Ninah belongs to the Church of Fire and Brimstone and God's Almighty Baptizing Wind- invented by her grandfather who gathered his family members, their spouses, offspring and cousins as his followers. There's about eighty people in the congregation and they live together on a communal farm. (They raise tobacco as a cash crop and the leader divides the profits among the members, but seems to keep most for himself). In this group, strict obedience is required, it seems like any kind of pleasure is forbidden, and harsh punishments are meted out. Infractions such as talking back to elders, drinking alcohol, or women cutting their hair are met with punishments like wearing barbed wire under your shirt, sleeping on nettles and thorns in the bed, having to lie in a freshly-dug open grave all night, or being locked in the cellar for weeks. The followers are taught that they must be pious, constantly pray and wait for the rapture when the righteous will be lifted up to heaven. They speak in tongues during some wild-sounding church meetings, really unlike anything I've read about before. It was something to see- how the author wrote this character made me finally comprehend (a little bit) how a person could get caught up in that kind of belief system.
Ninah isn't sure she believes, though. She's afraid of the punishments and wants to feel close to God but also questions some things and finds herself growing attracted to James, her prayer partner. She's allowed to have private prayer sessions with James because the older folks see them as making a good match someday, and counsel the young people to seek out their hearts in prayer together. This goes in another direction, when Ninah and James convince themselves that their growing feelings for each other are a manifestation of God's love, so thus it can't be a sin when they express those feelings. Ninah ends up pregnant. The community does not react positively, to say the least. What follows is not at all what I expected, and I was gripped to the last page to find out what would happen to Ninah and the baby. Some parts of this story made me scratch my head, or roll my eyes- it's really weird in a few parts- and I wasn't too taken by the weaving metaphor- but the voice is lively, and the story compelling, of this young girl trying to find her way and lift her voice above all the strictures she lives with. (Especially as she sees how other kids are different, because she attends public school). The ending felt rather abrupt, but not enough to make me actively dislike the book. I would have liked to know more about how things worked out, but at least the community was starting to turn in a different direction by then.
Rating: 3/5 320 pages, 1995
This one sounds really good. Some of what I've learned about cult religions, especially the small communities like this one, over the years are both fascinating and disturbing. The story only ever gets out because a younger member or two finally reach the point they can no longer tolerate the lifestyle that's been forced on them. I suppose what they tell us after shouldn't seem so shocking but it always does - and then we shrug and forget about it until the next expose comes along.
ReplyDeleteSounds both interesting and compelling.
ReplyDeleteI remember reading this years ago and being surprised too because I had the same expectations. I ended up really liking it. Cults like this have always interested me from a psychological perspective. I blame a psych professor in college who used to always talk about his first hand experiences working with patients who had broken away from the life.
ReplyDeleteI don't know if I made it clear that this book is fiction? Interesting that the author based part of it on research she'd done into religious beliefs in medieval ages. And how much it sounds like some small, enclosed fundamental sects that exist even today.
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