Anne Rice's Road to Cana

Thanks...your review sold me. I don't usually have time these days for fiction but I'll make time for this book.

I have a large lump in my throat about this David. How is this not just "Interview with a Messiah?" Jesus and Avigail, instead of Lestat and the Talamasca? I am every bit the Evangelical, Conservtaive, Born-Again, Bible-believing Christian that so many in the press so flippantly toss around as a "label," with the exception that the liberal media have no clue that we actually think things through as a matter of intellectualism. Every Evangelical Christian I interact with, which has been many from coast to coast, are well aware of the fact that Jesus was "tempted" in every way that we are. And there are already MANY books in Christian book stores that do not ignore that fact. Why the need for another temptation treatise? Titillating novels are - all puns aside - a dime a dozen and obviously common and typical. Shouldn't Mrs. Rice use her powers of scribe to better use by engaging in apologia and not just another "product" offering?

I read this book in 2 days & loved it.
Her book supports everything the Bible teaches & tackles an issue that is hard for many to understand. Although He is God, He was born as a Human. Anne does a great job of exploring these issues & telling a story of what it could have possibly been like for Him.
Her book is different then others, because it explores the ideas of what Jesus would have been thinking as He encountered other people in His everyday life.
Overall I found the book to be a respectful & loving look at Jesus understanding his role as the Messiah & as God.

Donny, what would it take to make you a happy person?

Donny,
I suggest you do some research on Anne Rice.
Anne used to be an atheist, but after her husband died, she returned to the church & is now a practicing Catholic. She has stated that she will only write for God & that if she ever does write a vampire novel again it will be vastly different then her past novels & will involve the redemption of Lestat. Also I don't know how you can sit here & comment on a book you refuse to buy or even look at.

You seem to really be judging her by her vampire novels.
I suggest you go to www.annerice.com & you'll see how drastically she has changed.
I also think how you are going about attacking Anne Rice is very un-Christian like.

Donny - you have fallen into that very, very dangerous trap of confusing political opinions and theological commitment. I challenge you - read the book. If you don't like it, if, after reading it, you can find it in your heart to continue writing what you write about it - about her - I will personally refund the money. It is a very, very dangerous thing to assume you know someone's heart - and their writing - without ever met them or read the work. Deal? David

I heard your review on NPR yesterday, Mr. Kuo, as well as your inteview w/Terry Gros a few months back on Fresh Air. How to put this to you politely, Mr. Kuo? I think you came to understand that the Faith Based Initiatives program was a piece of travesty? Well, I think your comprehension of the abilities of Anne Rice as a writer is a bit of a travesty. I think Anne Rice--well, I have once or twice attempted to read Anne Rice. In my estimation--and my estimation includes an extensive background in Classics (I can read Greek, Latin, Italian, French, Spanish, a bit of Russian, German, etc.) religious studies, philosophy, western literature, art, etc.--Anne Rice is a "pot boiler" level of writer. I am well aware how enormously successful she is at her chosen career. I suppose what makes her successful is that her self-selecting readers have less than fastidious tastes in the quality of the writing they read. Why don't you go out and pick up a copy of a translation in English (unless you are able to read Greek, but given the quality of tastes in what you consider transcendent writing and the quality of your own writing, I rather suspect not) of Nikos Kazantzakis' "The Last Temptation of Christ." You may rent the movie if you want (I have not seen), but I earnestly suggest you read what it takes to be a Nobel prize winning author before you decide what is the greatest piece of writing you ever read.

In the future, David, I suggest you not try out as a serious reviewer of books. Unless, that is, you first fill up the apparent vaccuum in your education with having read some serious literature. This, generally, is my quarrel with most earnest Christians: maybe they have or maybe they haven't read the Bible, but they certainly seem not as a generalized lot of the most of them, read any genuine world class literature.

Thank you, L.S, Jardine, M.A.

L.S - Thanks for your comments on my blog. I am not sure what provoked your deep anger at me but I am sincerely sorry for whatever it is I did to upset you. You are right, I am not as learned as you are. I do not know Greek or French or Latin. But as I look through my shelves and shelves of books - at Solzhenitsyn and Shakespeare, at Joyce, Calvino, James, and Welty - not to mention the Greek and Roman classics, I think it is fair to say I am not exactly illiterate. And I think it is important to note that I did not say this was a book for the ages. I didn't say this was anything close. I said it was an extraordinary book worth reading and it is. It is because it provides a brilliant, humble, original take on the unknowns of Jesus life. I wish you the best, David Kuo

Jardine, the sound a fly causes to happen when it makes an aerial retreat from where it was sitting, is the origin of the term "Buzz Off." Did you know that?

Often, all a college degree means is that you have read a lot of some parts of some books that an opinionated and usually Humanist-leaning school employee told you to read (or else!) and you passed some tests that garnered you your "degree." An education can be no more enlightening a process than learning how to thoroughly clean the bowels of the fecal matter that bears a striking resemblence to the "opinions" of so many learned individuals these days. The next day full of crap once more. Nothing more, nothing less. Ad infinitum. That's latin.

David, I'll get the book at a library. I do not trust Anne Rice's "social" agenda and certainly do not want to support it. I smell gay rights coming soon to a novel of her's in the future. Apples some times hit the ground and roll back against the tree they fell from. I do not question her walk with the Lord, but my spidey senses are tingling.

Jesus would have been very charasmatic. To think that no women would have been interested him would be weird. Of course Jesus wouldn't have ever pursued anything like that, but that still doesn't mean that there might not have been women who were interested in Him.
Some of the posts above I sense are harboring a deeper "hatred" towards gays. For example someone's above reason for not liking the book is because the author's son is gay.

When are the majority of Christians going to start moving in positive directions like helping the homeless & those in need & being a shinning light!
Instead we have the "gay haters" & those who "stand outside abortion cliincs." These, "Christians," are a lousy example for the rest of us.
Yes I believe that Homosexuality is a sin, but that doesn't make a gay person evil. People sin every day. Moses was a murderer & Noah was a drunk. David cheated on his wife & had an innocent man killed.
But, God still loved these men.

The Lord has really been speaking to me through an old Bobbsey Twins volume. Unfortunately, it's in Hungarian, which probably puts it beyond the reach of the average neanderthral who posts here.

Canucklehead, B.O., B.S.

Neanderthal, here. Hungarian Bobbsey Twins sounds like porn to me.

As a liberal (or progressive, if you will), I disagree with you on some significant issues. But I find your blog uplifting and a great help as I wrestle with the questions of my own faith. And sometimes, as when I was reading this review, you just down right inspire me. Really not pertinent to this day's posting, but I thought it would be nice to tell you anyway. Peace.

"When are the majority of Christians going to start moving in positive directions like helping the homeless & those in need & being a shining light!"

Same question could be asked of Muslims, Jews, etc. How come it never is? These are religions that also include charity as a great virtue, and yet, no one ever asks questions like this of them.

Come to think of it, no one ever complains about less-than-perfect Hindus, Buddhists, Jews, Muslims, New Age adherents, etc. They only complain of less-than-perfect Christians. Why are we held to such a higher standard than the rest?

The only answer that I can think of is this: we are held to a higher standard, because Jesus was (and is) of a higher standard than the rest. He wasn't just another guru, another teacher, another rabbi. He's something else completely. And I think people sense that. And it makes them really, really uncomfortable.

I have read some of Ms. Rice's work and find her to be the literary equivalent of a Big Mac.

I am excited about a book that will direct people to Christ of the Bible. He is so contrary to our world -- his desire to uphold Old Testament morality is only eclipsed by his desire to blow the Pharisees away in His desire to show grace. But, most of all, I am excited to read this book because of Rice's portrayal of his great faith in God, the Father. The one thing that Jesus is MOST impressed by in the Gospels is when Jews and Gentiles alike have faith in His power in their very personal, life or death situations. This is the greatest test of an individual. And Jesus looked at each person's deepest sin and challenged them -- Nicodemus thought good works were enough -- Jesus revealed his arrogance, the woman at the well thought she could find fulfillment in sex, He showed her how only He would fill her need to be loved, and Paul revealed the sin of the Pharisees by showing how they were indeed, the older son who never repented in the story of the prodigal son.

I llok forward to a book that might show the humanity of Jesus. He was fully human and fully God at the same time. This is something James Joyce could not comprehend. Neither can Dawkins or most of those who think they are "found" in this country. especially me.

Lord, have mercy. I've been away for awhile. David writes a lovely piece about a book he finds to reflect the Gospel - and the attack dogs strike. Donny, you will be happy only if those that you consider evil or wrong are sufficiently punished - well that's not exactly the Gospel.
Canucklehead - the Bobbsey twins is one of my earliest reading memories. I have a first edition. Nan and Bert, Flossie and Freddie - is that right.
Doug - Zane Grey certainly reflects the moral view of many on this blog. Except with panache and a western twang - I have family members who have lived their lives in imitation of a mythic Zane Grey universe
I've started reading Mrs. Rice and find that her work is quite amazing on many levels. She is a seeker and it shows.
I don't think she refutes Dawkins - find him rather full of - well - full of it. Spring break is coming up, I"m going to read a bit of Anne Rice and some trashy murder mysteries and perhaps something really pretentious. Proust or Hesse or something equally "literary". Suspect, I'll get the most out of Rice and will enjoy the murder mysteries. Heck, it's spring break - forget the Proust.

Matt, don't let someone like Donny keep you out of potentially interesting and enlightening conversations that occur on this blog. His sad obsessions are his own problem; ignore him and the nonsense he spews.