Christ the Lord: The Road to Cana

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Overview

Having completed the two cycles of legend to which she has devoted her career so far, Anne Rice gives us now her most ambitious and courageous book, a novel about the early years of CHRIST THE LORD, based on the Gospels and on the most respected New Testament scholarship.

The book’s power derives from the passion its author brings to the writing and the way in which she summons up the voice, the presence, the words of Jesus who tells the story.

Editorial Reviews

From Barnes & Noble

In this continuation of her historical novel Christ The Lord: Out of Egypt, Anne Rice uses a fictional framework to present the life of Jesus from just before his baptism to the Miracle at Cana. Like its predecessor, The Road to Cana is based on the four Gospels and current New Testament research but also draws power from Rice's vivid portrayals of Christ, his family, and his followers.

Janet Maslin

The Road to Cana perches on the brink of blasphemy. But it succeeds in treating Yeshua's humanity as an essential part of his divinity…Ms. Rice, when inspired, can deliver hypnotic, incantatory prose that celebrates Yeshua's ascension.
—The New York Times

More Reviews (3) Fewer Reviews

Publishers Weekly

Roles don't come a whole lot juicier than playing Jesus, so James Naughton hit the jackpot when he got to read Rice's first-person account of the life of Jesus-or Yeshua, as Rice has it. Naughton has a booming baritone-the voice of a born leader. As Jesus, he offers quiet strength and a touching sense of compassion. If the material is overly familiar, for obvious reasons, Naughton handles it well. His pronunciation of the Hebrew terms with which Rice studs the text is nimble, and his reading is hushed without being overly sappy or faux spiritual. Simultaneous release with the Knopf hardcover (Reviews, Feb. 4). (Apr.)

Library Journal

Rice's second offering in this series (after Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt), a meticulously researched work blending fictional events and characters with biblical ones, covers the life of Yeshua bar Joseph in his 30th year as he struggles with decisions about his future life. James Naughton (www.jamesnaughton.net) masterfully voices Jesus. Since the story is narrated by Jesus, Naughton doesn't have to concern himself with changing his voice to suit different characters, allowing his sonorous, mellow tones to bring Jesus to life with no distractions. Recommended for public libraries where Rice is popular and for church libraries with a membership that would not be offended by the mixing of biblical fact with fiction. [Also available from Random House Audio as a retail ed. unabridged CD (ISBN 9780739316030. $34.95) and digital download (ISBN 9780739316047. $17.50); audio clips available through library.booksontape.comand www.randomhouse.com; the Knopf hcs of both titles in this series received starred reviews, LJ11/1/05; LJ3/15/08.-Ed.]
—Nancy Reed

Kirkus Reviews

Rice continues the story of Jesus, which she began with 2005's stunning Out of Egypt. Silent Hannah, a deaf mute, claws the air. She's just heard that her brother, the Orphan, and Yitra, another beautiful boy, have been stoned by a viciously self-righteous crowd. The murdered boys were doomed by rumors of their forbidden love. Comforting Hannah with his strange serenity, is Yeshua bar Joseph, or Yeshua the Sinless, another townsman about whom the Nazarenes whisper: Past 30 and still unmarried? Fitfully sure of his destiny-his spiritual intuitions come upon him like spasms-Jesus senses that ordinary life is divinely denied him. He is smitten with Avigail, Silent Hannah's best friend and the town's angelic beauty, but knows that his love must be chaste. So when marauding brigands attempt to kidnap her, his rescue of the girl is tender but irreproachable. Not so, however, believes her furiously possessive father. Sealing her into his house, he makes her a horrific example of shunning; with patriarchal perversity, he blames the almost-rape victim for "allowing" herself to be attacked. And Jesus becomes suspect, with Avigail's father making insinuations about the young people's connection. To find her shelter, Jesus journeys to Cana, there to petition the scribe Hananel to intercede. Its subplots detailing the machinations of Pontius Pilate and Herod Antipas, the Essene struggle toward a purer faith and the flight of some of Jesus's comrades to Athens to study philosophy, this is painstakingly researched historical fiction. Rice's Christ is both convincing and compelling. Another winner. First printing of 500,000

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781400078943
Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Publication date: 2/24/2009
Format: Mass Market Paperback
Edition description: Reprint
Pages: 336
Sales rank: 209,834
Series: Christ the Lord Series, #2
Product dimensions: 4.10 (w) x 6.80 (h) x 1.10 (d)

Meet the Author

Anne Rice

Anne Rice is the author of twenty-seven books. She lives in Rancho Mirage, California. Visit her website at www.annerice.com.

Biography

In 1976, nearly 80 years after Bram Stoker published Dracula, Anne Rice's bestselling first novel, Interview with the Vampire, reinvented the vampire myth. Rice recast the undead as a secret society of decadent aesthetes, alternately entranced by the world's beauty and haunted by spiritual despair. Set largely in the author's home city of New Orleans, the book created a fantasy underworld rich and compelling enough to sustain its writer and readers through nine sequels, known collectively as The Vampire Chronicles.

Rice wrote Interview with the Vampire, she said later, "without ever realizing I was writing about loss. I was writing about my daughter's loss [Rice's daughter died in 1972]. And I was writing about my loss of Catholic faith long before that, because I had lost my faith in the year 1960, when I first went to college."

After her first book, Rice continued to write about loss -- and about vampires, witches and demons -- for more than 25 years. She also wrote, under the pen name A.N. Roquelaure, the Beauty series, an erotic retelling of the story of Sleeping Beauty; writing as Anne Rampling, she published two other novels, Exit to Eden and Belinda.

But it is as the queen of gothic fiction that Anne Rice's fans know her best. Her fans are passionate about her, and she returns the sentiment, e-mailing tirelessly with them and occasionally posting on their blogs. She also adores communing with them in person on book tours: "They give me personal, priceless and unforgettable feedback and verification of what I have achieved for them in my books," she once explained in a Salon interview.

After Blood Canticle was released in 1993, her readers, accustomed to an output of one book a year, kept asking her what was coming next. "And I've told them, 'You may not want what I'm doing next'," she said in a Newsweek interview.

They were in for a surprise. In 1998, Rice had returned to the Roman Catholic Church, and in 2005 she published Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt, a novel about the childhood of Jesus, narrated by himself.

"It's the most startling public turnaround since Bob Dylan's Slow Train Coming announced that he'd been born again," wrote David Gates in Newsweek.

But as Rice sees it, Christ the Lord represents the fulfillment of a longing that has been in her books, and in her soul, all along.

"This subject is in no way a departure from that of my previous works; no one who knows my work could possibly think so," she said in a Q&A on her publisher's Web site. "The whole theme of Interview with the Vampire was Louis's quest for meaning in a godless world. He searched to find the oldest existing ‘immortal' simply to ask ‘What is the meaning of what we are?' I was always compelled to seek the ‘big answers.'"

Christ the Lord received mixed reviews, but many critics were as impressed with the book's style as its ambitious subject matter. "Rice's book is a triumph of tone -- her prose lean, lyrical, vivid -- and character," noted Kirkus Reviews. Janet Maslin wrote in The New York Times Book Review: "Even in biblical times and in the Holy Land, Rice retains her obsessions with ritual and purification, with lavish detail and gaudy decor. But she writes this book in a simpler, leaner style, giving it the slow but inexorable rhythm of an incantation. The restraint and prayerful beauty of Christ the Lord is apt to surprise her usual readers and attract new ones."

Some of those usual readers, of course, are now wondering whether she will write any more vampire novels. Will the vampire Lestat ever return?

Anne's response, from her publisher's Web site: "I can't see myself doing that. My vampires were metaphors for the outsiders, the lost, the wanderers in the darkness who remembered the warmth of God's light but couldn't find it. My wish to explore that is gone now. I want to meet a much bigger challenge."

Good To Know

In our exlusive interview, Rice shared some fascinating stories with us:

"My first job was as a cafeteria waitress at a Walgreen's cafeteria over the drugstore on Canal and Baronne Street in New Orleans when I was sixteen years old. What a plunge into reality. Canal Street was then the only downtown in town. And I was in fact a boarding school student and unbeknownst to the principal, Sr. Felix, took this job on weekends. When she found out, she did not approve of a St. Joseph's Academy girl being a waitress. I was undeterred. I had discovered that I could turn time into money. I never forgot that lesson. The crashing boredom of childhood was over!"

"I was employed from then on a shocking variety of low level jobs, including grill cook at a huge downtown cafeteria in San Francisco. I had to be there at 5:00 a.m., and once while I was en route on a bus, a drunken man fell asleep against me. The conductor had to wake him up for me to get off, poor guy. I think he'd staggered out of an after hours club. I was a crack waitress, a receptionist, a claims examiner, a theatre usherette in a big Cinerama house, and must have seen It's Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World over one hundred times while standing there with a flashlight. My last job in the straight world -- after motherhood -- was that of proofreader for a law book company. I hated it. Then my devoted husband Stan, who was already teaching and had been for some time, said, 'Stay home and write, I believe in you.' And I wrote Interview with the Vampire."

"I was a painfully slow reader. Never really read a novel for pure pleasure until I was 35. It was Ordinary People by Judith Guest. Thought it very good."

"How do I unwind? There are different levels to unwind. The primo way for me is to read history or some form of involving scholarship. A good book on an obscure subject. The recent bestseller Krakatoa by Simon Winchester was a wonderful example! That's a delicious unwind book. And there are others out there like that. The British writers seem especially good at it. But I can't get enough on how or why the Roman Empire fell. That's my idea of a good evening. To be in Florida with the deck door open to the roar of the waves, and a good book open to pages on the decline of paganism."

"But! There is another kind of unwind. The gripping fiction bestseller that takes two days. The Da Vinci Code is a good example. Every now and then I have time for that. I was smiling all the way through it. At one time in my life, I had read everything I could find on the Knights Templar (see First Way to Unwind, above), and on Opus Dei, and Holy Blood, Holy Grail, and so I was just tickled by what the author did with the material. And of course, I couldn't stop reading. Such cleverness, such a puzzle and right up to the last page."

"Interest and hobbies: well, my interests are pretty much literary, except for maintaining two pre-Civil War houses in New Orleans (both family homes, one used for Mardi Gras season entertaining), and then I do devote some attention to my doll collection, which includes a small assortment of French antique dolls -- but this part of my life is drawing to a close. I am divesting myself of possessions rather than acquiring them. I am decorating, yes, and redecorating, but cutting down on the area, and the amount of things I have to maintain. I've let go of my huge property, St. Elizabeth's Orphanage -- a monster building which used to house my doll collection and so many other things. It was the fulfillment of dreams for about 10 years for me and so many other people. Weddings, book signings, book parties, benefits, fundraisers -- all kinds of events were held there. We even hosted President Clinton there. But that chapter of my life is over. For those ten years I asked 'what if?' many times. And I found out and as the result I am a satisfied person and a happy one. But it's over."

"I guess you could call my cats a hobby. I have five of them, all Siberians and very lovable and demanding and sweet. They are keepers certainly. Other than that, I don't know that I have hobbies so much as passions, and my passions center around my writing."

"My only other diversion of late is seeing that The Witching Hour will soon be made into a television limited series -- that is, a mini-series that will extend over 10 hours. The scripts that have been written by writer-producer John Wilder are very simply wonderful -- profoundly faithful to the material and the characters. Our producer, Mark Wolper, is extraordinarily dedicated and we have the network behind us. It looks very good."

"Other news looming is that Elton John and Rob Roth are making a musical based on the Vampire Chronicles for Broadway. I've talked to Elton John several times. He's absolutely charming. I've heard the first five songs, performed by him, and they were great. Bernie Taupin wrote the lyrics, and will write the lyrics for all. The other people involved have top credits. The treatment I read was a wonder -- very true to the books, quite terrific. My conversation with Rob Roth was very exciting."

"What I've learned from both these experiences so far -- the television series and the Broadway production -- is that the passion of people makes all the difference in the world. And sometimes it is the passion of a few key people that moves a project forward. Sometimes one person alone goes to the hard work of getting everybody else together, and making the studio that owns the underlying rights respond. People who love the work, who want to make something of it, can be brought together by that one key person. That one key person has to believe that past disappointments or failed connections don't mean anything. When you have that sort of person, something can happen."

"I've also learned that the author of the books usually can't do it. Not unless she wants to stop being an author altogether and move to L.A. or N.Y. and become a producer."

1. Also Known As:
  
  A. N. Roquelaure, Anne Rampling , Howard Allen O'Brien (birth name)
2. Hometown:
  
  Rancho Mirage, California
1. Date of Birth:
  
  October 4, 1941
2. Place of Birth:
  
  Rancho Mirage, California
1. Education:
  
  B.A., San Francisco State University, 1964; M.A., 1971
2. Website:
  
  http://www.annerice.com

Read an Excerpt

I was seven years old. What do you know when you’re seven years old? All my life, or so I thought, we’d been in the city of Alexandria, in the Street of the Carpenters, with the other Galileans, and sooner or later we were going home.

Late afternoon. We were playing, my gang against his, and when he ran at me again, bully that he was, bigger than me, and catching me off balance, I felt the power go out of me as I shouted: “You’ll never get where you’re going.”

He fell down white in the sandy earth, and they all crowded around him. The sun was hot and my chest was heaving as I looked at him. He was so limp.

In the snap of two fingers everyone drew back. It seemed the whole street went quiet except for the carpenters’ hammers. I’d never heard such a quiet.

“He’s dead!” Little Joseph said. And then they all took it up. “He’s dead, he’s dead, he’s dead.”

I knew it was true. He was a bundle of arms and legs in the beaten dust.

And I was empty. The power had taken everything with it, all gone.

His mother came out of the house, and her scream went up the walls into a howl. From everywhere the women came running.

My mother lifted me off my feet. She carried me down the street and through the courtyard and into the dark of our house. All my cousins crowded in with us, and James, my big brother, pulled the curtain shut. He turned his back on the light. He said:

“Jesus did it. He killed him.” He was afraid.

“Don’t you say such a thing!” said my mother. She clutched me so close to her, I could scarcely breathe.

Big Joseph woke up.

Now Big Joseph was my father, because he was married to my mother, but I’d never called him Father. I’d been taught to call him Joseph. I didn’t know why.

He’d been asleep on the mat. We’d worked all day on a job in Philo’s house, and he and the rest of the men had lain down in the heat of the afternoon to sleep. He climbed to his feet.

“What’s that shouting outside?” he asked. “What’s happened?”

He looked to James. James was his eldest son. James was the son of a wife who had died before Joseph married my mother.

James said it again.

“Jesus killed Eleazer. Jesus cursed him and he fell down dead.”

Joseph stared at me, his face still blank from sleep. There was more and more shouting in the street. He rose to his feet, and ran his hands back through his thick curly hair.

My little cousins were slipping through the door one by one and crowding around us.

My mother was trembling. “He couldn’t have done it,” she said. “He wouldn’t do such a thing.”

“I saw it,” said James. “I saw it when he made the sparrows out of clay on the Sabbath. The teacher told him he shouldn’t do such things on the Sabbath. Jesus looked at the birds and they turned into real birds. They flew away. You saw it too. He killed Eleazer, Mother, I saw it.”

My cousins made a ring of white faces in the shadows: Little Joses, Judas, and Little Symeon and Salome, watching anxiously, afraid of being sent out. Salome was my age, and my dearest and closest. Salome was like my sister.

Then in came my mother’s brother Cleopas, always the talker, who was the father of these cousins, except for Big Silas who came in now, a boy older than James. He went into the corner, and then came his brother, Justus, and both wanted to see what was going on.

“Joseph, they’re all out there,” said Cleopas, “Jonathan bar Zakkai, and his brothers, they’re saying Jesus killed their boy. They’re envious that we got that job at Philo’s house, they’re envious that we got the other job before that, they’re envious that we’re getting more and more jobs, they’re so sure they do things better than we do—.”

“Is the boy dead?” Joseph said. “Or is the boy alive?”

Salome shot forward and whispered in my ear. “Just make him come alive, Jesus, the way you made the birds come alive!”

Little Symeon was giggling. He was too little to know what was going on. Little Judas knew, but he was quiet.

“Stop,” said James, the little boss of the children. “Salome, be quiet.”

I could hear them shouting in the street. I heard other noises. Stones were hitting the walls of the house. My mother started to cry.

“You dare do that!” shouted my uncle Cleopas and he rushed back out through the door. Joseph went after him.

I wriggled out of my mother’s grasp and darted out before she could catch me, and past my uncle and Joseph and right into the crowd as they were all waving and hollering and shaking their fists. I went so fast, they didn’t even see me. I was like a fish in the river. I moved in and out through people who were shouting over my head until I got to Eleazer’s house.

The women all had their backs to the door, and they didn’t see me as I went around the edge of the room.

I went right into the dark room, where they’d laid him on the mat. His mother was there leaning on her sister and sobbing.

There was only one lamp, very weak.

Eleazer was pale with his arms at his sides, same soiled tunic, and the soles of his feet very black. He was dead. His mouth was open and his white teeth showed over his lip.

The Greek physician came in—he was really a Jew—and he knelt down, and he looked at Eleazer and he shook his head.

Then he saw me and said:

“Out.”

His mother turned and she saw it was me and she screamed.

I bent over him:

“Wake up, Eleazer,” I said. “Wake up now.”

I reached out and laid my hand on his forehead.

The power went out. My eyes closed. I was dizzy. But I heard him draw in his breath.

His mother screamed over and over and it hurt my ears. Her sister screamed. All the women were screaming.

I fell back on the floor. I was weak. The Greek physician was staring down at me. I was sick. The room was dim. Other people had rushed in.

Eleazer came up, and he was up all knees and fists before anyone could get to him, and he set on me and punched me and hit me, and knocked my head back against the ground, and kicked me again and again:

“Son of David, Son of David!” he shouted, mocking me, “Son of David, Son of David!” kicking me in the face, and in the ribs, until his father grabbed him around the waist and picked him up in the air.

I ached all over, couldn’t breathe.

“Son of David!” Eleazer kept shouting.

Someone lifted me and carried me out of the house and into the crowd in the street. I was still gasping. I hurt all over. It seemed the whole street was screaming, worse than before, and someone said the Teacher was coming, and my uncle Cleopas was yelling in Greek at Jonathan, Eleazer’s father, and Jonathan was yelling back, and Eleazer was shouting, “Son of David, Son of David!”

I was in Joseph’s arms. He was trying to move, but the crowd wouldn’t let him. Cleopas was pushing at Eleazer’s father. Eleazer’s father was trying to get at Cleopas, but other men took hold of his arms. I heard Eleazer shouting far away.

There was the Teacher declaring: “That child’s not dead, you hush up, Eleazer, who said he was dead? Eleazer, stop shouting! Whoever could think this child is dead?”

“Brought him back to life, that’s what he did,” said one of theirs.

We were in our courtyard, the entire crowd had pushed in with us, my uncle and Eleazer’s people still screaming at each other, and the Teacher demanding order.

Now my uncles, Alphaeus and Simon, had come. These were Joseph’s brothers. And they’d just woken up. They put up their hands against the crowd. Their mouths were hard and their eyes were big.

My aunts, Salome and Esther and Mary, were there, with all the cousins running and jumping as if this were a festival, except for Silas and Justus and James who stood with the men.

Then I couldn’t see anymore.

I was in my mother’s arms, and she had taken me into the front room. It was dark. Aunt Esther and Aunt Salome came in with her. I could hear stones hitting the house again. The Teacher raised his voice in Greek.

“There’s blood on your face!” my mother whispered. “Your eye, there’s blood. Your face is cut!” She was crying. “Oh, look what’s happened to you,” she said. She spoke in Aramaic, our tongue which we didn’t speak very much.

“I’m not hurt,” I said. I meant to say it didn’t matter. Again my cousins pressed close, Salome smiling as if to say she knew I could bring him back to life, and I took her hand and squeezed it.

But there was James with his hard look.

The Teacher came into the room backwards with his hands up. Someone ripped the curtain away and the light was very bright. Joseph and his brothers came in. And so did Cleopas. All of us had to move to make room.

“You’re talking about Joseph and Cleopas and Alphaeus, what do you mean drive them out!” said the Teacher to the whole crowd. “They’ve been with us for seven years!”

The angry family of Eleazer came almost into the room. The father himself did come into the room.

“Yes, seven years and why don’t they go back to Galilee, all of them!” Eleazer’s father shouted. “Seven years is too long! That boy is possessed of a demon and I tell you my son was dead!”

“Are you complaining that he’s alive now! What’s the matter with you!” demanded my uncle Cleopas.

Reading Group Guide

1. In the Christian New Testament, the Gospel of John records that Jesus' first miracle happened at the wedding feast of Cana, where water was changed into wine. Also in the Christian New Testament, the Gospel of Matthew states that, before performing any miracles, Jesus first entered the desert, where he was tempted by the Devil. Rice's first title for this book was The Temptation. Why do you think she changed the title to The Road to Cana?

2. Rice has customarily written in the first person, which offers the reader a particular insight into the inner life of the protagonist. In The Road to Cana, does the first-person narration give us insight into the inner life of Jesus? Is the intent of God elucidated? Discuss how revelations of Jesus' personal life are meaningful for contemporary Christians.

3. In The Road to Cana, Jesus says, "What I must know, I know. And what I must learn, I learn."Thomas Aquinas explicated Jesus' human intellect as having a threefold font of knowledge: divine knowledge, infused knowledge, and experiential knowledge. With regard to Jesus' experiential knowledge specifically, how does Avigail contribute to Jesus' experience and knowledge of love? Does he learn about human love? Discuss whether experience and knowledge can help one to love more humanely.

4. Discuss the divine power that Jesus demonstrates as God’s son in The Road to Cana. In chapter 22, how does Jesus overpower Satan?

5. The New York Times Book Review of Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt states: "Ms. Rice retains her obsessions with ritual and purification. . . . She writes this book in a simpler, leaner style, giving it the slow but inexorable rhythm of an incantation." Are the Christ the Lord books a prayer for Rice? Discuss instances in The Road to Cana where Rice has written rituals of purification and incantation.

6. Which of the four Christian gospels most influenced The Road to Cana? Which gospel stories are distinctly portrayed? Discuss whether these gospel stories inspire rites of maturity for all Christian faiths today.

7. First-century Jewish women worshiped in the Ezrat Nashim—the Women's Courtyard—which was located beside or behind the men's place of worship. How does Rice's scholarship and penchant for historical authenticity enable her to accurately depict the role of Jewish women in first-century Palestine? In The Road to Cana, does Jesus criticize, whether by word or by deed, this masculine/feminine segregation? Discuss how new understandings of masculinity and femininity have influenced today's religious practices.

8. The Gospel of John is the only biblical source that mentions the wedding feast at Cana. In John’s account, Jesus' mother, Mary, informs him at the wedding feast that the wine has run out. It is Jesus' reply to her that has mystified many throughout the centuries. In the final chapter of The Road to Cana, Rice quotes this reply: "Woman? . . . What has this to do with you and me?" Catholic saints, Christian biblical scholars, and homilists have attempted to explain this seemingly callous rejoinder, but their explications vary. How does The Road to Cana treat the mystery behind this dialogue between mother and son? Discuss whether Rice lends a mother's tenderness to the scene.

9. Mel Gibson's film The Passion of the Christ (2004) focuses on the suffering and death of Jesus. In what ways does Rice's Jesus differ from Gibson’s? Specifically, when does Jesus, as depicted in The Road to Cana, show real human passion?

10. In an essay posted on her Web site, Rice says of her own writing career: "[My earlier novels] are not immoral works. They are not Satanic works. They are not demonic works. . . . The one thing which unites [my works] is the theme of the moral and spiritual quest. A second theme, key to most of them, is the quest of the outcast for a context of meaning." Is The Road to Cana Rice's attempt to show Jesus' spiritual quest?

11. Jesus, the narrator of The Road to Cana, begins by positing a solitary question: Who is Christ the Lord? Discuss whether this question has been answered by the end of the novel. If not, will this question ever be answered?

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Posted April 1, 2008

A New Dimension Of Our Lord

Anne Rice has done it again! Through this new book, she has again presented our Lord Jesus Christ from an inspiring and historical viewpoint. The writing was so vivid that I felt as if I was seeing the story unfolding as it happened. Anne's research is amazing. She brings to life the background of Jesus with all of its culture and human presence. For those who desire to experience and know more of the day-to-day life of Jesus, this book is a must read.

6 out of 6 people found this review helpful.
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Anonymous

Posted March 17, 2008

A reviewer

This Anne Rice series gives Jesus a characteristic that encourages people to relate to him in a more realistic sense than as the Son of God. Rice¿s depiction of Jesus allows us to see him as `just¿ a man. She does this masterfully by writing from a first person point of view allowing her readers to sharing his thoughts, his conversations, and his humanity. ¿The Road to Cana¿ gives us possible insight into how difficult Jesus¿ life must have been due to the conflicts with temptations of the flesh versus the destiny of the Son of God. ¿The Road to Cana¿ begins shortly before Jesus¿ baptism in the River Jordan by John the Baptist and concludes with the miracle at Cana, in which Jesus casts out Mary¿s demons. For some reason, no one ¿way back when¿ thought it necessary to chronicle his whole life. Maybe it was too boring, and there was nothing significant. In my mind, his humanity as a man, and not the Son of God, is extremely significant. There are so many beautifully human moments in both of Rice¿s ¿Christ the Lord¿ books. Interestingly, Ms. Rice held to the belief that the angel came to Mary, the wise men came to celebrate his birth, and Jesus was the Son of God. This surprised me a bit. To be honest, I really expected that she would have taken a slightly different approach. I thought it would be a ¿normal¿ birth. All through this series she references the Christian story of Jesus¿ birth. I think Rice did a wonderful job of pulling me back, not letting me forget that this is a story about the Son of God. Anne Rice has branched out with the ¿Christ the Lord¿ books. As far as fans go, you either love her writing or you hate it. However, I foresee a whole new genre of reader will pick up these books and truly enjoy them. She may have some fans from her previous works that will not like this venture but if they are loyal fans, they¿ll read the ¿Christ the Lord¿ books. They may not like the story, but they will fully appreciate her writing. This particular series will not cause a decrease in Anne Rice fans at all. While I could see Ms. Rice could get much criticism for daring to write a story about something that could be construed as blasphemous, I recommend this story to religious believers and non-believers. The writing is beautiful, the humanity presented is very believable, and the story is a wonderful possibility of what could have been.

4 out of 4 people found this review helpful.
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Anonymous

Posted March 20, 2008

See Christ's world from his eyes!

You can smell the dust in Cana. You can feel the water of the Jordan as Christ felt it. It is a beautiful story every Christian should read. It shocks you by making you think about things you never thought about. I could not put it down.

4 out of 4 people found this review helpful.
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Anonymous

Posted April 7, 2008

Yes, It's Christian

Sorry, I have to disagree with John, below. This is ideally Christian -- we're SUPPOSED to tell people the Bible story. Jesus Himself told stories. The Bible is a story, and a book of stories, NOT a book of doctrines and legalisms. Anne Rice may bring people to an interest in Christ and His Word that Pat Robertson or Jerry Falwell could never have hoped or imagined. And Ms. Rice's book is far more scripturally accurate than the gnostic, dualistic sci-fi fantasies of the Jenkins & LaHaye series. Five stars!

2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.
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Anonymous

Posted October 26, 2008

I would recommend this book!

I've often wondered about Jesus' "missing years." Rice does an amazing job of putting the reader into her thought of these years. It's as if we are walking with Jesus as he deals with these new "miracles" that he learns he has the capacity to do. Imagine being 12 years old and being able to kill the school bully and then to resurrect him! Then try to put yourself in Mary and Joseph's shoes, trying to raise a son in all the ways of their times while knowing he is destined for greatness. It's a very imaginative tale that definetly gives the reader some things to think about.

1 out of 2 people found this review helpful.
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Anonymous

Posted March 10, 2008

Christ the Lord: The Road to Cana

I thoroughly enjoyed this fascinating novel, the second in a series and the latest from this always amazing, always surprising writer. Rice makes Jesus as wondrous, even more so, as any of her other unforgettable fictional characters. I loved it and highly recommend it! Congratulations Anne Rice! I look forward eagerly to the next installment!

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
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Anonymous

Posted March 10, 2008

Christ the Lord: The Road to Cana

Run, don't walk, to purchase this outstanding continuation to Ms. Rice's first Jesus volume, Out of Egypt. This is a stirring, heartfelt book obviously wrought from a deep, abiding personal faith as well as a wealth of painstaking biblical research. It is an excellent book that can be read as both a 'great read' and a serious, moving testament to the Lord of both history and faith. A GREAT BOOK!!

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
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Anonymous

Posted March 18, 2008

ONE OF THE BEST CHRISTIAN BOOKS I'VE READ.

'CHRIST THE LORD ROAD TO CANA' is truly one of the most anticipating books I have ever read concerning the BIBLE. The interactivity of this book has caught my eye than most projects!! NONE OTHER BOOK CAN CATCH MY ATTENTION!

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
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Anonymous

Posted March 6, 2008

I dont know why anyone would read this.

Ms.Rice should stick to her vampires and erotica. This philosphy is way out of her league, which is obvious in her writing.

1 out of 2 people found this review helpful.
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Bestfive

Posted March 23, 2012

Great read.

Very moving presentation of scripture based story.
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7262326

Posted July 27, 2011

A lovely story

So nice to read about his life as a child or at least a fictjonal aspect of it

0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
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8360010

Posted May 29, 2011

Beautifully written

I loved how Ann Rice portrayed Christ's life. Beautifully writen.
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crusherve

Posted January 18, 2011

recomended, anne rice at work

Although christ the lord out of egypt was poignantly beautiful, that beauty is lacking here. Instead we find out expectation and resignation, which makes it less powerful than its big brother. Nicely written as always. Christ comes out as a strange guy here, waiting for his signal. I find a most powerful character in James, big brother and head of family, but anyway, this is just me and it doesn't mean i didn'g enjoy it. go ahead and read it

0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
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lovediamond

Posted August 24, 2010

Great Read!

If you like to read biblical stories, you will like this, as good or better than red tent. I read two of her biblical books found them satisfying, educational and fun.
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jennysiwss

Posted May 17, 2010

I Also Recommend:

Wow - This was a great fiction piece on Jesus!

I just finished Christ the Lord; Out of Egypt and The Road to Cana, and I really enjoyed BOTH of the novels but I liked this one the best. I cried throughout both of them - not only because of the realistic imagery but because my adoration for my Savior increased (which I didn't think was possible). As a mother, the thought of being Mary seems a cruel gift and Anne Rice wrote her splendidly. The light she shed on the downtrodden woman in the Middle East is essential for teaching compassion for the past, and necessary for igniting change for the future. The families were a very human touch and I also believe very probable. The accurate history and geography was exciting to read in a fiction novel with stories and faces to bring alive boring stats. Rice's spin on John the Baptist was so cool - I bet he was a feisty piece of work! To be a strict Jew back in the day, and to hear a person speaking to Pharisees the way Rice played out the dialogue; wow! That would have been mind blowing! And the painting of Rice's pen on Jesus was beautiful. The real man that once walked this same dirt earth that we walk on; and yet the Lord? Unimaginable for me, but Rice really brought it to life. I especially loved His human love and desire for Avigail. I think there was some criticism about her character and relationship with Jesus, but what's sinful about falling inlove? Nothing inappropriate was written and the story only exalted his character. If the Scriptures tell us that He has suffered as we suffer then I believe it's very likely He would have loved a woman....someone His family would have already planned for Him to marry when He came of age. Since practically every person on planet Earth feels the heartbreak of love then I see it as a perfect opportunity for people to go to Him if He has truly felt the heartache they feel. It would also be a great example for people to live by to abstain from sin until they have made their vows to their betrothed.
I am looking forward to the next book in this series and to see what works Jesus will do with his new disciples.
The coolest part was that I wrote an email to Anne Rice to tell her how much I enjoyed the books, and SHE WROTE ME BACK! A REGULAR SCHMOE LIKE ME! Now that is an amazing author. Yes, I recommend this book - it was touching, beautifully written, imaginatively insightful, and it will get your brain working with your heart.
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KDPlaster

Posted August 22, 2009

I Also Recommend:

Christ's Humanity

Anne Rice does it again with Road to Cana. Once I started reading, I didn't want to put this book down. The scriptures come alive as Jesus' life unfolds in what might have been. We get a possible glimpse into the life of Jesus, his family, his friends... and his emotions. While fiction, we are reminded that Jesus was one of us and at the same time God.
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ArKayBee

Posted June 23, 2009

more from this reviewer

Educational

While the series has yet to become great it has taught me a lot about the time period and Jesus' family. Also a thought provoker.
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DaveV

Posted May 23, 2009

more from this reviewer

I Also Recommend:

Good, but the first one was better.

Mostly I was disappointed that so much time passed between the end of "Out of Egypt" and the beginning of "The Road to Cana". Otherwise, very interesting and a good read.

0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
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Deacon1205

Posted April 21, 2009

Wonderfuland faith filled

I found the book to be an easy read, easy to follow and comprehend. I was entrolled with it from the beginning to the end. It never left me not wanting to read more. I can hardly wait for the next book for Anne Rice to come out.
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Blueshamrock

Posted April 7, 2009

more from this reviewer

Great Read

This book by Anne Rice is wonderful it makes you feel as if you are in the book. Its wrote in first person just like the first book Christ our Lord. It is a great read.
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A New Dimension Of Our Lord

A reviewer

See Christ's world from his eyes!

Yes, It's Christian

I would recommend this book!

Christ the Lord: The Road to Cana

Christ the Lord: The Road to Cana

ONE OF THE BEST CHRISTIAN BOOKS I'VE READ.

I dont know why anyone would read this.

Great read.

A lovely story

Beautifully written

recomended, anne rice at work

Great Read!

Wow - This was a great fiction piece on Jesus!

Christ's Humanity

Educational

Good, but the first one was better.

Wonderfuland faith filled

Great Read