The Rapture of Canaan

Rating:
Summary: Shallow and contrived - but luckily a quick read
Review: I am almost a bit embarrassed because I was the one to suggest this book for my book club (mainly because the author, Sheri Reynolds has taught at my university).

This book tries so hard to be profound, yet gentle. However, I found both the theme and the charachters overly simplistic - the cultish verision of Christianity presented is forceful, yet lacks true impact, and the characters ultimately end up mere charicatures instead of believable personalities.

The protagonist, Ninah, never seemed like a real teenage girl to me - too often she was given language that was too grown-up or insights that were too formulated. For example, would she really have been able (in the first half of the book) to recoginize that her grandfather (and leader of the religious community) is "self-righteous"? I did enjoy several descriptions of Ninah's experience of growing up, and they felt true to what a girl experiences (her getting her period and the unexplainable shame it entails is a believabe example); however, so much of her thoughts smack of a grown-up's vocabulary and adult feminine progressive insights.

Also, even the most sympathetic character in the book, the Grandmother, eventually turns out to be a disappointing one-dimensional figure whose sole purpose seems to be to perpetuate the Wise-Woman-Knows-All-Things-Best-in-Life. She is simply not presented with any real-life flaws. Her "flaws" are actually admirable since they are based on devoted love (her reason for staying married to the evil Grandfather) or her lies (which are simply survival stories since no real damage is done).

Overall, I do not think this book could have been written by a man - it exudes the ultra-modern feminine wisdom which I have heard cleverly be labeled subcutaneous ckick-lit. The (in-your-face) metaphor about Ninah's weaving representing her being a master of her own faith is a typical contrived attempt of feminine bonding. So is the predictable and clicheed birth-scene. (Starkly missing in contrast is the actual descriptions of the sex scenes during prayer).

The parts of the book dealing with religion are also just skin deep. There is no depth to it, merely a collection of hideous details of medevial sadistic practices. Even if that is what it all boils down too, there is not enough explaination of the reasons the people stay in this community or why there even are newcomers - after all, the events take place in America, and not in an isolated rural culture such as can be found in modern-day Afghanistan. The adult members work outside their community and the children attend public school, so there is obviously opportunity to escape. What I am trying to say is that the author does not do a very convincing job in relaying WHY there is such devoted community among the members.

Finally the language is very simple, and the book is a therefore a speedy read. One of the best aspects of the book as a whole...

Rating:
Summary: Good book, the ending left me wanting a little more
Review: I enjoyed reading this book. It was simular to Reynold's other book "Bitterroot Landing" in that there are abuse and religious themes running through both of them. The only thing I didn't like was that the ending left me wanting a little more. It wasn't that the ending was terrible, on the contrary, I felt it was very symbolic. What I wanted was to see how things ultimately turned out for the main character and her family.

Rating:
Summary: Good Read
Review: This was my first book by Reynolds and I enjoyed it very much. Her setting is The Fire and Brimstone congregation and it centers on 15 year old Ninah and her pragmatic grandmother. Her characters are multi-dimensional, her setting believable and her plot made me cry, which I haven't done since reading Alice Hoffman's, "At Risk".
Definitely a worthwhile read.

Rating:
Summary: So Beautiful!!!
Review: This was a good book. I read the paperback version, and I read it rather quickly in comparison to other books. It's
a story of what can happen when you let religion take over your life.
The Church of Fire and Brimstone and God's Almighty
Baptizing Wind is a very strict structure. Punishments range from lying on thorns to sleeping in graves. Our heroine,Ninah
gets a prayer partner, and when they get a little too close,
watch out what happens!

The words just seem to flow one after another,
making this a very easy to read book. I'd recommend this book to anyone who likes a good read. This reviewer gives
The Rapture of Canaan a 4.5:)