Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly
In this gritty portrait of a young girl who battles repression in a rural Southern religious community, Reynolds (Bitterroot Landing) once again showcases a compelling narrative voice that's simultaneously harsh and lyrical. The narrator is Ninah Huff, granddaughter of Herman Langston, the founder of a Pentecostal sect in rural South Carolina. Herman is a strict disciplinarian, to say the least: he forces one congregant found guilty of drinking to sleep in an open grave. Because of the Pentecostal group's rigid attitudes, Ninah and her peers are frequently scorned and mocked at school. But her real problems start when she becomes pregnant by her prayer partner. Ninah's subsequent rebellion and the tragic aftermath of her tryst threaten to tear the community apart, particularly when the despotic Herman interprets an ordinary, curable birth defect in her infant son, Canaan, as a sign that she has given birth to the new messiah. While many of the issues Reynolds deals with are coming-of-age staples-teen rebellion; the standoff between adolescent expression and religious repression; the morality of the individual vs. the morality of the group-her gift for characterization ultimately transcends the material as Ninah's strength and resilience enable her to move beyond benighted religiosity toward a true and lasting faith. Literary Guild featured alternate selection.
Library Journal
For Ninah Huff, being different from most people has meant being saved. Growing up in her grandfather's penitential religious commune in the rural South, Ninah is surrounded by love and the assurance of sanctity, though she sometimes wonders if she is truly holy. At 14, she begins to have serious doubts. Are all outsiders really damned? Are long, somber dresses and never-cut hair really necessary? Most of all, how sanctified are the feelings sparking between Ninah and James, her prayer partner in the Church of Fire and Brimstone and God's Almighty Baptizing Wind? With Ninah's pregnancy, questions of faith and sin take on real urgency, leading to tragedy and even a miracle. Ninah relates her story in prose both poetic and page turning; Reynolds lives up to the praise garnered by her first novel, Bitterroot Landing (LJ 11/15/94).-Starr E. Smith, Marymount Univ. Lib., Arlington, Va.
From the Publisher
"Truly rapturous."
—The New York Times Book Review
"Folksy lyricism . . . a colorful supporting cast . . . a fresh story. As they say in church, 'Hallelujah.'"
—Los Angeles Times Book Review
"Powerful."
—Atlanta Journal & Constitution
"Assured . . . devastating."
—Booklist
"The story compels . . . Reynolds has an imagination that takes the reader into what feels like the world of a teen-age girl trying to make her peace with the world and with god."
—Richmond Style Weekly
"The newest and most exciting voice to emerge in contemporary Southern fiction."
—San Francisco Bay Guardian
MAR/APR 98 - AudioFile
Fifteen-year-old Ninah Huff is the teller of this heavy-handed story of rebellion against religious obsession. Living in a religious community of deluded believers, Ninah tries to find what God’s message is for her. But the trouble with first-person points of view in a novel such as this is that the narrator must be both creator (as writer) and created (as character), which makes for challenging oral interpretation. Bresnahan has difficulty maintaining a steady Deep South feel in both of these roles. The narration is in standard English while all the characters speak parodies of Southern American dialect. In addition, Bresnahan’s delivery suffers from a monotonous and choppy rhythm which adds unnecessarily to the implausibility of the story. Granted that this hyperbolic rant against the excesses of religious fanaticism would be hard for any oral interpreter to bring to credible life, it must be said that Bresnahan, who has previously done wonderful interpretations, nailed this one to the cross. P.W. ©AudioFile, Portland, Maine
