Eh, true, but the way she goes on about Lestat you’d think someone had slaughtered her first born manchild.
She’s writer! Of course he’s her first-born manchild!
Actually…
substitute “womanchild” and you have some insight into her obsession.
The whole Lestat/Vampire Chronicles was rooted in & has detailed her spiritual stuggle after losing her daughter to leukemia (i.e. a wasting blood disease, like vampire-attack).
[hijack]She was a celebrity guest on John “Douchebag” Edward one time and was impressed and visibly moved that he “sensed” the presence of “a little girl… one who died of a disease… I think it had to do with the blood…” etc… He was clearly really a psychic, she declared, because how else would he have known that? It couldn’t possibly be from EVERY SINGLE BIO OF YOU ON THE WEB AS WELL AS MOST OF YOUR INTERVIEWS!!!
She stated in a TV interview (wish I could cite, but I promise she said it) that she felt a special kinship to the Jesus of her book as they had similar childhoods, both of them in hot humid big cities (her Christ grows up in Alexandria) in extended families. Uh, yeah… if it weren’t for the fact that you were Catholic in 20th century America and he was a 1st century Jew, and you live in a world of incomparably advanced technology over his and he’s the son of the Almighty God and your dad worked at the post office and… well, you get my drift. No honey, you and Jesus really didn’t have that much in common.
You think you know how this story is going to end, but you don’t. 
The book includes James as a character but does use the explanation of him as Joseph’s son with another (deceased) woman.
I was unaware that Calvin shared the lifelong virgin belief. I don’t know if that idea is as widespread anymore since I grew up in a Calvinist church and even Calvin-based private schools (yes I was a sheltered child) and we were not taught that Mary was a virgin her whole life. I always was taught that Jesus had brothers and sisters and it was not explained away by saying they were half brothers or anything.
Then again we did not focus on Mary much at all so it’s possible we just didn’t really cover that as a big point.
I didn’t know Anne Rice was becoming so nuts…like I said this was my first exposure to her and just as a novel I enjoyed it.
I was aware of that, but I thought Claudia was based on her daughter. Wasn’t Lestat supposed to be her husband?
** See Note Above ** 
Okay, got that outa the way. I didn’t know this book existed till last Friday in the airport when I found it. It was finished by Monday as I flew back home. I have read through this thread, and I must admit I thought what some of you thought- that this was her way of dealing with the loss of her husband, just as the Vampire stuff may have been her way of processing the loss of her child to leukemia. But after reading her notes, I don’t buy it. This really is a lifelong obsession of hers- who is God, does God exist, who was Jesus?
I can approach this without the inner turmoil of faith or upbringing. I was raised a Jew and now am a Quaker ( not easy. It was actually an out-patient proceedure ). The novel was competely fascinating to me, as all of her stuff is.
The conceit is on first blush fantastic- that a brilliant light with no heat to it filled her room, and Mary’s uterus was touched by God and life was born. Anne Rice makes it clear that she believes this without reservation.
And, why shouldn’t she? Her intellectual rigor, no matter what some may think of the sources she cleaves unto opposed to the sources she dismisses as fodder ( and who amongst us is NOT a critic of critical thinking, with favorites ? ) is admirable. She chose what to believe, as we all do, and went forward.
How different is this from any other writer who dips her ladle into history and makes a soup of her/his own chosing? I found the minutae to be very compelling, as I always have with her work.
Is one not charmed and moved by the Wizard of Oz? We all know that life is in color, that the prologue and epilogue exist in B&W for a clear reason and yet many of us are excited each and every time we see that crooked damaged door open up and flood the black and white with color. We accept it because we wish to.
I understand well that this particular topic is not just intellectual rigor but is also the stuff of war and murder, of imprisonment and anger and loathing and hope and dreams and prayers. I get that. I am curious about the vitriol- is it just because of this topic, or is there a more general hatred of Anne Rice afloat? Some of the posts make it clear, others are more vague.
I’ve always dug her writing, and I dug this book. It’s not the Bible or Torah or Q’oran or Book of Mormon or writings of Buddah or anything else. It’s just a novel, and as historical novels go, I thought it was spectacular.
There was an interesting feeling in some of the passages that discussed the family’s reaction to the birth of Jesus, and how they felt about how they were treated, and their flight from Nazareth. I felt as though Anne Rice couldn’t decide on a point of view.
Was the family of Jesus angry? Did they resent his existence, because of the heartache it caused them? Were they frightened of the possibility of it being real? How could they be, since admitting that he might be the Son of God made their entire belief system crumble a wee tad. They were wiping the soiled bum of The Messiah ?? How could anyone manage such a thing emotionally? Then again, how could any family reconcile the bizarre conception and presence of strangers at the manger door?
Much to think about, and this from a guy who doesn’t believe.
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