John DeSimone

With thanks to the LibraryThing Early Reviewers scheme, I received an unabridged (14 hours!) recording of John DeSimone's Road to Delano, originally published in 2019. I was able to listen to some of the historical novel on a recent road trip. At first, I was not taken by the narrator (Ramon de Ocampo): I thought, "Oh! I cannot take 14 hours of this!" But it turned out that de Ocampo was a wise casting choice due to the (Mexican) Spanish that's sprinkled throughout (although I noted inconsistencies in what sort of "accent" was employed when Spanish words are pronounced). (Actually, I must note that I very much dislike the tendency of audiobook readers to take on different "voices" when they're reading conversations. Here, the women's voices are especially ineffective.) What ended up bothering me even more were the digressions--the moments of incredible detail (whether about a baseball game or a card came or a conversation) that just did not sustain my attention when read aloud. (They may be fine in printed form.) I was also not impressed by the prose that inclines toward the purple or by the occasional redundancies (I can't recall them all, since I was driving, but I made mental note of an open window being closed [can you close a closed window?] and a character striding alone through a doorway [is the "alone" necessary?]). Anyway, a better editor could have cleaned up those areas--and could perhaps have tightened the text altogether. My plan is to try to track down a library copy of the printed book, because I don't want to spend the time required to listen to the end of the story: since I feel the story must be more effective in written than spoken form, I'd like to get it over with more quickly.

And I'm aware that I'm commenting on my responses to the (listened-to) text--instead of sharing anything about the story itself. (I'm curious now to read some other reviews by way of noting what they emphasize.) In an ideal world, the sorts of things I mentioned here would support the storyline--instead of detracting from it.… (more)

I received this book on audio CD -- as requested -- and it's the first one I've listened to on my car CD player. This caused a problem because I usually listen to audio books at 1.2 or 1.4 speed. Though the narrator was excellent, the story seemed to drag until I realized it was simply a speed issue.

This is not a murder mystery. There is a murder, and there is a mystery, but there's no effort to solve the crime. In fact, the death/murder of Jack's father isn't mentioned again until halfway through the book. There's no good resolution for that, either, at least not to the satisfaction of a one-hour procedural drama junkie such as myself.

Once I resolved that the story was not about solving the murder, I was able to sit back and enjoy it. Be forewarned, though, you're going to spend a huge amount of time at baseball games and poker tables.

I didn't not like the ending. At all.… (more)