When Ruth is born into The Brotherhood, she is celebrated the way that all babies are celebrated. In a community where the self is dead last on the list of priorities, Ruth learns quickly that she is nothing special. It order to gain God's grace, she needs to make sure that her community continues to thrive and that she keeps allllll the rules that have been put in place to keep her from sin. There are so many ways to sin, when you are Ruth and growing up on a Hutterite commune.
On the one hand, this is phenomenal writing. Over and over, the author's way with words truly jumped out at me in delightful phrases really captured the essence of something. Learning about commune life is wild and really interesting and I have a lot of compassion for people who truly do believe that living this way is the road to happiness. On the other hand, Ruth felt like an enigma. She is wacky and kind of hates her life but also absolutely chooses to live it the way it is. I wanted her to just see it for what it is and break free but she never got there, even though she could tell things felt off a little bit. This is no Handmaid's Tale, in my opinion, because there is no real rage and it is hard to watch, this Patriarchal death grip on people's choices. Like, EVERY choice.
Interesting book.
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