From the Publisher
"Devastating and triumphant, The Road to Delano is a meticulous historical novel that honors the bravery and sacrifices of those who stand up to injustice, even at great peril to their own well being."
—Foreword Reviews
"An original and deftly crafted novel that showcases author John DeSimone's impressive flair for originality and the kind of narrative storytelling style that keeps the reader's total attention from cover to cover."
—Midwest Book Review
"The Road to Delano is a worthwhile read on a couple of levels: it’s a wonderful visit to John Steinbeck’s California and a valuable history lesson we may have missed in high school when were we not paying attention—or never taught at all."
—BookTrib
"I truly enjoyed this fictional journey through labor history and the development of a young man's conscience. Recommended."
—Book Sirens
"This whole story is an absolute triumph!"
—Thehauntedfae Book Blog
"...a fast-paced thriller with a social conscience."
—Online Book Club
"The Road to Delano is a compelling story that will leave readers thinking about its surprise ending long after the final confrontation comes to a head."—
California Bookwatch
"Five Stars. Outstanding writing, fast-paced. A must-read for people who love history AND baseball."
—ReedsyDiscovery
Kirkus Reviews
2021-05-24
A high school boy is thrust into the middle of a well-known farm workers strike in DeSimone’s historical novel.
It’s 1968, and high school senior Jack Duncan dreams of landing a baseball scholarship and leaving the small farming town of Delano, California, far behind. The town holds bad memories, such as the fact that he grew up without his father, grape grower and gambler Sugar Duncan, who died in San Francisco 10 years earlier. Since then, the Duncan vineyard has fallen on hard times, shrinking as Jack’s mother is forced to sell it off acre by acre. As tax bills mount, it’s uncertain if the family will even be able to keep what’s left. When Jack finds evidence that his father was, in fact, murdered, he launches his own investigation into the history and corruption of Delano and the wider Central Valley. He finds a partner in his best friend, Adrian Sanchez, whose own dad is active in the efforts of the United Farm Workers to secure better pay for agricultural laborers. A strike has created tensions in the local community, with the strikers pitted against the growers and their friends in the police force. Jack is harassed by the cops, Adrian is arrested, and more violence seems inevitable—the sort of conflict that could threaten Jack’s future beyond Delano. DeSimone’s elegant prose style captures the hardscrabble environment of Delano in the ’60s: “West Delano was the rough side of a piece of sandpaper—streets of grit and potholes, trash overflowing in cans at curbs. Dead lawns if they had grass, old cars stacked four to a front yard, a tired looking place.” Overall, Jack’s story provides a harrowing glimpse into the agricultural workers’ movement of the later part of the decade, and it will likely introduce many readers to an underexplored chapter of American history; it even features famed labor leader Cesar Chavez as a character. At times, DeSimone’s tone veers toward the melodramatic, but in general, the novel remains compelling throughout.
An often gripping, if sometimes-sentimental, novel of the American labor movement.
