[#] Anne Rice: Christ the Lord (1 of 3)

It is somewhat stupid to write a complete review of a book you haven't finished. I have read the first 100 pages of this book (200 more to go), and I have 3 distinct things to say about it:

(1) If you treat it as merely historical fiction, it's readable and has a nice flavor to it. It makes a lot of apparently-researched historical references -- and strangely, most of them are pretty vanilla. I have a hard time, however, treating Jesus Christ as a fictional character.

(2) If you didn't know that Anne Rice was a relapsed Catholic, you could tell by reading this book. If you thought Mel Gibson's the Passion of the Christ was Catholic, you will undoubtedly see the Catholic fingerprints all over this book.

(3) By a long shot, I find the Author's Note to this book more actually-interesting than the book itself. It's 2/3rds informal bibliography and 1/3rd autobiography.

That's all I have to say about this right now. My initial impression about this book is that one probably shouldn't pick it up if one is trying to sort out what one believes about the Christian faith. However, if one is secure in his faith (or lack thereof), this book reads like any historical novel.

Two more parts to come. Challies.com readers can look forward to the suspense of seeing how quickly I get to parts 2 and 3.