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CHRIST THE LORD OUT OF EGYPT
By Anne Rice
I really enjoyed Interview with the Vampire. That probably makes me a little weird. But Anne Rice’s vampire books, including her latest Blood Canticle, had a certain grotesque magic to them. The language, the characters, the emotions were so raw and flawed, and in those flaws sometimes inspiration was hidden.
Christ the Lord is the story of Jesus as a boy of 7 told from his perspective. What’s so disappointing is – this subject matter so obviously should be inspiring – but wasn’t. The novel just left me flat. The sentence structure was so dull and plodding. It was like reading the “begats” from the Old Testament, but without any of the awe associated with reading inspired text.
The premise is compelling, to be sure – how Jesus learned that he was the son of God, how he came to understand how he could bring a playmate back to life or cure a blind man, how he came to understand what his father meant when he said his mother was visited by an angel. But for some reason I can’t quite put my finger on, this premise wilts in the hands of Anne Rice.
Please know that I am in the minority. Most everyone I know who read this book thoroughly enjoyed it and cannot wait for the sequels that are obviously in the works, but I cannot join them. I give a “skip this one” thumbs down to Anne Rice’s new after-conversion novel, Christ the Lord. On the Book Beat for KSL Newsradio, Amanda Dickson.
