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Title: Madrone

Author: Jack B. Rochester

Narrator: Leonard Mailloux

Format: Unabridged

Length: 12 hrs and 28 mins

Language: English

Release date: 10-07-16

Publisher: Joshua Tree Press

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 1 votes

Genres: Fiction, Historical

Publisher's Summary:

The year is 1969. After an interminable four years under the boot of the US military, 24-year-old Nathaniel Hawthorne Flowers is ready for his real life to begin. His plans are straightforward: spend as much time as he can with his girlfriend, Jane; finish college; and become a writer.

But when Nate is denied admission to UC Santa Cruz, he decides that a bachelor's degree isn't necessarily the path he's laid out for himself. He can learn about literature on his own, and he'll have more time to write if he isn't in school.

His choice doesn't sit well with everybody. Jane's father asks Nate how he'll support Jane without a degree. Jane's mentor offers to pull some strings at SC if Nate agrees to become his student. And when a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity presents itself, even Nate is tempted by the allure of conventionally defined success.

Picking up where Wild Blue Yonder left off, Madrone inspires us to consider how far we'll go to remain true to ourselves.

Members Reviews:

The story just gets better.

After a couple of aborted starts with Wild Blue Yonder, I finally got into it and I was well and truly hooked. Although I was just a toddler when the events described in WBY and Madrone occur, I was born just close enough to them to have a certain affinity for them. While I enjoyed WBY, I found I really loved Madrone. Other reviews have noted it's artsy, mystical, and trippy nature. They are correct, but beneath this lies a compelling story with a wonderfully drawn lead character. The supporting cast is also very good, but Nathaniel mike the book and the series, The narrator for both books is also exceptionally talented and adds to the story. I can't wait until the next book in the series comes out this Autumn.

Couldn't put it down

Madrone continues Nathaniel Hawthorne Flowers' coming of age tale, leaving behind the sprawling epic of friendship and adventure in Wild Blue Yonder for a more introspective journey through love and self-purpose.

The sequel retains some of the best qualities of the first, namely cultural and literary references, deep discussions about the meaning of life, beautiful, scenic locations and the camaraderie shared amongst a group of friends - all set to a soundtrack straight out of the late 60's. In fact, the novel plays more like a film than a book, as the music creates a richness of mood to many of the key moments in the story. For Nate, the music intertwines with his writing, creating a feedback loop of inspiration and expression. Nowhere is this more apparent than when Nate discovers Van Morrison's "incredibly beautiful musical spiritual poetry-music" and instantly feels an artistic bond that pushes him toward the ultimate goal of his writing.

Rochester builds his story around meditations on the meaning of life as experienced through the main characters, Nate and Jane. They discuss the essence of what it is to be a young person, to be a writer and to be in love, as we would imagine Chinese philosophers pondered long ago while crafting the I Ching. Nate and Jane's connection, as symbolized when they sit and interlock fingers to "Be Close," demonstrates what it is like to find one's soulmate and one's best friend combined into a single person.

All along, however, Nate struggles to both do the right thing and know what that right thing is.