Almost anyone who knows the name Anne Rice knows it from her legendary vampire novels, especially "Interview With The Vampire." Her work has always been meticulously researched, and stunningly written. So when she chose to write about the most well know figure in the Western world, that it would be well-written and well-researched was a given fact. What I didn't expect was the rich passion and inspired thought that went into the novel "Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt."
Told from in the first person, from the perspective of a divine seven-year-old Jesus bar Joseph, the first century Middle East springs to life. Jesus doesn't understand his powers, does not yet know the story of his birth and the reason his family fled to Egypt. He is a smart child, a good child, but when he miraculously kills, then revives a child he is confused. Again when he heals his uncle, he doesn't know for sure that he was the one who did it. He doesn't know why his family has been hidden, why the strange reaction of the village people upon his family's return to Nazareth. On the way home, they stop in Jerusalem for Passover, and Jesus witnesses a riot, and watches as soldiers impale a man with spear. That scene replays in his head, especially during a feverish dream. The novel ends when Jesus begins to discover his destiny, and learns the truth about what happened in the sleepy town of Bethlehem.
While the story of the life of Christ is more than well known, Rice's novel colorfully depicts the life a carpenter's family in a small town in first century Judea, masterfully uncovers the emotions of a boy on the verge of discovering his Godhood and evokes true feelings in this reader. I can't wait to read the recently released second volume, "Christ The Lord: Road To Cana"
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