taken on a roller coaster ride of ups and downs. The characters were wonderful for their roles in the story and the plot line was instantly gripping.
I absolutely loved Jack’s character. I have two teen sons so I instantly connected with him. He’s a teenager who wants to chase his dreams. But, when a discovery is made about his father’s death, things don’t work out as he wants them to and the pages start to fly as his dreams get put on hold to help his mom save their farm. Add into the mix, Jack’s friend Adrian who’s family are field workers and dealing with a strike……this book as so many wonderfully written twists.
This novel is magnificently written. It’s page turning, soul gripping and absolutely a keeper. DeSimone’s talent is magnified in this story and I highly recommend historical lovers, and thriller lovers alike to grab this book. It’s got a perfect combination of perfectly chiseled characters and a thoroughly researched story line. It’s definitely unforgettable and I’m looking forward to taking another trip within the pages of another piece by this author. Don’t delay. Order your copy today!
*I received a complimentary copy of this book from Publisher and was under no obligation to post a review, positive or negative.* John DeSimone
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My Review
This was my first book by this author JohnDesimone
The road to Delano. My first book I have ever read like this.
It was a really a good book I truly enjoyed the character sugar
His story was truly amazing.. I believe the things he did was out of having a good heart.
But what brought travesty to him.. was truly sad..
Now in 1968 his son jack Duncan is a ball player..
Doing everything he can to save his mother’s and his home and land.
Times are hard.. when you have to sell everything you own to survive..
And you’re taking the last bit of what you have into town..
Only to have it more or less taken away from you.
But you know you’ll do anything in your powers to get it back to save what you and your mom have… because you have a big heart as your dad did.. this story had so much history that I truly believe anyone would enjoy reading the story.. the author did a lot of research and absolutely did an amazing story . This is a historical fiction book. And I have just recently started getting into these and I absolutely love these stories thank you John.
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The Road to Delano was a thought provoking, compelling, intriguing story . Jack Duncan who is a senior in high school has big dreams of getting out of his political town of Delano and playing college baseball.
Jack’s father died 10 years ago and there is new evidence that he was murdered. Jack sets forth to discover the truth, no matter what the cost.
The author did a fantastic job with research on this novel. The descriptive writing of the plight of the migrant farm workers at the time is well evident to this reader.
The characters are well developed , complicated, flawed and well fleshed out.
This was a well crafted story that seamlessly weaved in historical facts that made for an incredible reading experience.
I took a gamble on this book. It seemed a bit outside of what I normally gravitate toward when picking historical fiction, but it focused on a time I don’t often read about. So I went for it. And it was quite a ride. I binged the whole thing in two sittings.
The Road to Delano was a very interesting read. I’ve been thinking about it for a few days, trying to decide who would enjoy this book and how I would explain my reading experience to people (because I don’t rehash the synopsis; nobody has time for that). What I came up with: this book reads like a crime thriller, but with a historical setting. It’s very fast-paced and had me on the edge of my seat a lot. There are so many pressure points between characters and different groups of people, that I was constantly holding my breath waiting for the other shoe to drop. Even the ending felt like hitting a wall at 55 mph. Never a dull moment.
I‘d definitely recommend this book to someone who wants a fast-paced historical fiction story, or someone looking for a fast-paced crime thriller with a different angle than what they might be used to (example: modern day murder mystery, because that’s where my mind immediately goes when I think of this type of a book). Plenty of mystery, plenty of action, with a dash of social commentary.
Today I am on tour with Suzy Approved Book Tours, author John DeSimone, and Rare Bird Lit.
Jack was a little boy when his dad, Sugar, died. They said it was an accident. Although Jack’s mom, Shirley, didn’t believe it was, she didn’t want to cause any trouble so she left it alone. She wanted Jack to move on with his life, get a baseball scholarship and get far away from Delano. Unfortunately for her, Jack inherited the need to do the right thing just like his dad.
Although this story reads like fiction, it is part fiction and part non-fiction. The Delano Grape Strike is an actual event that took place between 1965-1970. This is such an important piece of history especially for farmers. Cesar Chavez is not a fictional character, but a man who was on the frontline of the strike when it came time. Since the strike took place over a five year period, a lot of Cesar’s followers gave up hope, but he never did. I found a quote by Cesar that I really liked, “However important the struggle is and however much misery , poverty and exploitation exist, we know that it cannot be more important than one human life.” Those are such powerful words, and speak strongly to the way Cesar and his people were treated back then.
I knew nothing about this event, and it was so interesting to read about this time period. It’s hard to imagine that workers were treated so poorly, but unfortunately that is the way it was back then. If you want to learn about a little piece of history I suggest picking this one up, and then go online to read more about the strike and Cesar’s people.