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The Tree Doctor
A startling, erotic novel about the need to balance care for others with care for one’s self
When the unnamed narrator of Marie Mutsuki Mockett’s stirring second novel returns to Carmel, California, to care for her mother, she finds herself stranded at the outset of the disease. With her husband and children back in Hong Kong, and her Japanese mother steadily declining in an assisted living facility two hours away, she becomes preoccupied with her mother’s garden―convinced it contains a kind of visual puzzle―and the dormant cherry tree within it.
Caught between tending to an unwell parent and the weight of obligation to her distant daughters and husband, she becomes isolated and unmoored. She soon starts a torrid affair with an arborist who is equally fascinated by her mother’s garden, and together they embark on reviving it. Increasingly engrossed by the garden, and by the awakening of her own body, she comes to see her mother's illness as part of a natural order in which things are perpetually living and dying, consuming and being consumed. All the while, she struggles to teach (remotely) Lady Murasaki’s eleventh-century novel, The Tale of Genji, which turns out to resonate eerily with the conditions of contemporary society in the grip of a pandemic.
The Tree Doctor is a powerful, beautifully written novel full of bodily pleasure, intense observation of nature, and a profound reckoning with the passage of time both within ourselves and in the world we inhabit.
When the unnamed narrator of Marie Mutsuki Mockett’s stirring second novel returns to Carmel, California, to care for her mother, she finds herself stranded at the outset of the disease. With her husband and children back in Hong Kong, and her Japanese mother steadily declining in an assisted living facility two hours away, she becomes preoccupied with her mother’s garden―convinced it contains a kind of visual puzzle―and the dormant cherry tree within it.
Caught between tending to an unwell parent and the weight of obligation to her distant daughters and husband, she becomes isolated and unmoored. She soon starts a torrid affair with an arborist who is equally fascinated by her mother’s garden, and together they embark on reviving it. Increasingly engrossed by the garden, and by the awakening of her own body, she comes to see her mother's illness as part of a natural order in which things are perpetually living and dying, consuming and being consumed. All the while, she struggles to teach (remotely) Lady Murasaki’s eleventh-century novel, The Tale of Genji, which turns out to resonate eerily with the conditions of contemporary society in the grip of a pandemic.
The Tree Doctor is a powerful, beautifully written novel full of bodily pleasure, intense observation of nature, and a profound reckoning with the passage of time both within ourselves and in the world we inhabit.
256 pages, Paperback
First published March 19, 2024
64 people are currently reading
5135 people want to read
About the author
Marie Mutsuki Mockett
4 books115 followersMarie Mutsuki Mockett, a writer of fiction and nonfiction, was born to an American father and Japanese mother. American Harvest: God, Country and Farming in the Heartland (Graywolf) won the 2021 Northern Californian Book Award for General Nonfiction and follows Mockett’s journey through seven heartland states in the company of evangelical Christian harvesters, while examining the role of GMOs, God, agriculture, and race in society. Her memoir, “Where the Dead Pause, and the Japanese Say Goodbye,” examines grief against the backdrop of the 2011 Great East Earthquake in Japan and was a finalist for the 2016 PEN Open Book Award, Indies Choice Best Book for Nonfiction and the Northern California Book Award for Creative Nonfiction. A novel, The Tree Doctor is forthcoming from Graywolf Press in 2023, and a collection of essays, How to Be a Californian, will follow. She lives in northern California with her family.
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March 14, 2024As a new virus rages in the world, The Tree Doctor’s unnamed main character is sheltering in her childhood home after returning to California to care for and move her aging and ailing mother into a facility. Her husband and children remain in Hong Kong and while there is hope it will soon be over it is clear she lacks urgency to return to the life she has left behind. In addition to all the sickness that surrounds her, the garden at her parents home shows signs of illness so she seeks assistance from local nursery where she meets “The Tree Doctor.” The garden and The Tale of Gengi, the oldest known female penned novel that she is teaching online, serve as a frame for exploring multiple themes relevant to the lives of women throughout history and in the present day.
For the bulk of the novel we are inside the main character’s head and in her small bubble where her interactions with others are limited but meaningful. This book is a philosophical exploration and rumination that considers many questions related to midlife, motherhood, being a daughter, and probably most importantly women’s experiences as they relate to freedom and agency. What does life look like when we reach a phase where our focus is on memories more than hopes for what we will do. The trees and flowers and the blossoms are very much a metaphor for the “waking up” of the main character's body as she learns more about herself through a deepened understanding of her past and her time with The Tree Doctor.
The blurb and reviews I’ve read mention that the novel is erotic but I will be more explicit and say there is sex, and it is written in a much more concrete and explicit way than I have experienced in most books I read. It is detailed, but also purposeful in the main character’s journey to change her perspective on the role of sex in her life and movement toward greater freedom generally. It helped her be more present in her body and allowed the main character to experience things that she hadn’t before and wonder what else she didn’t know or had missed out on in life. For me it adds to the realistic depiction this novel offers of women’s experiences in midlife.
The more I think about this book the more I appreciate it. I really love the way it explored the complexities and nuances of women’s experience at midlife in a way that was hopeful but realistic. This novel is one that fits my reading tastes perfectly with an introspective main character that has an awakening that helps me think about my own life and experience with a new perspective. A worthwhile read, I would definitely recommend picking this up!
Thank you @graywolfpress @netgalley for the #gifted eARC.
For the bulk of the novel we are inside the main character’s head and in her small bubble where her interactions with others are limited but meaningful. This book is a philosophical exploration and rumination that considers many questions related to midlife, motherhood, being a daughter, and probably most importantly women’s experiences as they relate to freedom and agency. What does life look like when we reach a phase where our focus is on memories more than hopes for what we will do. The trees and flowers and the blossoms are very much a metaphor for the “waking up” of the main character's body as she learns more about herself through a deepened understanding of her past and her time with The Tree Doctor.
The blurb and reviews I’ve read mention that the novel is erotic but I will be more explicit and say there is sex, and it is written in a much more concrete and explicit way than I have experienced in most books I read. It is detailed, but also purposeful in the main character’s journey to change her perspective on the role of sex in her life and movement toward greater freedom generally. It helped her be more present in her body and allowed the main character to experience things that she hadn’t before and wonder what else she didn’t know or had missed out on in life. For me it adds to the realistic depiction this novel offers of women’s experiences in midlife.
The more I think about this book the more I appreciate it. I really love the way it explored the complexities and nuances of women’s experience at midlife in a way that was hopeful but realistic. This novel is one that fits my reading tastes perfectly with an introspective main character that has an awakening that helps me think about my own life and experience with a new perspective. A worthwhile read, I would definitely recommend picking this up!
Thank you @graywolfpress @netgalley for the #gifted eARC.
April 22, 2024
"Wanting to be alive, if you are going to go through the trouble if staying alive."
By tending to her ailing mother's garden, this specific work of love and labor, Mutsuki Mockett's protagonist (re)discovers her sense of self, her agency and sexuality. I loved every attentive description of flora and fauna, and the hope and hurt and liberation that her relationship with the Tree Doctor brings. A really beautiful spring book. I don't know if this book is for everyone, but it was absolutely a book for me!
By tending to her ailing mother's garden, this specific work of love and labor, Mutsuki Mockett's protagonist (re)discovers her sense of self, her agency and sexuality. I loved every attentive description of flora and fauna, and the hope and hurt and liberation that her relationship with the Tree Doctor brings. A really beautiful spring book. I don't know if this book is for everyone, but it was absolutely a book for me!
March 8, 2024
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.
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.
August 8, 2024
People say how erotic this book was - guess I missed that because this book was disjointed. A woman is separated from her family during Covid. She is in California and they are overseas. I picked it up as it is about her mothers garden and in the beginning the storyline was interesting with possibilities of an in depth look at her mother and her mother‘s relationship and the garden and her- but it quickly veered off into having an affair with a man from a garden shop . Kept hoping it was going somewhere, but it didn’t go anywhere.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 29, 2024
I really really wanted to like this, and I think for the most part I did. I would have given it 3 stars if it weren’t for all the bits that made me cringe. I found the tree doctor a bit unappealing and self-assured. But I did enjoy reading the main character’s internal dialogue about her relationship to motherhood, sexuality and intimacy.
April 30, 2024
Erotic
Sublime
Sensual
Satisfying
Enchanting
Intimate
Desperate
Seducing
Lingering
Savoring
Sublime
Sensual
Satisfying
Enchanting
Intimate
Desperate
Seducing
Lingering
Savoring
September 3, 2024
I don't think any summary of this book does justice to how beautiful the story is. Separated across an ocean from her family at the beginning of COVID, the unnamed, middle-aged narrator of this book is stuck in her childhood home in California to be close to her mother, who has been ill for a long time but is now declining rapidly. The pandemic prevents the narrator from visiting her mother at the care home or her family back in Hong Kong, so she spends a long, empty, aimless stretch of months alone, tending to her mother's garden, teaching a remote university course on the Tale of Genji, and observing all the unsuspecting ways both the natural world and this 11th century Japanese classic weave their way into her life.
On a trip to the garden store early in the novel, the narrator meets Dean: a gruff arborist known as the tree doctor who helps her revive a cherry tree in the garden. The two begin a sensual and intense affair that awakens her sense of her body, pleasure, selfhood, and sexuality. This entire book feels intimate, not only in its descriptions of sex but in the deep ways we get to know and understand the narrator. Even though it's written in third person, we go into her head and have access to the observations she has about herself, her relationships, and the world at a time when everything's standing still, holding its breath for the worst yet to come that seems like it's always just around the corner.
There were parts of this book that surprised me, especially the intense section where she's stuck at the center of the California wildfires. I felt like I was right back to last summer in the Okanagan, choking on thick wildfire smoke, refreshing the wildfire map every minute, watching a line of cars stuck in traffic trying to evacuate. So many aspects of this reminded me of Unearthing by Kyo Maclear: the connection to a mother through gardening, the relationship to self and identity as a half-Japanese woman, meditations on grief and loss, the slow, gentle, mono no aware descriptions of the natural world. All in all there was lots in this book that hit close to home for me which is a big reason why I was so moved by it, but I also think it's a book anyone could sink into and love.
On a trip to the garden store early in the novel, the narrator meets Dean: a gruff arborist known as the tree doctor who helps her revive a cherry tree in the garden. The two begin a sensual and intense affair that awakens her sense of her body, pleasure, selfhood, and sexuality. This entire book feels intimate, not only in its descriptions of sex but in the deep ways we get to know and understand the narrator. Even though it's written in third person, we go into her head and have access to the observations she has about herself, her relationships, and the world at a time when everything's standing still, holding its breath for the worst yet to come that seems like it's always just around the corner.
There were parts of this book that surprised me, especially the intense section where she's stuck at the center of the California wildfires. I felt like I was right back to last summer in the Okanagan, choking on thick wildfire smoke, refreshing the wildfire map every minute, watching a line of cars stuck in traffic trying to evacuate. So many aspects of this reminded me of Unearthing by Kyo Maclear: the connection to a mother through gardening, the relationship to self and identity as a half-Japanese woman, meditations on grief and loss, the slow, gentle, mono no aware descriptions of the natural world. All in all there was lots in this book that hit close to home for me which is a big reason why I was so moved by it, but I also think it's a book anyone could sink into and love.
March 24, 2024
The Tree Doctor by Marie Mutsuki Mockett is a book about a woman who is stranded in California during the pandemic while her husband and children are in Hong Kong. She travelled to California to help care for her eldery mother who was in a nursing home 2 hours from the house where she grew up. Because of the pandemic she finds herself unable to visit her mother and unable to travel to Hong Kong. In her lonliness she takes up gardening and starts an affair with gardener, the "tree doctor."
There were several things that I liked about the book. I felt like this book really captured pandemic living well. The author covers topics such as lonliness, the switch to viritual learning, aging and caring for an eldery parent very well. I also enjoyed the language and imagery used to describe the garden and plants.
There were also several things that I did not like. I felt that the sexual relationship between the protagonist and the tree doctor was overdone and odd. I listened to this book on audible and the narratation was awful. I wonder if reading the book would have been a better experience.
Nonetheless, I got through this book in just a few days which is a sign of a good overall audible experience. I cannot say that I recommend it, but I did find this book to be one of the best depictions of pandemic life that I have read to date.
There were several things that I liked about the book. I felt like this book really captured pandemic living well. The author covers topics such as lonliness, the switch to viritual learning, aging and caring for an eldery parent very well. I also enjoyed the language and imagery used to describe the garden and plants.
There were also several things that I did not like. I felt that the sexual relationship between the protagonist and the tree doctor was overdone and odd. I listened to this book on audible and the narratation was awful. I wonder if reading the book would have been a better experience.
Nonetheless, I got through this book in just a few days which is a sign of a good overall audible experience. I cannot say that I recommend it, but I did find this book to be one of the best depictions of pandemic life that I have read to date.
October 22, 2024
An amazing, insightful, well-paced read apart from the sheer volume of graphic sex scenes
October 14, 2024
I’d actually give it a 3.5. Don’t think I would have picked it up on my own but it’s for Colgate Living Writers class I’m taking. Interesting take on life during pandemic, caring for elderly parents and separation of family all while teaching students remotely about The Tale of Genji.
March 20, 2024
3.5 stars. 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!
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!
March 14, 2024
"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.
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.
June 5, 2024
I have mixed feelings about this one. I felt the main character’s ( She is not given a name) pain and struggle with her mother’s illness and what her role should be in her care. The guilt one feels for doing what’s best for those they love even if it’s a decision that takes the control out of their hands felt very real and was well written. The author did a nice job juxtaposing this with the guilt the protagonist felt being so far away from her own daughters during the pandemic. I also enjoyed seeing this character come alive and get in touch with her power through the affair and sexual awakening with The Tree Doctor. She is married to a man who seems self involved, dismissive and possibly asexual. Never did the author have you rooting for the character and the Tree Doctor as a couple, but instead, rooting for the character’s ownership of her body, her choices and her strength through this tawdry affair. Nicely done. I also loved the care and tending of the grounds of her familial home and the attachment she rediscovered of the land and its innate beauty. If the ending had not felt rushed and brushed over I would have given this story a higher rating. So many current authors seem to get tired in the last 3rd of their books and rush to a finish that feels a bit empty. I would have liked to see this author take as much care in the last 3rd as she did in the first 2/3, continuing the awakening and evolution of this character through the end of the book.
April 15, 2024
2.5 stars ⭐️
‘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 still wasn‘t enough to really hold my attention.
‘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 still wasn‘t enough to really hold my attention.
July 25, 2024
I picked up The Tree Doctor, thinking it would be a hot and light-hearted fiction about sex, love, intimacy, etc. I did not think it would be a pandemic fiction. This was an immediate turn off because why would anyone want to read fiction set during the initial lockdown in 2020. But the raw expression of emotions got me to keep reading. I can appreciate the vulnerable state required to express such raw and disturbing thoughts. Occasionally, the thoughts are too raw. Inside thoughts, inside thoughts, please. The descriptions of sex are fine, if not occasionally a little disturbing. Another aspect I found disturbing was the description of zoom school. It was a cringey choice to talk about the literature that the author wanted to.
However, there was a lot to enjoy here. The previously mentioned literature was very interesting and I loved getting to hear about the main character's views on intimacy of all forms, and how it changes throughout the story. The main character's relationship with her mother felt very real, and I felt true sympathy for her situation. It's not a perfect book, but at the end of the day it was an easy read with some hot scenes and some emotional moments.
However, there was a lot to enjoy here. The previously mentioned literature was very interesting and I loved getting to hear about the main character's views on intimacy of all forms, and how it changes throughout the story. The main character's relationship with her mother felt very real, and I felt true sympathy for her situation. It's not a perfect book, but at the end of the day it was an easy read with some hot scenes and some emotional moments.
February 12, 2025
How does one take control of their life in the midst of chaos? How does one crawl out of a hole that they so naturally fell in? How does a woman, who is sold this idea of a nuclear family, of a loving husband that works and kids that listen, escape when there is no passion? When life is boring, what do you turn to?
Nature has no rules, no monogamous relationship to be loyal to or worries. It lives and thrives as best as it can, and I believe we follow our protagonist in her journey from human to becoming a tree, spiritually, of course.
I definitely don't think this novel will reach everyone's interests, but for me I saw a story of many women who feel stuck as they age, who feel like they lose their youth. I loved discovering the passion and youth in our protagonist's sexual journey and how it revived her mind and body. The way nature and sex were intertwined was beautiful, and while not the most eventful book, it was stimulating to my mind in those aspects. How do I continue to find happiness and take control when things are spiraling around me? Our protagonist, like a tree, takes her time to find the answer to this, and while it might not be a straightforward answer, you will find it in the way she grieves, the way she nurtures her garden, and the way she sees and treats men that put her in positions of questioning herself.
Stay true to yourself!
Nature has no rules, no monogamous relationship to be loyal to or worries. It lives and thrives as best as it can, and I believe we follow our protagonist in her journey from human to becoming a tree, spiritually, of course.
I definitely don't think this novel will reach everyone's interests, but for me I saw a story of many women who feel stuck as they age, who feel like they lose their youth. I loved discovering the passion and youth in our protagonist's sexual journey and how it revived her mind and body. The way nature and sex were intertwined was beautiful, and while not the most eventful book, it was stimulating to my mind in those aspects. How do I continue to find happiness and take control when things are spiraling around me? Our protagonist, like a tree, takes her time to find the answer to this, and while it might not be a straightforward answer, you will find it in the way she grieves, the way she nurtures her garden, and the way she sees and treats men that put her in positions of questioning herself.
Stay true to yourself!
May 8, 2024
This is a 4.5 for me! I didn’t realize how much I loved it until I sobbed my way through the last third of it. It’s funny I actually kind of thought I hated it at first but I kept finding myself thinking about this book when I wasn’t reading it. What I thought was going to be a pleasantly simple book about a woman’s journey restoring the garden of her childhood home (which to be fair it totally is too!) turned out to be a raunchy book about an older woman finding her sexuality. I loved the juxtaposition of bird watching and bulb planting with rough sex and anal play. On top of that the main character reflects on her relationship with her mother and her own identity as a mother who realizes she has disdain for her husband. It’s so simple but so complex. Beautiful!
March 19, 2025
I read this for a book club, and it was definitely a very different read from what I’d been expecting. The writing was beautiful and descriptive in parts, with lots of detail about plants and animals in the narrator’s garden. The pace seemed slow, but kind of fitting for many people’s experience during the pandemic, which the narrator describes as “the sickness”. The blurb had described the book as erotic, but the sex was sometimes quite jarring to read at times; I think the elements that were relatable or realistic made it quite un-erotic, which in a way was quite refreshing to read. The chapters about the wildfires were really well done and I felt really anxious reading them. My overall impression is that it is a bit of a strange book, describing one woman’s experience at a very strange time.
June 18, 2025
I tend to avoid stories that use the COVID pandemic as a backdrop, just because for one, despite it the fact that it has been 5 years, I am still processing the fact that it happened at all. Two, these movies, books, etc tend to use the pandemic as a crutch for an otherwise lacking story.
I picked up The Tree Doctor not knowing the pandemic was a part of the backdrop, and I am very glad I did. Though the talk of the “sickness” did irk me at times, the rawness of the main characters narration and thoughts and the amazingly paced development of her character absolutely made up for it. And admittedly, the pandemic ended up fitting very well into her growth. It’s the type of book you read, let the message sink in for a while, then pick up and read again.
I picked up The Tree Doctor not knowing the pandemic was a part of the backdrop, and I am very glad I did. Though the talk of the “sickness” did irk me at times, the rawness of the main characters narration and thoughts and the amazingly paced development of her character absolutely made up for it. And admittedly, the pandemic ended up fitting very well into her growth. It’s the type of book you read, let the message sink in for a while, then pick up and read again.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 13, 2024
I can absolutely understand why this might not be everyone's cup of tea, but for whatever reason it hit just right for me. I loved reading about the garden, the birds and the trees. I loved learning about Japan and The Tale of Genji. This is also maybe only the 2nd book I've read which takes place during C19 quarantine, and I appreciated the book's perspective and meditations on that experience.
August 22, 2024
This ended up being a short, relatively quick read from the library. Here you get to see a woman who's on the verge of divorcing her husband deal with the start of the pandemic, and maybe being able to focus on herself instead of everyone else in her life for a bit. Also, California fires and trees and affairs and the Tale of Genji and the cycles of life. Definitely worth paging through.
September 24, 2024
I started this thinking it would be a COVID-era interrogation of marriage and plants. Instead, it ended up being melodramatic, smutty book club fodder. Not trying to yuck anyone's yum, but this was really not for me.
January 13, 2025
I wish I knew how this ended up on my tbr! I LOVED IT. Not typically the type of book I enjoy reading, or that I read quickly, but it had everything:
- mother/daughter stuff
- characters wearing masks and testing for COVID
- nature
- accurate descriptions of wildfire dread
- anal sex
- mother/daughter stuff
- characters wearing masks and testing for COVID
- nature
- accurate descriptions of wildfire dread
- anal sex
September 5, 2024
The first, and perhaps only, good book set in the pandemic.
dropped
May 6, 2025I really tried but it’s hard reading a book when I only care about half the actual novel.
November 18, 2025
Surprisingly horny and now I want to read the Tales of Genji (the random Israel mention definitely threw me off though)
April 22, 2024
Set during the pandemic, THE TREE DOCTOR follows an unnamed narrator as she inhabits her childhood home in California after moving her mother into a nursing home. With the virus progressing, travel is restricted and she is unable to return to her husband and daughters back in Hong Kong. The narrator spends her time teaching a virtual class on The Tale of Genji and reviving her mother’s garden. She meets an arborist, Dean, at her local nursery and they begin an affair.
THE TREE DOCTOR is a compelling portrait of self-discovery and sexual awakening in middle age. The writing is stunning and I loved being inside the main character’s head. Her voice was realistic, introspective, and calming. I loved how her relationship with Dean encouraged her to nurture her sexual well-being. The author thoughtfully tackles additional topics like loneliness, life during a pandemic, motherhood, marriage, caring for an ailing parent, and our relationship with nature. A satisfying read that you’ll want to slow down and take your time with.
THE TREE DOCTOR is a compelling portrait of self-discovery and sexual awakening in middle age. The writing is stunning and I loved being inside the main character’s head. Her voice was realistic, introspective, and calming. I loved how her relationship with Dean encouraged her to nurture her sexual well-being. The author thoughtfully tackles additional topics like loneliness, life during a pandemic, motherhood, marriage, caring for an ailing parent, and our relationship with nature. A satisfying read that you’ll want to slow down and take your time with.
August 9, 2024
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.
There are many memorable instances in the novel, I'm sharing these almost-last lines:
'''What do you think the tree is trying to tell us?" She asks her daughter. And Sophie on the cusp of an age when her imagination comes to her as a reflex hesitates. "I don't know." "Think" she tells her daughter. "Would do you think it's trying to say?" This would be a question her mother would ask her. "Spring is here." "Well, yes," she laughs. "Of course, but what else?" It's too early for Sophie to be able to tell her. 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 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.
There are many memorable instances in the novel, I'm sharing these almost-last lines:
'''What do you think the tree is trying to tell us?" She asks her daughter. And Sophie on the cusp of an age when her imagination comes to her as a reflex hesitates. "I don't know." "Think" she tells her daughter. "Would do you think it's trying to say?" This would be a question her mother would ask her. "Spring is here." "Well, yes," she laughs. "Of course, but what else?" It's too early for Sophie to be able to tell her. 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."
September 16, 2024
3.5 stars, rounded up. Longer review to follow
February 29, 2024
I received this book from a Goodreads giveaway in exchange for my honest opinion.
The Tree Doctor was alright. I didn't connect nor have feelings for the the main character. I didn't like her encounters with the arborist and there was much mention of the book "The Tale of Genji." Maybe if I was familiar with this text I would have enjoyed it more. I see how Mockett was weaving "The Tale of Genji" into her own story, but I was not enjoying it.
What I did like was the setting which sounded like an amazing garden in her mother's backyard. The only thing I was rooting for was the "Einstein" tree, hoping it would not die by the end of the story.
The Tree Doctor was alright. I didn't connect nor have feelings for the the main character. I didn't like her encounters with the arborist and there was much mention of the book "The Tale of Genji." Maybe if I was familiar with this text I would have enjoyed it more. I see how Mockett was weaving "The Tale of Genji" into her own story, but I was not enjoying it.
What I did like was the setting which sounded like an amazing garden in her mother's backyard. The only thing I was rooting for was the "Einstein" tree, hoping it would not die by the end of the story.
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