The Rapture of Canaan

Rating:
Summary: Evocative and tragic but climax is cobbled. . .
Review: Sherri Reynolds has depicted the longing and passion of the southern religious girl's first love, and has delicately painted a picture Neneh and her young lover James. In the context of her grandfather's abusive and prohibitive semi-baptist cult, we are helped to love those who perpetrate and collaborate with his crimes, seeing their confusion and weakness. There is a death here, which amounts almost to murder, yet there is no truth-telling in The Church of Fire and Brimstone. Neneh weaves tapestries of her thoughts, loves and hates, yet nowhere does Reynolds address the fundamental immorality of her favored characters, including Neneh's grandmother. If Ms. Reynolds were to reflect on the tragedy of the burying of truth, the novel would be deep, and relevant to our times. Instead, she cobbles together a climax and denoument designed to anesthetize and provoke us to forgive, as if the grandmother's loyalty to her husband excuses all. The novel, craftily done and passionately rendered, nevertheless fails to live up to the promise of its beginnings, with its masterful renderings of the tragic love affair between Neneh and James. At the end, blood cries out from the soil for judgment and truth, and Ms. Reynolds takes us to a dreamy never never land. I cried for the loss of one so innocent as the plot progressed, and was dismayed to find the novel falling short of the standards of Nuremburg, even while these same moral issues had self-consciously been raised

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Summary: The Rapture of Canaan is a spiritual adventure.
Review: The Rapture of Canaan was a difficult book for me to start reading because it is a novel about religion. That is a subject I have tried to stay away from since growing up down South. In the South, there is a church on almost every corner. The Rapture of Canaan reminds me of some of the churches my parents forced me to go to as a child. At the Queen St. Baptist Church, my brother and I sang in the choir and were constantly reminded that God was going to get us. The Church of Fire and Brimstone was like Queen St. Baptist Church. Everyone praises the pastor and tries to live up to his standards rather than God's. The novel is well written and Sheri Reynolds' characters are so life-like they are like old friends and enemies. If it weren't for my macho man attitude, I would have cried for Canaan who was born with his hands together as if he were praying

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Summary: A touching story, incredible writing!
Review: I finished "The Rapture of Canaan" in a span of only 24 hours - between chasing after and playing with my 12-month old daughter and nine hours of work. I absolutely could not put this book down! Sheri Reynolds successfully, in her second novel no less, weaves these characters into your heart; the way Ninah could weave her despair and her joys into her loomed rugs. "The Rapture of Canaan" is a refreshing, reaffirming and touching novel which I highly recommend to everyone

Rating:
Summary: A very unique tale, beautifully woven...
Review: As Sheri Reynolds weaves her story I found myself getting very intensly involved in the plot, at times not knowing which way it was going to turn. She left me, feeling angry, sad, full of tears and laughter at the events that took place in the little corner of life she exposes. She definately put together a wonderful piece of fiction. It's the first time I have read a book by her and will look into others

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Summary: Rapture in more ways than one
Review: I thoroughly enjoyed Sheri Reynolds' first book Bitteroot Landing and so I was extremely excited to find her second novel. I was not one bit disappointed. While teh rapture disclosed in the final pages of the novel strays far from the rapture I experienced, the reading entranced me--I could not put the book down. Anyone interested in contemporary fiction or Southern issues should eat this up

Rating:
Summary: Powerful story of a girl raised within a cult-like lifestyle
Review: The Rapture of Canaan by Sheri Reynolds is a powerful and startling novel about cult-like lifestyle and the naivety that goes with the minds of the people within. The story is interwoven with fanatical faith, religion, fear, sadness, life and death - all the makings of a cult-like lifestyle and how it affects those in which it governs. Mesmerizing, intriguing, and a true page-turner, this "realistic" tale expresses the all-encompassing love for Jesus and the trials of a girl finding her place in life. A must read, Fantastic story! Compares to: "Memoriors of a Geisha" by Arthur Golden, "I Know This Much is True" by Wally Lamb, "Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood: A Novel" by Rebecca Wells; "She's Come Undone" by Wally Lamb, and "When It Rains" by Marjorie Spoto. "Girl with a Pearl Earring" by Tracy Chevalier, and "Mystic River" by Dennis Lehane. A Must Read.

Rating:
Summary: what happened to the ending?
Review: The picture that Reynolds painted of religious tabacco country was pleasing to read. While the characters were not very deep, they underscored the righteous fury they must have contained within themselves. I wish there would have been more to the ending. The book's symbolism (Ninah's Mary and Canaan's Christ) were thought-provoking, but the ending just...hung. What about the predictable power struggle? How would Laura feel about Ninah's promise to Canaan? How does Nanna handle her husband's inevitable demise? I just did not feel this story had a satisfactory climax.

Rating:
Summary: Gripping read!
Review: The beginning of the story begins in a way that will bring you into the community in which the young character lives. The story continues with beautiful substance including consistent, beautiful metaphors. It's the kind of book that you definitely find yourself reading again and again.

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.