Anne Rice’s “Road to Cana” is much better than her first attempt at redemption through creating the novel– “Christ the Lord- Out of Egypt”. She wrote this one in California, during what must have been a most difficult time in her life. Her love for God is evident in this book.
Her husband, Stan Rice the poet passed recently. Her hope for life everlasting is present in this piece. The destruction of New Orleans must have ruined her heart, but in this novel, she really shines.
In “The Road to Cana”, missing pieces of Christ’s young-adult life are filled.
Rice writes beyond Jesus’ infant years, as in the first novel. She examines the character of a thirty-something son of God with fears just like the rest of us. Rice writes as Jesus in first-person.
A young, Jewish woman (age 12) is almost raped by a Roman soldier in the public square of Nazareth. Men rush to save her, but not soon enough– the child’s head covering was torn away in public, thus making her “unclean” to a future husband. Jesus was ordered by his older brother, James, to get married to the same girl, before the public attack took place. Jesus refused. Rice hints at possible traits of homosexuality, but not enough for most heterosexual readers to identify.
The climax of the book is a conversation between Jesus and Satan in the desert. As most followers of the Lord know, Jesus was tempted for 40 days…
“Shut down Time? I asked in a small voice. “The gift of Time?”
“The Gift? It’s a gift to be lost in this miserable world of His, lost to the pitiless ignorance of others, in Time?”
Lestat’s voice, via Anne, has returned in this masterpiece.
I give it five crucifixes up and my blessing.
