I caught this notice of a Starred Review in my latest Religion Bookline from PW:
Christ the Lord: The Road to Cana
Anne Rice. Knopf, $25.95 (256p) ISBN 978-1-400094352-1In the New Testament, the miracle at the wedding at Cana—where Jesus turned water into wine—marks the commencement of his tumultuous three-year ministry. In Rice’s beautifully observed novel (a sequel to 2005’s Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt), however, the wedding miracle is in fact the culmination of an intimate family saga of love, sorrow and misunderstanding. As the novel opens, Yeshua (Jesus) struggles with a sense of restlessness of purpose and a deep love for a comely kinswoman. Waves of isolation sweep over him as he comes to understand that serving the Lord’s will takes precedence over the desires of his own heart. Whereas the first novel in this series hewed so closely to Scripture and to the author’s meticulous research as to be somewhat arid as fiction, this book imagining the "lost" young adulthood of Jesus offers wise and haunting speculation where the Bible is silent. And the final chapters, which pick up the story with the New Testament’s accounts of Jesus’ baptism, temptation, and early miracles, manage to be soulfully insightful even while faithfully tracking the Gospels. Rice undertakes a delicate balance here: How can a writer make a believably sensitive and wounded protagonist out of someone who is believed to be sinless? If it is possible to create a character that is simultaneously fully human and fully divine, as ancient Christian creeds assert, then Rice succeeds. (Mar. 4)
I own but haven’t yet read Out of Egypt. Have any of you read it? What did you think? This one sounds like it will be good, and yet I remain somewhat reluctant to read fictionalized accounts of Jesus and His thoughts and actions, especially in regard to things that aren’t actually in Scripture. Do any of you feel the same way? I don’t have the same problem with other biblical characters (i.e. Francine Rivers’s books about the five women who are named in the lineage of Christ).
-rlh-
I read “Out of Egypt” shortly after it came out. When I first saw it on the shelf at Barnes & Noble, I dismissed it, because I was certain that the woman who wrote all those graphic vampire novels couldn’t have anything worthwhile to say about Jesus. I couldn’t get it out of my mind, though, so I ended up buying it and began reading with a huge amount of skepticism.
Ultimately I was deeply impressed with the book, to the point of sending her an email to tell her how much I enjoyed the book. We exchanged emails for a couple of days, because her basic response was that she appreciated kind words from a believer, since she’d received a lot of excoriation from Christians.
I don’t agree with all of her theology as expressed in the book (and I told her so). It’s been awhile since I read it, so I don’t recall the details, but what I do recall is thinking that it was the first book I’d read that left me with a sense of the reality of Jesus’ humanity — the first one to depict him as fully man as well as fully God. I also was moved by the author’s notes at the end of the book, where she explains the journey that led her to write this series.
I’m glad I read the book, and look forward to reading the next one.
Thank you, Laura, for sharing your thoughts about this book with me and other Write Thinking readers. I will have to pull out this first book in the series and read it so that I’ll be ready for the next one. From the moment I read Anne’s comments about what had led her to write Out of Egypt, I rejoiced for what God had done and is doing in her heart and life.
Robin
Robin, I’d echo Laura’s thoughts. I listened to Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt on audiobook, and I was very impressed. There were (like Laura said) some theological issues where I disagreed. Ms. Rice’s Catholic background came out in the fact that Mary remained a virgin, and Jesus’s brothers and sisters were only step-siblings from Joseph’s previous marriage. I don’t know why the Catholic position is that Mary remained a virgin for the rest of her life, but it is.
Aside from that, though, I enjoyed the book very much, and have been waiting for news of the sequel’s release.
I would never read a fictionalized Jesus from His point of view, because we can never imagine what being sinless is like. But never say never because it might make you think…?
Robin,
The first book sounds interesting though I haven’t read it or the sequel. However I am a bit leery of the second book based on the description in the excerpt you quoted. The thing that “bothers” me about this description and one other “fiction” work I know of is the concept of Jesus having romantic relationships. If He is fully God and experienced any temptation that we as humans face but never sinned even in human form, I have trouble with integrating the idea of Him having any sort of romantic entanglements while He was on earth. Perhaps I am off base with this feeling, I can’t say for sure that is just my personal reaction.
Melissa
Thanks for your interest in the new novel. Jesus does not become “entangled romantically” in this; the whole point is that He is God and Man and lives in an atmosphere of human temptation and pressure. I think, for me, more than anything, it is a celebration of the Son of Man and the Son of God, and I hope readers will find it to be that too — a celebration of what Christ endured for us, being born amongst us, living with us over thirty years, and all this before we come to the dreadful suffering of Golgotha. Thanks again for your interest, Anne Rice, Rancho Mirage, California.
Dear Anne:
Thanks so much for dropping by Write Thinking and posting your response to this post. I appreciate it very much, and so will my blog readers.
Robin
I also read the first book, and thought it was a very unique look at what Jesus’ life might have been like as a child.
Can someone please clear up for me whether Knopf Publishing Group is a CBA/ECPA affiliated publisher. I know they’re an imprint of Random House but I’m assuming they’re not CBA/ECPA affiliated since Mrs. Rice’s book did not tour the CFBA which is exclusive to books published by authors whose publishers are CBA affiliated. And I can’t seem to find in listed as showing up in any of the CBA/ECPA affiliated Christian book stores.
What a grand shot in the arm that would be for Mrs. Rice and her image if her Christian book could tour on CFBA. Of course the Christian Fiction Review Blog would gladly tour her as the only criteria is that you be a Christian author, but seeing this post here did make me wonder.
Knopf must not be CBA/ECPA affiliated.
Of course, that can only be good considering that Mrs. Rice is now considering writing one LAST book about her vampires from a Christian world view. If Knopf isn’t affiliated with CBA or ECPA then at least she won’t be constrained by the conservative evangelical content guidelines CBA/ECPA imposes on their authors.
But then, who knows. Perhaps Mrs. Rice can pull that off too and still not lose the audience she proposes to be targeting, her old readers, though I rather doubt it.
It would be some task indeed.
Sue,
Knopf is a general market publisher. They may very well be the publisher of some or all of her past titles as well, but I’m not taking the time to check on that.
Although rare these days, it isn’t unheard of for Christian books to be released by general market publishers. The Mitford books are now published in the general market.
Robin
Thank-you Robin, but it doesn’t take a lot of research to figure out who published all of her other books. What I wanted to know was if Knopf was an CBA/ECPA affiliated publisher.
I now know, after going to Amazon to check on a couple of her other books that Knopf is in fact simply a mainstream traditional publisher and not a niche market publisher and that they did in fact, publish a few of her vampire books.
Interesting.
I wonder if this last vampire book she proposes to write within the next year, from a Christian world view–I wonder if it will get the grand attention that her Christ the Lord series is getting here.
Wouldn’t that be nice.
I wouldn’t say rare that Christian books have been published by “general market Publishers” (by that I guess you mean traditional)In fact, a lot of Christian fiction books are published by mainstream traditional publishers who don’t serve a niche market.
Seeing Mrs. Rice being discussed here just made me wonder if the publisher was CBA/ECPA affiliated as that is rare. Not many blogs who promote Christian works of fiction, talk about books outside the CBA.
Or at least, that’s what I’ve found. 🙂