Mockett knows how to write beautiful prose that evokes sensual imagery especially when describing different plants and birds (and frogs) in the garden, but it's a bit of a letdown when she leaves the story unresolved in key human elements at the end.

The story is set right before and during Covid-19 lockdown phase when the entire world was grappling with uncertainty, death and phenomena of "social distancing".. It's an intriguing set-up for the unnamed female narrator of this story, who is separated form her husband and 2 daughters for 9 months because she came to San Fransisco (U.S.) to take care of her mother and then gets stuck in U.S. because of the travel embargo.

The narrator is a Japanese-American woman. Husband, Thomas, is a South Korean man (I think). The daughters, Sophie and Peta, are teenagers below the age of 14 (if I remember correctly). They live in Hong Kong, while the narrator is stranded in San Fransisco. They are communicating via internet (zoom or skype).

There's friction between the husband and wife, even in their internet conversations. The husband is characterized as a distant man who likes the sound of his own voice and ideas, while suffering the burden of taking care of their daughters and working from home (WFH). He and the daughters are not happy that the narrator is away, and the way narrator describes the issue, it seems like she has had to prioritize her mother in her hour of need over the objections of her husband time and time again. She frequently travels from Hong Kong to San Fransisco to take care of her mother.

The reader learns that the mother has dementia and had to be put in a nursing home / hospice care because of her failing health. The narrator is living in the mother's house (where the narrator grew up) which has a neglected garden.

She hasn't had sex with her husband in 10 years.

She has not had an orgasm ever (till the Tree Doctor).

She doesn't sound like a caring mother when talking to her daughters (zero concern, trapped in her own thoughts).

She doesn't know who her real father is (she does by the end. It's an American 'Carl Joseph').

She was a writer, is currently unable to finish a second novel and is teaching remotely from home.

Plus, she has plenty of time on her hands because all that she does is give an hour-long tutorial to her students over skype/zoom ("Tale of Genji"). She starts thinking of renovating / recharging / restoring the garden.

She goes to a nursery and is introduced to a landscaper (also unnamed) who is referred to simply as 'The Tree Doctor'. The guy is a player, is probably in love with his ex-wife, and has no intention of 'planting his roots' anywhere - that of course, does not mean he is not into seed plantation. This is a fling that takes up a large part of the novel, so much so that June Angela's soothing voice starts to annoy when the narrator meanders off into frequent soliloquy on birds, plants, trees, her moods, her thoughts and feelings that lack self-introspection and self-awareness and comes across as shallow and self-serving.

This is especially true in the mother-daughter relationship explored in the novel - where the narrator spends considerable amount of time thinking about her mother's illness (dementia), her decline, her vision board, her garden and all the memories associated with her mother - showing that part of the reason she wants to restore the garden is because she doesn't want to let her mother go, and wants to keep her memory alive. But at the end of the novel, the poor mother's death (from Covid-19) is brushed off in a sentence of 'collecting her box' from nursing home - when did she die? What did the narrator do with the body? Was there even a funeral? When did it happen? The reader doesn't find out.

Secondly, when at the end of the novel, the narrator has arranged for her husband and daughters to come join her in U.S. (after travel embargo is lifted), there is no mention of the mother, the narrator's relationship (or lack thereof) with the husband. So anyone who has spent the novel thinking that there would be some resolution of some kind, or some conversation of some kind between the two, will be disappointed. There is none. He sleeps on the couch. He wants to play Monopoly, she wants to play Pictionary so they end up playing Pictionary with the daughters. I don't know what that reveals about them. She had a nice time. I don't know how the husband felt. The narrator is not even curious whether the husband has someone on the side (fling, affair, mistress), especially since he worked 'long hours' back in Hong Kong and they had a sexless marriage. But they are all laughing at the end of the fifth game.

Thirdly, is the narrator keeping the mother's house, and shifting everyone to U.S. or is this a temporary solution to loneliness before she sells off everything to go back to Hong Kong with the family? This is left open-ended because in the last lines of the novel, even though 'several years have passed', the narrator 'wakes up' and 'reads the news' but one doesn't find out where she is. - in U.S. or Hong Kong (and whether the husband was in the same bed and where are the daughters - at home or in college). It seems like she is in the U.S. ("a vibration in the house - the sound of her children moving from bedroom to the office where she's finishing this new book she's been writing") but that's an assumption, nothing is spelt out. The reader doesn't find out anything about this future scenario other than the news about the Tree Doctor.

Fourthly, the Tree Doctor donates 20 rare stock varieties of her mother's 'Einstein' cherry tree (a rare variety resistant to drought) anonymously to San Diego - and varietal is also available for sale. This is a nice ending to his story line and also that of the tree. Even though you'll be left to wonder what their sexual encounter is supposed to mean within the context of a woman.in an obviously unhappy marriage who doesn't even talk to her husband anymore beyond compromised pleasantries.

If the novel is supposed to show that a woman takes control of her life after experiencing isolation due to Covid-19, I didn't see an empowered woman at the end, nor a self-aware woman of substance.

Mockett uses Tale of Genji's character 'Ukifune' (who is saved from 'near-suicide' by either Buddha, evil spirit or as the narrator likes to believe the very tree she was found under) to probably show how the narrator is 'saved' by nature (her mother's garden) and finds a new cold iron will but since nothing is resolved by the end, one is left to wonder what the future holds for the narrator and her family. Otherwise, if there was a subtext to "The Tale of Genji" and the narrator's situation, I didn't get it.

I felt sorry for the dead mother, who is used as a mere plot point for the narrator's shallow thoughts.

Descriptions of the impact of Covid-19 epidemic on people, work, society is well-done. Descriptions of plants and trees and conversations around them show the author's keen eye for details.

'She isn't really asking because she expects Sophie to know. She's asking so that Sophie will remember that she asked this question on a cold spring morning in California an hour before they went inside and decided to make pancakes for the family. The memory will come back to Sophie maybe in another decade when she needs the question in her own mind, the way she needed to see her mother's vision board scattered around the house and in the garden. She doesn't tell her daughter either that buried in her mother's possessions was a final clue to the mystery of the vision board. When the nursing home called politely though somewhat impatiently that she collect her mother's possessions so that the room could be occupied by a new resident she made the four hour round trip to pick up the five boxes of possessions. She had not sorted through everything. Most of it still sat in the garage but she had gone through her mother's wallet, a bunch of ID cards and there she had found a black and white photo of a man, strategically hidden behind the photo of her father. On the back of that photo of the stranger was written the name Carl Joseph. But she doesn't tell her daughter this. The important story she wants to transmit to her daughter is in the garden, and lies in the fact that the Einstein tree hasn't died. There was a year in which it chose not to blossom, but it had not forgotten how. It is so much older now, and perhaps the year of mistreatment or the drought or whatever it was that had happened had made the tree think it could not blossom but it waited. And then having gathered itself it is now charging out with twice as many blossoms as before. As long as the tree is alive, it can do this. It will always have this capacity. Perhaps even to exceed itself and it is only really death that can keep it from blossoming each spring it so chooses. She doesn't tell her daughter this. She just says, 'think about it a bit'. And then they go inside." .

‘the tree doctor‘ is set during the covid pandemic, which is a topic i wouldn‘t necessarily be super keen to read about (still too close!) but thought was dealt with really well in the novel - the depictions of online university felt almost too real and really put me back in that time. i was also a big fan of how the garden was used as a metaphor to illustrate the protagonist‘s inner life throughout the novel. however, i still struggled to connect with the book and couldn‘t really grasp the characters, which is a shame considering there‘s actually so few of them and the novel is very much introspective rather than plot-driven. i did like how the author explored a middle-aged woman‘s sexuality and thought this felt like a very honest and realistic portrayal, but it wasn‘t enough to really hold my attention.

This book was not a favorite for me. "Awkward" is the word that keeps coming to mind as I try to describe it. The storyline seemed disjointed, and the characters were awkward. Even the audiobook narration felt a bit off... she often didn't switch voices in the right spot, and the phrasing was... well, awkward.

Thank you NetGalley and Dreamscape Media for allowing me early access to the ARC audiobook edition of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for an ARC of this book.

The main character in this book is Japanese-American mother who travels back to the United States to care for her ailing mother and gets stuck in the pandemic, while her kids and husband are across the ocean. This is a book about self-discovery and that was something I feel like the author showed well. I liked how the main character started devoting herself to taking care of the tree in her childhood home. I didn’t like the romance and wished she could have found herself in other ways.

Hard to keep up with as I was not ready for the shifts in tone; however glad to finish. Unique view on stressful life circumstances, but also includes sometimes out of place erotica. I would read more from this author.

Our unnamed main character is a Japanese American middle-aged woman who has traveled back to her childhood home to obtain care for her elderly mother. The pandemic hits, and now she is across the ocean from her husband and children, while her mother has just transitioned to a nursing home. She shelters alone in the place she grew up, near the California coast. She preoccupies herself with teaching a virtual class on The Tale of Genji, as well as tending to her mother's beloved but neglected garden. A unique tree she calls Einstein appears dormant, and she seeks to bring it back to life, engaging the interest of a man at a nearby plant nursery known as the Tree Doctor. A relationship blossoms, and we behold an intimate portrait of a woman rediscovering her body and unearthing her inner strength during the otherwise isolating era of the global pandemic.

What I enjoyed:
🌳 Beautiful writing laying bare the inner world of the main character experiencing varied emotions and self-discovery
🌸 The main character being a middle-aged woman, a less than common MC demographic and perspective so deeply explored
🐦 The descriptions of the garden and observations of the natural world, and how they reflected her own condition and growth
🌲The relationship with the Tree Doctor grounds her with sensuality after so many years of loneliness, but he is not a hero or savior. She grows not because of him, but because of the self-examination she undertakes during this unprecedented time in her life.

Other thoughts:
🔥 There are explicit sex scenes, but they are more visceral and introspective than erotic.
😷 Sometimes the dialogue felt awkward or unnatural, but I do think it suited the voice of the repressed main character venturing outside her comfort zone.
🏡 It started slow-paced and early on I was tempted to set it down, but it grew on me and has a satisfying conclusion.
⛈️ The audiobook narrator has a beautiful voice, but the intonation was sometimes mechanical and stilted.

Overall, I recommend! Thanks to Dreamscape Media and Netgalley for the advanced audiobook in exchange for my honest review!

The Tree Doctor was an enjoyable listen. I was not expecting quite so much romance, but I appreciated the fire references and the idea of coming back home.

"The Tree Doctor" by Marie Mutsuki Mockett is literary fiction, historical fiction, and romance. It is set during the Corona Virus pandemic in 2020, so in that sense it is historical fiction, though it is pretty much modern day. It is primarily a fictional
memoir.

The unnamed main character, a not quite middle aged Japanese- American (I think) woman is home in Carmel, California, visiting her elderly mother when the pandemic lockdown happens and she is stuck there, apart from her family in Hong Kong, China. This tears her apart. She spends a lot of time in her mother's beautiful gardens with the many trees, flowers, and birds. She enlists the help of the tree doctor to consult about the trees on the property and in time this becomes an erotic friendship.

The relationship with Dean, the Tree Doctor has a similar vibe to the one in the novel "Bridges of Madison County" by Robert James Waller. There is a lot of sex in this book, but it's rather cerebral, not pornographic. Her tree doctor is "a Lothario, a gigalo, a womanizer," and her lover.

She teaches "The Tale of Genji" over the internet and there is a lot of discussion about this book, which I haven't read.

She experiences the Wildfires, including the threat, the heat, the difficulty breathing. At one point she gets trapped in a
traffic jam in the valley with fire all around. It was horrific!

People who like memoirs and period pieces may like this. Anyone who likes cerebral romance and/or great description of gardens and nature might enjoy it.

June Angela did a very good job with the narration.

Characters 5/5
Writing 4/5
Plot 3/5
Pacing 4/5 realistic
Unputdownability 3/5
Enjoyment 4/5
Narration 5/5
Cover 4/5

Thank you to Netgalley and Dreamscape Media for providing this audiobook in exchange for my honest review.

uhmm I had some problems listening to this audiobook, the person reading while she sounded right for the part, her reading was a bit lacking… it was almost monotone, at least for me… so even the book not being that long for me it was twice the size…

this book is more on the romance side, for me this one bored me a bit, it was full of “and then she”, “she slide”, “she said” I really felt disconnected with the main character… the story is ok, Just is not for everyone, and after finishing I feel a bit empty and wish I had read something else…

Thank you NetGalley and Dreamscape Media, for the free AAC and this is my honest opinion.

I’ve had to take my time to compose this review — to digest what I have read and decide how I feel about it .
This book does make you think and sucks you into the story of our anonymous narrator — a woman who’s come back to her family home in California— leaving her daughters and husband in Hong Kong — she’s there to help transition her mother to a care home due to dementia when she is unable to to return to her family due to COVID -19 — the book covers her 9 months separated from her family — her experience teaching Japanese literature online , caring for her mothers garden, her relationship with the arborist who comes often to help her , her family relationships, and surviving the California fires.
There is definitely erotica in this book — but it is not grotesquely written- it is tactfully done and felt realistic and contextual—which I appreciated.
The audiobook narrator was excellent in her calm voice and telling of the story — it was like being in the characters head their deeper thoughts and feelings — which was captivating — making you hold on to find out her outcome. The book is overall well written with a very human main character - with extensive observations and reflections on how people cope under stressful situations.

Thanks to NetGalley and Dreamscape Media for this ARC . This is my honest review.

kudos to this book for inducing so many eye rolls on my part in such little time. yet another novel that portrays contemporary humanities students as privileged snowflakes with zero media literacy and who refuse to engage with materials depicting 'troubling' things and whose criticism of said materials can be boiled down to their inability to realize or concede that portrayal doesn't mean endorsement. of course, in this novel the snowflake in question is a white blonde, who is 'triggered' by the rapes occurring in the tale of genji. our narrator is puzzled by this! it doesn't compute! young ppl are so self-centered that even in their analysis of a piece of media they have to make it about themselves! that we have a voice of reason amidst the sheep, a student who knows of a thing called historical context!
sure, some students/young ppl are or perform oversensitivity, so why not have fiction poking fun of them (there is a scene in <i>american fiction</i> that does so quite effectively). but here the author's knee-jerk reaction over the word triggering and the notion of trigger warnings makes that whole class scene seem both simplistic and inaccurate. when someone says "this book is triggering" or "this book should have trigger warnings" they are not saying "this book is bad" or "this book should be banned/censored/cancelled". the author's feelings about this whole thing are quite obvious, yet, the narrator of their novel pretends to puzzle things over, but in way that feels entirely performative and condescending. the icing on the cake is having a student say something along the lines of : "we can't read this book like it's a 19th century exploration of the psyche this book is before a time before anyone was worried about being a girl-boss..." dio mio.
this lazy portrayal of gen-zers and young millennials falls flat for me as a reader. if you're going to mock them, at least do it without broadcasting the fact that you're several generations removed from their experiences and have a limited interest in understanding their perspectives. or, elevate said scene with <i>something</i>. but the scenes unfolds in such a predictable way as to make its contents all the more shallow. this was neither a witty nor a keenly-observed depiction of academia. the dialogues are stilted and do not ring true to life and the storytelling is uninspired.

even if the contents of the novel had not annoyed me, i would have felt little interest in continuing this book. the writing is awkward and the pacing is off. we have this opening scene that feels all over the place, despite doing very little.

if this novel is on your radar i encourage you to look up more positive reviews. my thoughts are based only on a small portion of a book, so it may very well be that the novel is not what i made it out to be.

“The Tree Doctor” by Marie Mutsuki Mockett and narrated by June Angela is set in the Carmel Valley in Northern California at the beginning of the Covid 19 pandemic. The unnamed narrator had left her family in Hong Kong where they had been living to return to California to make arrangements for her aging mother who must go into a nursing home. Unable to return to her family after the pandemic shut down the world, the narrator is stranded in her mother’s home. She fills her days with teaching her class on The Tale of Genji via zoom to her students in Hong Kong, taking care of her mother’s garden, and reflecting on the cycle of life. When one of the precious trees in her mother’s garden looks like it may die, she goes to the local nursery. There, she meets the “Tree Doctor,” whom she is strongly attracted to.

I really enjoyed this novel, particularly the ongoing discussion of "The Tale of Genji" with the narrator’s students. How I wished I could have been a member of that class when I, too, read it for the first time at the beginning of the pandemic. Many readers may not have read the world’s first novel, but it is easy to google enough information to be able to follow the thread of the story.

The novel contains eroticism, but I would not call this an erotic novel. It was more of a woman’s quest to rediscover herself and to learn what is important in life.

I've been a fan of Marie Mutsuki Mockett since I read her memoir "American Harvest: God, Country and Farming in the Heartlands," and I enjoyed this work of fiction. I will be checking out her other novels as well!

Thank you very much to Negalley, the author, and the narrator for an ALC of this wonderful novel. My opinions are my own.

The Tree Doctor written by Marie Mutsuki Mockett and narrated by June Angela is an incredible piece of literature and an exceptional observation and reflection of human nature when faced with the mortality of others and the self

The first thing that is really striking in this audiobbok is the anonymity of the main character and this in turn is a powerful literary tool which I believe is why there was extensive observation and reflection of human coping mechanisms, from distraction, to acceptance, through physical sensation and self exploration and many more.


The main character is isolated from their immediate family, caring for an ailing, elderly Mother and trying to ground herself while teaching remotely during the outset of the pandemic (this will resonate on so many levels with so many of us). The novel is a space in time and one persons deepest experiences throughout and had me captivated

There is a certain level of eroticism but this is contextual and does not dominate the narrative.

June Angela is an incredible narrator and I was utterly immersed in this audiobook. Marie Mutsuki Mockett writes with intelligent reflection, yet exceptional empathy and insight.

Thank you very much to Negalley, Dreamscape, the author Marie Mutsuki Mockett and narrator June Angela for this outstanding ALC. My review is left voluntarily and all opinions are my own