"Flabbergasted" - Book review
Flabbergasted: A Novel
by Ray Blackston
(Reviewed by Chris Estey)
Missionary chicks! Man, they make a Sunday morning shine. Woo-hoo, baby!
Tanned, emotionally intense, physically fit, and spiritually devoted. Well,
not-very-spiritually devoted stockbroker transferred to South Carolina who
encounters the absurd milieu of the "Christian single" for the first time,
after a lizardly realtor tips him to the fact that social intercourse is all
about the church there in the sticks. Personally, I think he should have
made moves on the realtor straight out, but then he'd be carnally satisfied
immediately and the inevitable lure of pert Christian gals into the Godly
life wouldn't occur as it needs to in the scheme of this new literary
subgenre (somewhat socially conscious adult Christian comedy?). The
dichotomy of Ray's chosen work and his journey into faith is also a
challenge presented as predictably as his chasing after tight buns "on fire"
for the Lord, and yet talented first time out novelist Blackston describes
everything with such a charming "worldly" (horrors!) humor that the formulae
don't irritate nearly as much as they should. Blackston's got casual lit
style and a sweet knack for probably translating his personal (previous real
life career: financial analyst) foibles into self-aware humor, and should be
credited for that. Now a few good years working full-time in an urban
homeless shelter might shake up the (not completely odious, just typical)
upper middle class smugness that often goes unchallenged in his prose.
Bottom line: You could find much, much worse in a Christian bookstore.
(Fleming H. Revell Co., May 2003, $22.99, ISBN: 0800718372)
--Chris Estey
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