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Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt: A Novel | 
 enlarge | Author: Anne Rice
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Category: Book
List Price: $15.00
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Rating:  306 reviews
Sales Rank: 9744
Media: Paperback
Pages: 384
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 7.8 x 5.2 x 0.9
ISBN: 0345492730
Dewey Decimal Number: 813
EAN: 9780345492739
ASIN: 0345492730
Publication Date: February 26, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Condition: Very Good; very slight edge wear, marring and feathering to cover - rest like new
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Product Description
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.
From the Hardcover edition.
Download Description
Anne Rice is the author of twenty-six books. She lives in La Jolla, California.
From the Hardcover edition.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 301 more reviews...
 portrayal of Jesus as a young child November 2, 2005
Harriet Klausner
184 out of 280 found this review helpful
At seven years of age Jesus was living on the Street of Carpenters in Alexandria Egypt, an ordinary child who played and learned the studies all Jewish boys must know. The fact that he turned clay pigeons into real birds and that he struck dead a child who bullied him and then brought him back to life didn't really impinge on his consciousness although Mary and Joseph know who he is and why he was born to the Virgin Mary. An angel tells Joseph it is time for them to return to Israel so they travel to their homeland.
They stop at the Temple in Jerusalem but a riot breaks out between the rebels and Herod's troops. They journey to Nazareth, but on the way Jesus stops to heal his Uncle in the river Jordan. A curious child, he listens to the hints about his birth and wants to know what was so special about it. Neither Mary nor Joseph feel he is ready to know these things but when Jesus heals a blind man, he knows he must find out the truth including why his mother says he was born not of man.
Anne Rice's portrayal of Jesus as a young child shows him as both divine and human though he is not aware yet of his origins or his purpose in life. The character gradually comes to realize he is not like other children and wants to know why, something any curious seven-year old would try and find out if they were in his shoes. Perhaps the most beautiful trait Anne Rice's Jesus possesses is a wisdom that belies his years and comes out at the most inopportune times. Though well-written, reader bias will either laud Ms. Rice's latest work or condemn her interpretation of the boy destined to become the Savior.
Harriet Klausner
 An interesting disappointment November 4, 2005
Fruit Loop (Down South)
56 out of 74 found this review helpful
Although the subject matter will of course interest Anne Rice's longtime fans as well as readers of faith, the story presentation is far too simplistic and requires the reader to suspend more belief than can be reasonably expected. An attempt by ANY writer to "get inside the head" of the divine will of course fall short, but this reader had the definite impression that Rice was simply eager to somehow pay tribute to her newly-rediscovered religious faith rather than to present a convincing portrait of the son of God.
Rice's research is evident but her unique voice and human insight are absent here, and that's NOT because this reviewer "would rather just read about vampires." Three stars for a nice effort and a good view of history, but as a biography, however fictional, of Jesus Christ it's a disappointment.
Anne Rice's New Story November 1, 2005
Rick Stilwell (Cayce, SC USA)
52 out of 63 found this review helpful
The latest cultural and literary news is that Anne Rice has found Jesus, that she's become a Christian, and that she now wants her writing to reflect her newfound faith and how it's impacted her life. I don't think it's a marketing scheme - she doesn't need the help, quite frankly, and it's not really the demographic her Lestat novels have traditionally been drawing. What has happened, instead, is that a storyteller has found a new story to share, and a new story in which to participate.
Her first novel of a new series is Christ the Lord - Out of Egypt and as an avid reader but not previously a fan, I was pleasantly surprised. In the past, I've tried to read the opening chapters of a few of her other novels, but found it a chore to try to become involved emotionally with characters I ultimately had no love for. This was different, because this book tells a story with which we're already very intimately involved.
The basic premise is this: Jesus and His family have been in Egypt for seven years, sent there to escape Herod's bloody pride (Matthew 2:13-18). The story opens first person, the young Messiah telling His own story of His family's return to Galilee. The Christian reader will most probably have to get over the notion that there's nothing worthwhile to a story like this since it's not in and of itself "scriptural". Rather, because of her writing style and attention to storytelling and detail, the reader can catch a glimpse of something beyond the text - there was some untold story, some unwritten adventure, that Jesus lived out during His formative years.
As I was reading and being introduced to Jesus' extended family - all the cousins and aunts and uncles traveling with Mary and Joseph to Egypt and then back to the Promised Land - I got the distinct impression that Jesus was a Judean John Boy Walton, sharing the adventures and insights that come from having a big family, everyone having a voice and a role to play in the story. The years of relationship, the secrets of the adults kept from the innocence of the children, the interaction of the different generations, the realities of evil and good and everything that comes with sleeping and eating and living in tight quarters - those are the things that become vivid and real for the reader.
I was especially drawn into the first person narration of Jesus - where there's no gospel, nothing else written of Christ's life except His own quotes and parables as recalled by others, I felt like this liberty taken was justified. Did Jesus get sick? Did He have ultimate knowledge from the first, or did He have to learn some things like the rest of us? Did He feel revenge or fear or confusion? What kinds of questions did Jesus ask the teachers that prepared Him for His own questions and stories later on? There might be some issues to be taken doctrinally, but I think it misses the point to make this a theological exercise more than an artistic one. Rice has written her story, sharing her vision perhaps of what Jesus' story was like, even as she's now entered into it with her own talents and weaknesses, all of which probably pour out of this text in an entertaining and enlightening way.
 Not Worth Your While December 7, 2005
Sebastien Pharand (Orleans, Ontario, Canada)
52 out of 76 found this review helpful
While I am a huge fan of Anne Rice, I'm still reluctant to admit how much I hated Christ The Lord : Out of Egypt. The book, which tells the story of Jesus from a first person point of view, offers nothing exciting for the viewer. As a matter of fact, although the book is only 300 pages long, nothing seems to happen during the narrative save some complaining and arguing from our main characters.
I'm not quite sure why Anne Rice thought this was a story that needed to be told. The story begins when Jesus is still a very young boy in Egypt, months before his family decides to return to their homeland of Nazareth. But when they arrive there, they find the place in turmoil and in the middle of a war that is remorseless to all non-Romans. And so as Jesus tries to wonder why he is able to perform miracles (such as bringing back a boy to life or turning clay birds into live ones), he listens to his family and to his mother recall tales that seems to have to real relation with the narrative at hand.
The book is told in short, simple sentences. Anne Rice is reknown for her beautiful poetic prose and I truly missed it this time around. The idea to write this tale in such a simplistic way only makes the story dryer and takes a lot out of the story. And the fact that she has created a Jesus that is quite boring and passive doesn't help matters much.
Christ The Lord : Out of Egypt is supposed to be the first installment in a series of book aobut Jesus's life. And this is just what this tome feels like; an introduction. This book could have been resumed in about 50 pages to be included at the beginning or a more important and eventful tome. When I finished reading the last page, I couldn't help asking myself, 'Is that all?' There is so little in this book that you can't even call it a story. It's like reading a historical researched, and a badly researched one at that.
Christ The Lord was a great disappointment to me. I've fond things to enjoy in every single Anne Rice book until now. Even her lesser efforts like Violin at least had great, beautiful prose going for it. There is nothing to enjoy in Christ The Lord, nothing to sink your teeth into. This dry, incomplete, unventful and repetitive story won't impress you one bit.
 Little more than a novelization of the Gospels November 3, 2005
Wendy J. Goodman (Briarwood, NY)
46 out of 64 found this review helpful
As a long-time fan of Anne Rice's previous works who is not a Christian, I read Christ the Lord out of intellecutal curiosity as well as to see what Anne Rice would do with the story in her own unique way. Her talent as a writer has always been to take things that were familiar to us, things that we've all seen many times before and turn them on their ear. I was rather surprised, and more than a little dissapointed to see that her latest work contained little of that extraordinary talent.
The book is a fairly quick and easy read, and it was clear that she had studied the history of the period in which young Jesus existed in. We get an understanding of the politics of the time and what life was like for a young Jewish boy, but I found little else of interest. Young Jesus was clearly aware that he was special, even if he didn't always understand why. Too much seemed too pat and coincidental, as if everything going on was just to make sure that Jesus was allowed to fulfill his destiny.
In an interview, Anne Rice stated that she was taking her inspiration directly from the gospels and that she would be adding nothing to the narrative that did not exist there. I find that rather sad as a writer. I've found that the best novels about Jesus challenge the reader to explore what they think they already know about his life and himself as a person. They may upset some readers because they do ask questions that some consider taboo, but they are imporant in helping us to more clearly define our understanding of a man who, aside from the Gospels that were written by others long after his death, left little if any real historic record.
Christ the Lord is not a bad read, but it's no "Last Temptation of Christ". This book is mostly a display of Anne Rice's newly rediscovered faith, rather than an exploration of it. I find Anne Rice's own story about her journey back to the Catholic Church far more interesting than the story she set down to paper.
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