A Delirious Summer: A Novel - Softcover

Neil Rucker, a single Peruvian-based language teacher to missionaries, gets furloughed to Greenville, North Carolina, where he meets a number of young women who "church hop" in an effort to find 'Mr. Right." Contrived adventures ensue, vanilla enough for the Bobbsey Twins, though to Neil they're "wild" or "delirious." Andrew Petersen's reading is moderately engaging and fits Neil, but he has little ability to distinguish voices, a skill that is often helpful in a multi-character performance. He gives us a clichéd, if passable, old lady and somewhat less passable black characters but ignores the Southern accents ascribed to most of the women. Religious listeners may find this fun; others may not. W.M. © AudioFile 2004, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine

In Blackston's debut novel, Flabbergasted, readers were introduced to the zany town of Greenville, S.C., "a huge, boiling pot of relational gumbo" where singles play "denominational hopscotch" on Sunday mornings to meet eligible men and women. Blackston picks up his tale in this less sparkling sophomore novel as told through the eyes of 29-year-old Neil Rucker, a missionary on furlough who is desperate for a date. The harmonica-playing Neil has "sampled a few regrettable grapes" in his life, and when he breaks his dateless streak, he's hoping for a respectable Christian girl he can get serious about. Beatrice Dean, 81, is a senior single who's cruising for a man (dateless streak three years and counting) and provides engaging moments throughout the story. Missionaries, we discover, are never really on furlough, and soon Neil; his new romantic interest, Alexis Demoss; the feisty Beatrice and others are headed to Ecuador to rebuild huts burned down in a village fire. Overwriting creeps in too often (blown napkins are sent "dancing on their corners, fluttering across the lawn in an airy samba of white") and scenes tend to run too long, slowing the pace. The plot is thin, with echoes of the earlier book, but the quirky characters help keep the reader interested. In the end, however, it's Blackston's tongue-in-cheek humor about the lives of Christian singles that will grab the attention of readers of evangelical fiction.
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