Christ the Lord
Anne Rice's latest book is
amazing...
I've enjoyed Anne Rice's work: the Vampire novels
and the Witch novels. I had a great deal of respect for her historical accuracy
and her storytelling ability. I never thought of her as a particularly devout
person; there was obviously some Christian influence (Catholic, it turns out) in
her life.
So it was with some
trepidation that I bought her latest book: Christ the Lord (Out of Egypt). A
book that purported to be written in first person from Jesus' point of view as a
child. I feared that there would be some sour note struck. It's either very
arrogant or very naive of an author to presume to put words in the mouth of such
a central but mysterious figure in human
history.
I need not have worried. There
were no sour notes struck. Anne Rice got it right (or as right as humanly
possible at 2000 year's remove). The book poses and answers the question: how
did Jesus live as a child; how did He come to know Who He was; how did His
family deal with him? What would a human child without sin be like?
While I might quibble about particular
events (some events from the Apocrypha are described in the narrative), on the
whole this is an incredibly uplifting book. Even if you think Jesus was not the
God-Man that Christians believe Him to be, you will definitely find food for
thought here.
It turns out that Rice
was, for many years, a lapsed Catholic who came back to faith in 1998 or
thereabouts, and set out to write about the Jesus of the Gospels.
Highly recommended.
Posted: Sat
- March 11, 2006 at 12:19 PM