2024 Book Review #4: The Rapture of Canaan

 

This book was recommended to me by a former work colleague.  The author is new to me and the book was written sometime in the 1990s.  It was .....different.....

STORY SUMMARY

Ninah Huff is just 14 years old.  She is the granddaughter of Herman, the founder and preacher of the Church of Fire and Brimstone and God's Almighty Baptizing Wind. It's a very isolated southern community   which is ruled by the patriarch (Grandpa Hermon). Ninah sees the world...the outside world....only at school.  She is forced to wear long dresses and she isn't allowed to cut her hair. These things mark her as "odd" and they keep her apart from the other girls in school. She does love her family, but she is never really sure if she is "holy" enough. She especially worries about her feelings for James, her prayer partner, also a teenager, as they spend an hour a day together in prayer and meditation. They are "being Jesus to one another". 

But then when Ninah is discovered to be pregnant, the community is outraged. In the midst of her tragedy and loneliness, she keeps insisting she is not guilty of the sin of fornication.  She claims a "holy child" is growing inside her. And no matter what type of punishment Grandpa Hermon metes out, nothing can make her recant her words. 

In the end there is a miracle.  But like most miracles it takes an unpredictable form. Ninah must face with sudden clearness the things she must do for the sake of her own life and that of her child's. She comes to understand at last that to embrace the life of the normal world can be a holy act. 

MY THOUGHTS

Yikes. This book is disturbing to me. 

The main theme of the book seems to be blood.  I did read some other commentaries about this story and others seem to think that's the main theme:  the blood of Jesus; the blood that was shed when Leila's mom killed her husband; the symbolic  red when Leila colors paper dolls; menstruation blood that Ninah hides from everyone; the blood of the first deer that James kills and both he and Ninah are "baptized" in it; the blood from the horse dying giving birth; the blood of Canaan when Ninah frees his hands (he's born with this hands together like in prayer...a disability) and which transforms him from "a messiah" into a normal, toddler boy. 

The character development is strong and the characters themselves are weak in many ways because Herman runs the community/church as though religion is in his full control.  He makes up "laws" and the children have to memorize them. 

The entire church community is one of abuse/punishment and the wrath of God. No where is love for others preached nor is grace and mercy shown. 

Te one saving thing about this book, for me, and in my opinion, is that it shows you just how dangerous it is to follow a man (or woman's) idea of God vs what Scripture actually says. I also think the author might be trying to say that we should examine ourselves and figure out if we're following a certain church due to man's idea (or the fear of man) of God or from God Himself, the God of love.   

This book was disturbing to me because of the punishments meted out which is actually abuse.  Physical and emotional abuse run rampant in this story.  

There are some beautiful poetic moments though such as this line:

"I weave in lies, and I weave in love, and in the end it's hard to know if one keeps me warmer than the other".....

There's just too much trauma in this book for me to love it....although it's a very important topic.  

In my opinion, this book is appropriate for ages 17 and older due to mature content. 

On a scale of 1-10, with 10 being the highest, I rate this a 7.