Lost My Way in the Darkness: Jack's Journey - 7388

LOST MY WAY IN THE DARKNESS: Jack's Journey, an indie penned by educator Mack D. Ames, is hard to categorize. Set in the 1980s, it's a boyhood Coming of Age story with Christian and Inspirational themes. Despite the religious undertones, Ames doesn't hold back regarding realistic, rough language, sensitive and gritty topics, and realistic situations. Episodic in form, the timeline follows a group of interconnected childhood friends from middle school to high school as they navigate difficult family situations, confusing sexual impulses, predatory abuses, and . . . soccer. The main character, Jack Bannister, arrives in a new town after suffering the tragic loss of his mother. His father has remarried, and he and "the Dragon," as Jack calls her, are worried that Jack has fallen in with the wrong crowd. They enroll him in an Evangelical Christian School where his stepmother has taken a teaching job. Now Jack not only has to deal with his grief and subsequent questioning of his faith, but he also has to make new friends and try to find his way in that in-between time of adolescence, when everything is in flux for him and his friends: raging hormones, heightened emotions, becoming one's own person, and figuring out who they are, what each believes, and the kind of person each wants to be. Jack becomes friends with a pair of local hoodlums on the one hand and with a bullied, intelligent, gentle-hearted farm boy on the other. Soon, he is tempted in several ways. The rough friends encourage him to shoplift. They bully his gentler, kinder friend. And then there's the question of sexuality. Ames doesn't hold back when it comes to homosexuality and the confusion and conflicted emotions when one is attracted to the same sex while at the same time being told it is a sin. This theme runs throughout the book, ultimately resolved in a way that a progressive, non-believer might find offensive. Still, the nuances offered here might be eye-opening and helpful for Christians. Woven throughout are ideas about faith, God, love, the tenets of Christianity, and how the impulses of our human nature are sometimes at odds with the "rules" set up in organized religion. There are funny moments and scenes of simple boyhood pleasures like fort-building, swimming, and camping. The dark and light sides are explored and addressed thoughtfully and lovingly–not with a judgmental attitude but compassion and discernment. It's quite a combo! In a way, this story reminds me of those told on that old Christian radio program, UNSHACKLED, with the "sin, suffer, repent" elements but a less judgy point of view. However, while LOST MY WAY IN THE DARKNESS: Jack's Journey is recommended for people interested in the intersection of faith and psychology, it is entirely new. Perhaps Mack D. Ames has written a story that inspires a new genre. Gritty Inspirational, anyone? --From a review by author Shelley Burbank
ASIN: B0DVJN7D5M
VSKU: BVV.B0DVJN7D5M.VG
Condition: Very Good
Author/Artist:Ames, Mack D
Binding: Hardcover