A Delirious Summer

Title: A Delirious Summer
Author: Ray Blackston
Genre: Fiction

Neil Rucker is a language teacher in Ecuador equipping missionaries with the Spanish Language. One of his students is Jay Jarvis (the main character in Flabbergasted). As the semester ends and Neil’s furlough draws closer, Jay decides to earn a little extra credit and hook his teacher up with some friends in sunny Greenville, South Carolina. Thus begins Neil Ruckers Delirious Summer.

Delirious Summer includes many of the same characters as Flabbergasted and even adds a few more zany characters to the bunch. Looney Tunes as Neil refers to them in his mind. Neil spends the front part of his summer in search of a date and the last part of his summer on furlough finds him where he least expects…back in the jungle of Ecuador repairing a village that has burned to the ground.

Neil’s lesson for the summer is that God can most certainly use anyone who is willing, to do some pretty big things. He also learns that God’s plans are not always our plans and if we simply let Him have control, He will satisfy us and give us the desires of our heart. Neil also learns how to “live life in the key of G”. This was my personal favorite part of the story.

While the book had a good message, it lacked a satisfying read. The front part of the book presented Neil as pretty desperate to get a date. Maybe I’m just not in the intended audience for the book, but I certainly remember the dating scene. The guys that were desperate were avoided. Reading about desperate guys isn’t much more fun. Another turn off to the book was a handful of remarks about the “Pentecostal Denomination”. A handful of denominations were mentioned and I’m sure it was all intended for fun. However, the Pentecostal’s were the ones picked out for being the butt of the jokes. There were lighthearted comments made at the “anointing of the Holy Spirit” and to this reader, it seemed a too close to the borderline of making fun of the Holy Spirit. I would think that no matter what your denomination is, the anointing of the Holy Spirit shouldn’t even be included in a joking matter.

While Flabbergasted was a great novel to read and was enjoyed by myself and I know a handful of others also enjoyed it, the sequel just left me a little disappointed. There is one more book to this trilogy and that is called Lost in Rooville and appears to have Jay Jarvis back as the main character. Ray Blackstons website mentions a fourth novel coming out this fall entitled: A Pagans Nightmare.