Historical Fiction from the Recomverted Anne Rice
The second in the trilogy recounting the lost years of Jesus of Nazareth before the emergence of the New Testament Gospel. Anne Rice continues with the accounts of Jesus at the start of his ministry and covers some more of the lost adult years not written about in the bible. The title refers to the famous water into wine miracle at a wedding that is attributed to Jesus. Great storytelling style as always from Rice. It is clear she really is a Catholic again.

Spellbinding and breathtaking
Anne Rice takes your breath away in many moments of this book. This story of Christ - part 2, surely anticipating part 3 - is extraordinarily restrained. Christ's voice is a peaceful, quiet one, framed by thoughtful reflection. His miracles are understated, wielded with minimalist restraint instead of flash and glory. His personae is one of gentle persuasion, not bold command. The Jesus of this story is truly the "lamb", rather than "lion", of God - his authority emanating from a place of inner power rather than external might.

All in all, this imagining of Christ's adult life through to the wedding in Cana is as good an imagining as any, and surely better than most.

I listened to Road to Cana unabridged on audio CD narrated by James Naughton. To my ear, Naughton's pitch is low for Christ - a rumbling bass/baritone, where I imagine Christ with a higher vocal register. Still, Naughton, as you'd expect from a veteran Broadway actor, carries the demanding role with great expressiveness and sincerity. He gives a fine performance overall.

Jesus as the Son of Man
Anne Rice's surprising novel, a creative improvement over the wooden first installment in the series, traces Jesus' adult life just before his public ministry, so he's around 30. Since the Bible says nothing about this period, Rice is free to invent and speculate, putting her imagination to work alongside the prodigious research she conducted for this series. The result is a captivating novel that manages to portray Jesus as both human and divine; he has a believable love interest he is trying to deny, family troubles, and more than the usual round of difficulties with the government. He also has a transcendent quality that is obvious to all who know him, even those who are deeply suspicious of it. As I read it, I was impressed by Rice's ability to make Jesus into a plausible character; that's awfully hard to do with someone who is supposed to be sinless. How can a novelist make a sinless character a fully human, fleshed-out person? Yet Rice manages this feat. The novel is also peopled with other loving, flawed characters.

Christ the Lord - the Road to Cana by Anne Tice

excellent story, reflecting plenty of research into Jewish life in the first century AD

Reverent, Precise and Correct Catholic Philosophy
I have always enjoyed Rice's Vampire Chronicles [who cannot love Lestat, one of the most interesting fictional characters ever developed in the English Language]. I was somewhat surprised to first find that Rice had turned to Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt. It certainly seemed outside her normal repertoire. Intrigued, I made the purchase, and learned from her introduction that she more or less had 'rediscovered' her Catholic Heritage after the death of her husband.

The Road to Cana is a worthy successor to the first book in the series, moving along from Christ's youth to his age of ministry. It should be noted that the prose in both of these Books of Jesus are very restrained, muted, and simplistic in nature. The writing is far less flamboyant and dramatic, unlike the Vampire Chronicles, and thus appears to me to show the subtle application of 'simplicity' as a fundamental presentation of the story of the Incarnate Christ.

This style is appropriate for the subject matter, gives an excellent picture of the historical scene, as well as the hesitant intervention of Christ in Human History. There are no surprises, although the story is told with fluid, perceptive clarity.


As a final Note, I would submit that Chapter 22 [?], wherein Jesus engages in a dialogue with Satan, is worth the price of the entire book. It brilliantly, lucidly, and accurately outlines the fundamental basis for the incarnation of Christ, the Delusion of Lucifer, and the underlying Catholic philosophical underpinnings to this complex, yet necessary 'debate' and 'revelation' between God and Satan. This Chapter alone is absolutely stunning in that it captures extremely complex philosophical concepts and presents them in a cogent, coherent 'conversation' between the Father and the Deluded Morning Star. Please read this book. You will not be sorry.