THE RAPTURE OF CANAAN

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 [Published: MAR/APR 98]