Called Out of Darkness

December 22, 2008
Rice’s long-awaited spiritual memoir details growing up Catholic in New Orleans in the 1940s and ’50s, her 38-year absence from the Church as an adult and her slow but steady return to faith in the late 1990s. Kirsten Potter has a beautifully modulated voice, but seems too young for the autobiographical musings of Rice, who was born more than a generation earlier. It would also have been lovely if the audio version offered musical chanting and singing of the Latin cadences Rice discusses in the memoir as being so instrumental in forming her faith, instead of just spoken recitations of them. However, the audio does offer a welcome bonus: more than 20 minutes of an intimate interview with Rice, conducted by a friend who is a Catholic priest. She discusses her childhood faith, love of Saint Francis and new desire to write a Christian fantasy series. A Knopf hardcover (Reviews, Sept. 15).

September 15, 2008
When Anne Rice stopped crafting stories about vampires and began writing about Jesus, many of her fans were shocked. This autobiographical spiritual memoir provides an account of how the author rediscovered and fully embraced her Catholic faith after decades as a self-proclaimed atheist. Rice begins with her childhood in New Orleans, when she seriously considered entering a convent. As she grows into a young adult she delves into concerns about faith, God and the Catholic Church that lead her away from religion. The author finally reclaims her Catholic faith in the late 1990s, describing it as a movement toward total surrender to God. She writes beautifully about how through clouds of doubt and pain she finds clarity, realizing how much she loved God and desired to surrender her being, including her writing talent, to God. Covering such a large sequence of time and life events is not easy, and some of the author’s transitions are a bit jarring. Fans of Rice’s earlier works will enjoy discovering more about her life and fascinating journey of faith.