Christ the Lord Out of Egypt
if you haven't heard, Anne Rice, famed author of vampire novels, has converted back into her childhood faith of Catholicism. with this conversion, she has felt called to consecrate all her future work to God. her book, Christ the Lord Out of Egypt, is the first since this decision.
i haven't read any of Rice's previous works, so i can't take a comparative stance between this and her previous works. and as i've mentioned before, i don't spend much time reading fiction, so i tend to enjoy what i do read, and i have a harder time critiquing it than the non-fiction i read. that said, i did enjoy this book and found the way she treated the subject matter fascinating in many ways.
the time period covered in the book is about one year of Jesus's young life, starting when he's seven years old. we don't have much history about Jesus's childhood in the bible, so she fills in the gaps with a ton of historical research of the cultural milieu of the time as well as through apocryphal sources.
what i found most interesting is the journey that the young Jesus takes in her book from a point of unknowing to knowing, the novel is a movement towards clarity. Jesus sees there's something different, and something he doesn't know that his family that surrounds him is aware of, but he can't ask what it is while he's desperate to know. the process of his coming to knowledge and awareness is painfully slow at times, but at the same time i see that as mirroring our own progress in life. how often do we realize we are blind, but have not the power to give ourselves sight? how often do we see our own ignorance, but are unable to move past it in our own time?
her Catholicism shines through so many parts of the book, as she holds onto Catholic tenets through her descriptions and explanations in the novel. for example, the Catholic church holds that Mary remained a virgin, yet the Bible refers to James as a brother of Jesus. Rice places James as a son of Joseph from a previous marriage so as to hold onto the tension of Jesus having a brother while Mary remains a virgin. i found it beautiful how she held onto these tenets, many of which i have struggled with (enough to push me away from Catholicism), in such a simple and faithful way. i mean, when i don't understand something, it drives me away. yet Rice manages - even after years of atheism - to hold a simple, childlike faith even on disputed matters. i envy that simplicity.
i believe Rice plans on continuing with a series of books about the life of Jesus, and after reading this one, i look forward to the rest.
i haven't read any of Rice's previous works, so i can't take a comparative stance between this and her previous works. and as i've mentioned before, i don't spend much time reading fiction, so i tend to enjoy what i do read, and i have a harder time critiquing it than the non-fiction i read. that said, i did enjoy this book and found the way she treated the subject matter fascinating in many ways.
the time period covered in the book is about one year of Jesus's young life, starting when he's seven years old. we don't have much history about Jesus's childhood in the bible, so she fills in the gaps with a ton of historical research of the cultural milieu of the time as well as through apocryphal sources.
what i found most interesting is the journey that the young Jesus takes in her book from a point of unknowing to knowing, the novel is a movement towards clarity. Jesus sees there's something different, and something he doesn't know that his family that surrounds him is aware of, but he can't ask what it is while he's desperate to know. the process of his coming to knowledge and awareness is painfully slow at times, but at the same time i see that as mirroring our own progress in life. how often do we realize we are blind, but have not the power to give ourselves sight? how often do we see our own ignorance, but are unable to move past it in our own time?
her Catholicism shines through so many parts of the book, as she holds onto Catholic tenets through her descriptions and explanations in the novel. for example, the Catholic church holds that Mary remained a virgin, yet the Bible refers to James as a brother of Jesus. Rice places James as a son of Joseph from a previous marriage so as to hold onto the tension of Jesus having a brother while Mary remains a virgin. i found it beautiful how she held onto these tenets, many of which i have struggled with (enough to push me away from Catholicism), in such a simple and faithful way. i mean, when i don't understand something, it drives me away. yet Rice manages - even after years of atheism - to hold a simple, childlike faith even on disputed matters. i envy that simplicity.
i believe Rice plans on continuing with a series of books about the life of Jesus, and after reading this one, i look forward to the rest.
2 comments:
That's really cool, I hadn't heard about her journey back towards Catholicism. I've read quite a few of her books and was always interested in her viewpoint, but now I'll have to check that book out. Thanks for the review - you really should read more fiction! :)
she spends a lot of time after the novel in the back of the book telling her story and sharing what resources she used in her research, which is interesting.
i guess i never know what to read fiction-wise, so if you have any suggestions, pass them along. i'm rather surprised with how much fiction i've read in the last few months since i read this, These Lovely Bones, Life of Pi, and finished Good Omens.
i have a few more on my shelf that i hope to read after this semester winds down, including The Kite Runner. i find that lately, i've been attracted to reading fiction that's landing on the top ten lists. i'm not doing it because i want to be hip or anything, but i find it's helpful to be more aware of what's impacting our culture somehow. so it's kind of fun.
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