The Comic Adventures, the Romantic Quest, of a Boy Becoming a Man in the 7 Books of Dale

A fourteen-year-old boy from a troubled family sees her - the girl of his dreams at a high school assembly. From that moment, there is no other girl for Audie Dale Smith, the shy but mischievous hero of the 7 Books of Dale. Dale's dreamgirl is beautiful and devout. She seems to have the perfect family. Dale, on the other hand, has a mother and father with, well, problems. In spite of differences in social status and religion, Dale, as he begins to grow into manhood, decides to pursue the pious beauty. His romantic quest becomes complicated by his own intellectual development. Although he converts to woo the girl of his dreams, he comes to question the conventions of his hometown, church, and social milieu, which leads him to confront the most profound question we all have to face: what do I really believe? Set in the religious and conservative town of Galilee, Oklahoma at the height of the social revolution of the '70s, the novel introduces the reader to Dale's family and friends: his cynical father, Blackie; his unstable mother, Jesse; his attractive but vacuous sister, June May; his hillbilly relatives; his mercurial best friend, Rusty Grimes; his vivacious girlfriend, Wendy Wainwright; and dozens of other friends, coaches, and teachers in this epic of romance, satire, and skepticism. It's a novel that encompasses the whole gamut of life: the comedy, the tragedy, and the joy of living. It's a novel that explores the complicated nature of growing up, and investigates friendship, love, sex, and faith. It's The Comic Adventures, the Romantic Quest, of a Boy Becoming a Man in the 7 Books of Dale.