Well, I finished it. (in about an hour) I liked it. Of course I love that period of herstory. It's really not that much of a stretch for her. The Veil Of Veronica", "Servant Of The Bones", "Memnoch The Devil" this is not really that different for her. I don't know what all the hub bub is about. It's not at all "preachy" It's a typical Anne Rice historical novel. It's not her best writing and not her worst. What she does REALLY well is bring the day to day world of first century Jews to life. I loved that aspect of it. The biggest problem, obviously, is that we all know the story. There are no surprises. Of course we all know how it's going to end but even the little plot twists I knew from Sunday school. The only mystery in the book (and it's a pretty good one) is seven year old Jesus slowly trying to figure out who or better, what he is. I mean everybody goes through this but not everybody kills the neighborhood bully with the blink of his eye and then brings him back to life when his family gets upset. It's hard for little Jesus to figure out why he can cure a blind man or make it snow at the drop of a hat. And finding out that you are the begotten son of God by age eight is enough to make anyone crazy. It's all told in the first person by Jesus.
Very clever.
And if I'm spoiling the story for anyone...
You must have lived your life under a rock not to know this story.
