Christ the Lord: The Road to Cana

by Anne Rice

-Christ the Lord Series, Book 2-

(New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2008)

Hardcover, 242 Pages, Fiction

ISBN: 9781400043521, US$25.95

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

The same was in the beginning with God.

All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.

In him was life; and the life was the light of men.

And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.

…

He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not.

—The Gospel According to John 1:1-5, 10

From the Cover: Anne Rice’s second book in her hugely ambitious and courageous life of Christ begins during his last winter before his baptism in the Jordan and concludes with the miracle at Cana. It is a novel in which we see Jesus—he is called Yeshua bar Joseph—during a winter of no rain, endless dust, and talk of trouble in Judea. Legends of a Virgin birth have long surrounded Yeshua, yet for decades he has lived as one among many who come to the synagogue on the Sabbath. All who know and love him find themselves waiting for some sign of the path he will eventually take. And at last we see him emerge from his baptism to confront his destiny—and the Devil. We see what happens when he takes the water of six great limestone jars, transforms it into cool red wine, is recognized as the Anointed One, and urged to call all Israel to take up arms against Rome and follow him as the prophets have foretold. As with Out of Egypt, the opening novel, The Road to Cana is based on the Gospels and on the most respected New Testament scholarship. The book’s power derives from the profound feeling its author brings to the writing and the way in which she summons up the presence of Jesus.

My Review: I picked up my first Anne Rice novel some time in high school. It was Interview with the Vampire. No surprise there, really. It was, is and probably always will be her most popular novel. I went on from there to the rest of The Vampire Chronicles and The Lives of the Mayfair Witches and also into some of the periphery novels. Then, just about three years ago, I picked up Rice’s Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt.

I was skeptical at first, but Rice soon pulled me into her chronicle of the life of Christ. I had heard rumors that she was planning to write a trilogy, I was intrigued, though I heard nothing further about it and assumed that she had decided not to write the remaining novels. Then, about a month ago, someone on a message board I belong to posted a review of The Road to Cana and I was taken by surprise. I had not heard a thing about Cana’s release. I immediately put it on hold at my local library and anxiously waited. It took nearly a month for me to get my hot little hands on the book but when I did … it only took 24 hours to plow my way through it.

Anne Rice’s Christ the Lord: The Road to Cana is a marvelous novel. Rice has done a wonderful job of recreating Ancient Palestine and the Jewish community, culture and way of life that existed at the time. Rice has taken a very large risk in writing from a first person point-of-view—having Christ tell His own story—because the Jesus that she has created is one that is very human, and that could step on more than a few toes. (Anyone remember a little novel called The Da Vinci-something-or-other and the flap that book created?) However, where Anne Rice succeeds (and Dan Brown fails) is that Rice is respectful of the personage (both historical and religious) of Jesus Christ as well as His divinity and role to many (including Rice herself and Your Faithful Reviewer) as Redeemer and Savior of the World.

Cana presents a Christ that both accepts and is wary of His role as the Messiah. Rice’s prose is poignant and, at times, heartbreaking as her Christ makes the decisions that put Him on the road to the Jordan River, His baptism at the hands of His cousin John, His temptation in the desert and, finally, the calling of the first disciples as well as His first miracle and beginning of His ministry at the wedding at Cana. Even more so than Out of Egypt, Cana reminds me strongly of Nikos Kazantzakis’s The Last Temptation of Christ, chiefly because of the humanity that Rice’s Christ evinces.

As I said with Out of Egypt, this is fiction that “transcends story and instead qualifies as an act of faith.” The Road to Cana is a Must-Read for anyone who believes in Jesus Christ.

This review can also be found at Bryan’s Book Blog