The Road to Cana
As a fan of Anne Rice horror novels I did not know quite what to think of her writing a series a novels on Jesus. I was quite happy to hear of her return to the Catholic faith, but was rather skeptical as to what these novels would be like. I received Christ the Lord: Christ the Lord: The Road to Cana
The novel doesn't start off that well with the stoning of two adolescent boys for alleged homosexuality and I thought that perhaps this novel would be more about ideology than trying to plumb the depths of the incarnation.
Tom at Disputations ably noted my second concern about the novel.
"And I may have rolled my eyes as Jesus moons over the beautiful young girl who lives across the street. (Not to worry, though; Rice's Jesus knows that the personal problems of a Messiah don't amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world.)"
The main thing you might wonder about a first person perspective of Jesus of how the author would handle Jesus being fully man and fully God. The first half of the novel mainly concentrates on Jesus' humanity while not discounting his divinity. It is not the "ignorant Jesus" portrayal that is such a common theological fad and the novel has Jesus being aware of his mission to a degree and at times calls in this knowledge.
The novel has Joseph as having been previously married and that the Apostle James is a step-brother and has him living to just before his public ministry. This idea comes from the Protoevangelium of James and I believe she also used some of this apocryphal Gospel in her first book on Jesus. This though is a perfectly acceptable and orthodox understanding concerning Joseph and the brethren of the Lord. Regardless she uses it to good effect. I found quite interesting the question she brings up in how the villagers might have seen Jesus who would have been somewhat of an oddity having never married. She references the Annunciation, the miracle of Jesus' birth, the angels proclaiming his birth, and the Magnificat in the text and I enjoyed the way it was incorporated and not cast into question in any way.
The problem with so many writers is that they can only see through the lens of their time. That they have to layer on modern attitudes onto people who lived in more ancient times. The movie The Nativity Story demonstrated this problem by having a Mary displaying teenage angst and at first not accepting Joseph as chosen for her husband. Anne Rice though was able to write of the people in Jesus's village in what seemed to me to be in an authentic way. Their concerns and worries were the concerns and worries of the time. The characters are nicely fleshed out and quite believable.
The first half of the novel dwells in the period of time just before Jesus' public life and the end of his hidden life. The plot for this first half is somewhat interesting, but it is when Jesus's cousin John the Baptist appears on the world stage that we come to firmer ground. It is this second half that I found quite enjoyable to read and loaded with many insights into his public ministry. Her description of meeting his cousin and being baptized and then going into the desert verge on a meditation of these events. Especially the temptation in the desert is a very imaginative description of the events and I think some of the best writing in the book. The Gospels has the calling of the Apostles compacted in time and the book treats their calling in the same way. Very rapidly we meet the Apostles and they come to join and follow Jesus and we see them at the wedding of Cana. The description of the events at Cana are also quite stirring and I found the interaction between Jesus and his mother Mary brought tears to my eyes and will help me when praying the Luminous Mysteries.
I had a couple of minor qualms of the first half of the novel which I mentioned at the beginning of the review, but I found the book to be totally worthwhile and really quite an amazing effort. There is no deconstruction of Jesus and the novel is quite orthodox and a very fruitful meditation on Jesus by Anne Rice. It really makes me look forward to the next novel in the series and I will be going back to read the first one. The best thing I can say about "The Road to Cana" is that it will be one I will put on my reread list.
Known as 
Her Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt inspired me in certain ways, described in this post.
...and here's the link.
Hmmm. I used to be an Anne Rice fan when I was in my twenties but found her fascination with homo-erotic themes blended with sacred imagery increasingly annoying. I felt convicted to simply stop reading her books although I thought she was one of the best modern writers we've got.
It's hard for me to read anything fictional about Jesus Christ. I think it's pretty presumptive and very, very tricky. I appreciate the review but I'm not sure I could read the book without thinking that at some point, Armand would lunge at someone from around the corner and sink his teeth into some villager. Still, I'm happy she's come home. :-)
I am still very, very hesitant to attempt to read Anne Rice's work. However, your review may have nudged me just enough in the right direction to do so. It sounds intriguing to say the least, yet so did the fruit in the Garden of Eden.
Any chance you are confusing "plummet" with "plumb"?
Thanks for the review.
Although I had heard of Anne Rice's vampire novels, I was never intrigued enough to read them. However, I did read Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt, her first novel about Jesus. I, too, expected to be disappointed, but was delighted to find that it was thoroughly orthodox in its theology, and yet very imaginatively and well written. Since then, I have been eagerly anticipating her current novel, but have not had time to read it yet.
It is rare these days to find novels that are inspiring and actually illuminate Christian themes, rather than disparaging and trashing them. It appears that Ms. Rice has had a genuine conversion to the Catholic faith and has dedicated her gift for writing accordingly. Please check out her website at http:\\www.annerice.com for more information on her conversion and for reviews by others, including a number of Christian bloggers.
BTW, I am just an inveterate reader, and have no connection to Anne Rice or her publishers, either personally or professionally.
Thank you for this. I've been wondering. But I'm still not entirely convinced. I've been feeling like I like my religion untainted by fiction, and for my fiction not to aspire to religion, if you know what I mean. And yet I read & liked The Robe. I know they're worlds apart, but can you offer any kind of comparison between Road to Cana and The Robe? And as a reader of the Vampire Chronicles (as I was also), how do you think her strengths in writing those novels resurface in her writing of The Road to Cana? That is, if you have the time! ;)
In case there are any other bewildered non-fans out there, here's one reader who was uninspired enough by Anne Rice's first novel about Jesus to have no interest in reading her second. There were no alarm bells going off, but there was no echo of insightful truth, either. All in all, I thought the first attempt was flat. I can't remember if I plowed through to the end.
wow. This review surprises me. Pleasantly, though. I was a fan in my younger atheistic days of the Lestat books. But I grew weary of them and her. I read about her conversion and was delighted but wary of her attempts. But I'll give it a try. (Although her endorsement of Hillary still irks me)
I've never read Anne Rice's vampire stuff, but because of favorable reviews from orthodox Catholics I trust, I read "Out of Egypt" when it came out. For the most part, I too was very pleasantly surprised!
I particularly appreciated her author's note at the end that described her process of writing and the research she did. I think it shines through the novel. She had to address the question of "which Jesus" to portray - and she chose the Jesus of the Gospels. Good for her! Not an easy decision for someone in her shoes to make.
I also enjoyed "Road to Cana". In both novels I think she did a great job of imagining what it might have been like for Jesus to be both fully human and fully divine. I wouldn't necessarily trust Rice in terms of all her theology, but what made it into these two books is pretty solid. Her commitment to trying to be faithful to the Church in these novels was comforting - and promising! Let us all continue to pray for her ongoing conversion, and that of all us Christians.
Ok, so I'm a minority of one. I wish I could have seen what y'all saw in Anne Rice's book(s) about Jesus; I wanted to like them, but they were flat to me. I remember, on the other hand, being surprised at how much I enjoyed the fictional Jesus in a novel about Mary Magdalen...Maybe it was more digestible because it told His story from the POV of a witness, rather than daring to "read His mind":
http://www.amazon.com/Mary-Called-Magdalene-Margaret-George/dp/0142002798
Thank you for the review! I hope to be able to read this book soon.