Christ The Lord, Out Of Egypt

Category: Books

Genre: Literature & Fiction

Author: Anne Rice
Shelf Score: 4 / 5 (Keeper)

The Plot: Joseph, Mary, Jesus and his uncles finish off their carpentry work in Alexandra. At this time, Jesus was about ten years of age. He had been taught by his mother and father about what it's like to be a boy. But behind all of the boy-hood things that are happening all around him, there are also strange and unexplainable things. Things that he knows he can do, things he cannot understand why he can do and things he has been told not to do. Some of these as simple as predicting rain and some not so simple like bringing a sparrow to life. With their jobs finished, the family had decided to go back home to Nazareth. They had planned to reach there in time for the Passover and do the celebrations at home. From there, Jesus experiences the horrors that have come about from Herod's rule. The oppression of the people, the deaths of the first born and the mystery that is himself. In the temples, the Rabbis look at him differently, as if they know him and yet as if they don't. The more he learns, the less he knows, and this drives Jesus to find out things for himself. To unravel the mystery of himself.

The Review: Anne Rice has written a fantastic novel. It is tethering between fiction and non-fiction. The Bible has been teaching about the life of Jesus when he was born, and suddenly, when he was baptized as an adult. This novel by Rice attempts to bridge that gap. The story embraces Jesus as he was a child. A child learning to grow up and understand the world around him. But since he is Jesus, his powers have started manifesting themselves. Incredible power that has Jesus scared and excited at the same time. Wouldn't you be if you had the power to take and give life to anyone you chose? But he was scared only because he did not understand and he did not know how to control it. That and the fact that his humanity is a mystery to him and there were questions he wanted answers to. Credit to Rice for portraying Mary and Joseph as typical parents. Typical in the sense that they know what a child can and cannot understand at the age Jesus was in. Typical in a way that only loving parents give as much attention and understanding to their child.

The Verdict: It is a wonderful addition to our library. It is a great read. It blurs the line between what was taught in religion class and that question we may have had on Jesus' childhood. The only thing I had a beef with is that somewhere, somehow, the novel disconnects. There are chapters that you can't put the book down on, and suddenly it veers off and it becomes bland compared to the rest of the book. It's probably because I was reading in batches when I commute, but it's still the same when I read it before going to sleep. Overall, it's a very good book. It's probably just the way that I read through the book.