Called Out of Darkness: A Spiritual Confession | 
 enlarge | Author: Anne Rice
Publisher: Knopf
Category: Book
List Price: $24.00
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Rating:  37 reviews
Sales Rank: 4296
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 256
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 8.5 x 5.9 x 1.2
ISBN: 0307268276
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780307268273
ASIN: 0307268276
Publication Date: October 7, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
In 2005, Anne Rice startled her readers with her novel Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt, and by revealing that, after years as an atheist, she had returned to her Catholic faith.
Christ the Lord: The Road to Cana followed.
And now, in her powerful and haunting memoir, Rice tells the story of the spiritual transformation that produced a complete change in her literary goals.
She begins with her girlhood in New Orleans as the devout child in a deeply religious Irish Catholic family. She describes how, as she grew up, she lost her belief in God, but not her desire for a meaningful life.
She writes about her years in radical Berkeley, where her career as a novelist began with the publication of Interview with the Vampire, soon to be followed by more novels about otherworldly beings, about the realms of good and evil, love and alienation, pageantry and ritual, each reflecting aspects of her often agonizing moral quest.
She writes about loss and tragedy (her mother’s drinking; the death of her daughter and, later, her beloved husband, Stan Rice); about new joys; about the birth of her son, Christopher; about the family’s return in 1988 to the city of New Orleans, the city that inspired so much of her work. She tells how after an adult lifetime of questioning, she experienced the intense conversion and consecration to Christ that lie behind her most recent novels.
For her readers old and new, this book explores her continuing interior pilgrimage.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 32 more reviews...
 Overblown January 9, 2009
I was so looking forward to this book, but I found it very self indulgent. I did read it all. There has only been one book I've never finished...Danse Macabre by Stephen King (who's writing I usually love). I think when authors become too full of themselves it shows and shows hugely. This book was a huge indulgent mistake.
CALLED OUT OF DARKNESS by Anne Rice January 7, 2009
Called out of Darkness: A Spiritual Confession is a 2008 memoir by novelist Anne Rice, who is best known for her Vampire Chronicles (most notably Interview with the Vampire). This book deals only peripherally with her novels; as the title suggests, it's about Rice's spiritual journey.
Rice grew up in New Orleans, immersed in Catholicism. She describes her faith at this time as strong and deep, yet simple (the archetype of what we think of as "childlike faith"). In college, Rice was exposed to secular humanism for the first time. She rejected the Church (and with it, God; one can be rejected independently of the other, which Rice notes, but at the time she threw it all out) and became an atheist. After thirty-eight years as an atheist, she acknowledged that God had been drawing her, and came back to faith. Rice has since given up writing vampire novels and is in the midst of a series on the life of Christ.
What makes Called out of Darkness compelling is Rice's openness, and the very personal tone she uses. She describes in detail the pull that she felt from God (she repeatedly quotes Thompson's "The Hound of Heaven"). She goes on at length about what her faith means to her, and how she came to appreciate Scripture.
Clearly, Rice understands what it means to be a Christian. She appreciates that it is difficult - that living out faith as a Christian is more challenging than leaving religion alone. She understands that faith is not a magic bullet for the problems of the world.
Writing this book was obviously cathartic for Rice. It is hesitating, almost rambling at times, like she was compelled to pour out everything she knows and feels. A large portion of Called out of Darkness deals with Rice's Catholic childhood, and she describes this world with immersive, vivid detail, which is sometimes good and sometimes makes the book drag. Rice relives these moments with the reader. All of this enables Rice to come across as genuine and sincere about everything - her initial faith, her atheism, and her return to God.
It is interesting to trace the parallels between Rice's novels and her life. Rice herself touches on this. Rice's vampire characters were so androgynous because Rice was raised without cultural and social restrictions on gender. Rice's vampire novels were bleak and hopeless and dealt heavily with spirituality and theology because Rice herself was an atheist looking for spiritual truth through her writing. And so forth.
Rice is still feeling out the world of new Catholicism and her place in Christianity. Her doctrine isn't always right, and some of her suggestions on making the Church more progressive are way off base. But at this point, the reader should not hold that against her.
All in all, Called out of Darkness is a worthwhile account of a return to faith by someone with a rather unique perspective.
Not worth reading! January 4, 2009
0 out of 2 found this review helpful
This was one of the most boring books I have ever read...and I am a catholic! The first 80 pages nearly made my eyes glaze over as she explained, in detail, what it was like to be catholic in the 50's & 60's. There is no point to the book. Save your money!
 A spiritual journey, but questions remain. January 4, 2009
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
I found Called Out of Darkness an intriguing book. As a former Christian turned agnostic, I was hoping Ms. Rice would give me profound insight into reasons for returning to Christianity. Unfortunately I was let down in that aspect, though I thoroughly enjoyed the book. I've always loved Ms. Rice's writing style, and while this was obviously different from her novels, the detailed and romantic descriptions of places and things still carried me along on her spiritual journey.
I appreciated the fact that while she eventually questioned political and dogmatic injustices of her Catholic Church (you can take the girl out of the liberal but....you know the rest)she is resigned to accepting her faith wholeheartedly, knowing God and love are the important points.
One can't help but be impressed by Rice's dedication, sincerity, and commitment to the not only Christian historical research, knowledge, and understanding, but also in her all-consuming thirst to understand and study the gospel as it pertains to present life.
It is obvious Rice did not come back to Christianity lightly. I would have liked her to have delved further into that struggle. Because it seemed to me, ultimately, as with all believers, it came down to emotion. While Ms. Rice categorically denies "feeling good" to be the reason for her faith, I can't help but feel myself this is the true reason anyone has belief. There is a sense of freedom in believing, a feeling of surrender and as it were, putting oneself into the care of a loving parent. Mind you, I find nothing wrong with wanting this or believing this. And I admit my slight envy for that abandon. But as in all spirituality involving a supreme being, so much is left unexplained. So much is brushed under the carpet of "God knows what He's doing". OH, to be able to fall for that line must be truly a rapturous feeling, (yes, word choice intended).Unfortunately I cannot see the cruelty and suffering in this world and believe God is there watching, could stop it, but chooses not to. I understand the Christian argument that this is God's way of giving us our free will. I still don't buy it. While Rice touched on a few dogmatic and political things she found distasteful in her church, she ignored the bigger issue of suffering completely. She touched on Jesus' suffering as well as her own, but left out the bigger picture. This is a memoir and not a dissertation on Christian religion, but religion and spirituality carry a heavy burden. I feel that burden remains unloaded with this "Spiritual Confession".
I do however, feel this book is worthwhile. I commend Anne Rice for her honesty and sincerity. I was pleased that she did not condemn her previous novels or her time spent as an atheist as "heathen" or in some way immoral and wrong. She's obviously an intelligent and thoughtful person and a talented writer. And I would ultimately agree with her that if there is a God, that God is Love, and that if love were truly to rule the earth heaven could be had on this planet. That she can embrace her faith and still see there can be many paths to God, or to the Greater Good, is the spiritual awakening I would love to see in all people.
 INTO THE LIGHT January 3, 2009
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Anne Rice, author of the Vampire Chronicles, including INTERVIEW WITH A VAMPIRE, THE VAMPIRE LESTAT, THE QUEEN OF THE DAMNED, and numerous other books chronicling the "lives" of vampires, witches, and creatures of the night, had been estranged from her Roman Catholic roots, since her college days. In the late 1990s, her feelings toward God had been rekindled and she ultimately returned to an active loving participation in the faith. Her reconversion has sparked disappointment and even outrage among the fans of her brilliant, yet pointedly dark novels of the "dark side" of literary expression. Her recent novels, CHRIST THE LORD: OUT OF EGYPT, and CHRIST THE LORD: THE ROAD TO CANA, have opened a new chapter in Anne Rice's life -- that of a woman who continues her gift of elegant prose with a newfound sense of purpose.
CALLED OUT OF DARKNESS is a brief, yet beautifully written and poignant story of one woman's return to her faith. It is a journey of self-rediscovery and the recognition of the beliefs that had been once extinguished in a world of secular allure and entrapment. The author, eschewing the minutiae of typical biographies, provides an almost lyrical or poetic development of her initial childlike faith, her dark night of the soul, and her emergence as a fully-formed, yet still growing adult member of the Catholic Church.
With the power of imagery and the well-turned phrase that has earned her world acclaim in her novels, Ms. Rice embraces the reader on a journey of personal relationship with God. She writes knowledgeably, yet on a profoundly emotional level. There is significance in what she has to say, and genuineness in her voice. One cannot read this book and not be moved by her story of faith.
There are a number of reviews, which view her return to the church as an act of betrayal, somehow diminishing the force of her earlier works. However, a careful reading with an objective and open mind should dispel these concerns. Anne Rice writes with the courage of her convictions, which (in my humble opinion), is the highest accolade that one can give an artist in any medium. Her story is an inspiring one to those who are faith-filled, those who are striving to find meaning in the faith, or even to those who do not believe. As much as CALLED OUT OF DARKNESS is a testament of faith, it is also a testament to the integrity of the human spirit.
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