©1996, ProMotion, inc.
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Possess even a shred of spirituality and you're likely to find fulfillment in Sheri Reynolds's wise, touching, and delicate The Rapture of Canaan. Sharing an affinity for introspection and the healing powers of creation with Reynolds's Bitterroot Landing, the novel also offers a seamless integration of the everyday and the divine, and an engaging heroine worthy of attracting previous fans as well as a new audience.
As a member of The Church of Fire and Brimstone and God's Almighty Baptizing Wind, 14-year-old Ninah lives somewhere between her community's wrathful eye on the past and its apocalyptic view of the future. This severely isolated South Carolina clan shuns all secular desires, lives by the cycles of the tobacco harvest, and feeds its collective spirit on archaic, cruel punishments for the smallest of sins.
Although Ninah comes to question the structure of her life with the help of sympathetic relatives and friends, her everyday existence demands that she separate ritual from God's will and miracles from the simple truth.
It is Reynolds's multilayered approach that makes her sometimes startling plot twists, as well as the more shocking details of the congregation's life, believable. The natural, secular, and spiritual worlds interact as equals in Ninah's mind, making her visions of a dead lover seem as commonplace as a day of work in the fields or a visit to K-Mart. Reinforcing this worldview is Reynolds's complex portrait of the fervent community members: in her hands they escape caricature and generate a certain sympathy for life under a harsh God. The novel's balance is completed by the presence of two outside characters, fellow students who offer perspective and an outlet for Ninah to project her doubts and dreams.
Despite Rapture's skillful construction, it is a rich emotional landscape which truly makes the novel worthwhile. Reynolds communicates the fear, regret, passion, and wrath of her characters with an uncommon clarity and respect, creating a foundation crucial to navigating a story of faith. This leaves the reader free to become engrossed in Ninah's gradual transformation, one from a position of innocence to a more mature and ambiguous place in the world.
The Rapture of Canaan, finally, is a liberation story spiked with loss, discovery, and self-made redemption. Its rewards for those who follow Ninah on her journey are many, not the least of which is a growing appreciation for the complexity and courage of its author.
Laurie Parker works as Marketing Manager for Vanderbilt University Press.
©1996, ProMotion, inc.