Madrone, the second volume in the Nathaniel Hawthorne Flowers trilogy, follows Wild Blue Yonder: A Novel of the 1960s. It’s 1969 and Nate is out of the Air Force and back in California, in the arms of Jane Chandler, the girl he left behind. Pretty, high-spirited, and totally in love with Nate, Jane takes him back to college with her, the University of California at Santa Cruz, one of the hippest campuses in the country. At first, Nate follows what seems like a set path: college, becoming a good citizen. But it doesn’t take long before he sees the system for what it is. And he doesn’t like...