CHRIST THE LORD

review by

Tina Gasperson

CHRIST THE LORD: Out of Egypt

by Anne Rice

(Alfred A. Knopf)

Reader Appeal: Adults and mature teens, supervised children.

Genre: Historical fiction

In a startling culmination of her career as a crafter of the macabre, novelist Anne Rice changes gears to give us Christ the Lord, a beautifully written tale of Jesus' life as a young boy in Egypt, Jerusalem, and Nazareth.

When the book begins, Jesus is seven and lives in Egypt with Mary, Joseph, his brother James, his extended family, and thousands of other Jews who left Israel because of the murderous cruelty of King Herod. In the very first scenes, Jesus begins to realize there is something mysteriously different about him. Playing outside with other boys in the street, Jesus' words, "you'll never get where you're going," spoken in self-defense to the neighborhood bully, strike the boy dead. Surprised, but knowing he is responsible, Jesus goes to the little boy's home, bends over him and speaks a few words, bringing him back to life. The boy begins to scream at him, "Son of David! Son of David!"

It soon becomes clear that the family will have to leave Egypt, or risk exposing its secret. There's something special about Jesus, and there are some awful circumstances surrounding his birth that no one must discover, including Jesus himself. Joseph has a dream that Herod has died, so the family packs up and takes a ship back to Israel, where Jesus visits the temple for the first time and begins to learn more about his calling.

As events unfold and Jesus grows, he is horrified to finally discover the truth: that hundreds of baby boys were killed by order of Herod at his birth. He learns why he was never to call Joseph "father." And slowly, he begins to understand and accept his purpose, his origin, and his destiny.

This fictional story of Jesus ends with him at the age of 12, shortly after the biblical account of his family's trip to Jerusalem for the Passover. When his mother finds him at the Temple, he says, "Mother, I must know things now. Things I'm forbidden to ask you or Joseph. I must be about what it is that I have to do!"

Later, when Jesus is alone, pondering all that he has been told, he speaks these poignant words of surrender to His Father:

"Born to die…Yes, born to die. Why else would I be born of a woman? Why else would I be flesh and blood if it wasn't to die?…I was sent here to be alive. To breathe and sweat and thirst and sometimes cry…Father, I am your child."

Throughout the book, Jesus' relationship with his mother is a tender display of affection and favor. He also especially loves his cousin Salome, a little girl who is the same age as he, whom he says is "like my sister." In every action, Jesus' divine nature shows: he is ever respectful, ever compassionate, ever gentle, but capable of fierce anger when he senses injustice, and intense sorrow at the sight of tragedy.

In spite of this, Rice's prose does not reach its full potential in Christ the Lord. It seems stilted and even fearful in the first third of the book. Perhaps she is unsure because of the vastly different subject matter she tackles. By the second half, however, she hits her stride with the typically melodic, almost hypnotizing storytelling for which she is best known.

Some may avoid this book because of Rice's reputation with previous novels like Interview with the Vampire, or Queen of the Damned. However, Christ the Lord is a reverent, clean account of the life of Jesus, written by a woman who admits she has done a u-turn and returned to the faith of her youth. I recommend this book for adults and mature teens looking for a fascinating, historically reliable (though fictional) glimpse into the life of the boy Jesus, and for supervised reading by younger children whose parents are familiar with the text.

FAMILYFANS RATING:  B

 --TG