Bibliofreakblog

The Rapture of Canaan by Sheri Reynolds

This is a beautiful, tragic book.  It’s thought-provoking, brimming with symbolism and taking on a wide range of issues.

Ninah is a teenager, growing up in a fairly secluded community in the South, where the religion is All Fundamental, All the Time (for real, they call theirs the Church of Fire and Brimstone).  To say the least.  Actually, if it weren’t for the fact that women were so encouraged to reproduce, and failing to do so reflects some sin inside of them, you might think that they are living in a Medieval monestary.  Every failing is met with self-punishment–commonly for Ninah this includes nettles in her bed.

Add in unsexually-educated teenaged romance and prayer and you get a pregnancy.  While I would normally be all like, seriously?  How can these kids not know what they are doing, thinking that they can reach Jesus by praying naked and having and one thing leading to another.  But Reynolds gives them their space, creating not a “when I came I saw God” sort of cliche, but fitting it into a society where sin is met with physical punishment, therefore, perhaps God can be reached the same way?  So they ask God to speak to them through each other.  Of course, what ends up happening is kind of like when you are playing with a Ouija board and nothing happening, but them it starts moving and you’re not the one moving it and neither is the other person, but in reality both of you are moving just a little tiny bit, making it give you the answer that you want.  Indulge me while I quote:

And then his mouth was next to mine, and he was speaking into my mouth, and I hoped it might be Jesus, so I didn’t pull away.
     “Lord, I’m not sure what you’re telling me,” he whispered right down my throat.  ”Im not sure that I’m feeling your right, but I want to, Jesus,” and then he kissed me like a waterfall, and I kept my mouth wide open until he alled out, “Ninah, this can’t be right.  We have to pray”
……..
“That’s what we’re doing,” I said, and ran my lips across his eyelid.
     And then God spoke.  Really fast.  And then I knew him like I’d never known him before.
………
I couldn’t stop looking at James, who had something in him as sweet as I imagined wine to be.
     If Ajita Patel was right and we came back to this earth again and again, throughout eternity, I knew James must be Jesus himself.  And he had chosen me.
 

It’s beautiful in its tragedy, because you KNOW that this is not going to end well.  Ninah’s grandfather is tyrannical in his cult-like leadership.  They actually punish a guy by making him sleep in a grave all night for getting drunk.

And while I certainly can’t relate to this kind of religion, I can understand being young and confused and mixing up feelings of rapture with raging hormones.  It’s kind of sweet, really.

I’m probably going to get excommunicated for this, but you know how sometimes polls or quizzes ask if you could have sex with anyone, who’d it be?  I usually answer Jesus or God.  Well, sometimes I say Brad Pitt.  But anyways, I say Jesus or God not just because or the physical pleasure aspects of sex.  I’d imagine it would be a really intense body and mind, heart and soul, kind of experience.

Hey, they don’t call it knowing in the biblical sense for nothin’.

If you like this book/author, you might like:

The Poisonwood Bible (F) by Barbara Kinsolver
Mariette in Ecstasy (F) by Ron Hansen
Year of Wonders (F) by Geraldine Brooks
The 19th Wife (F) by David Ebersoff
The Heretic’s Daughter (F) by Kathleen Kent
Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith (CNF) by Jon Krakauer
Escape (CNF) by Caroline Jessop
Stolen Innocence: My Story of Growing Up in a Polygamous Sect, Becoming a Teenage Bride, and Breaking Free of Warren Jeffs (CNF) by Elissa Wall 

Other works by Sheri Reynolds:

The Sweet In-Between (F)
The Firefly Cloak (F)
Bitterroot Landing (F)
A Gracious Plenty (F)

The Rapture of Canaan at Amazon