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Book summary and reviews of Called Out of Darkness by Anne Rice

Called Out of Darkness by Anne Rice

Called Out of Darkness

A Spiritual Confession

by Anne Rice

  • Critics' Consensus:
  • Published:
  • Oct 2008
    256 pages
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Book Summary

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.

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Reviews

Media Reviews

"Fans of Rice's earlier works will enjoy discovering more about her life and fascinating journey of faith." - Publishers Weekly.

"Rice's rather banal prose doesn't do justice to the anguished content, but her story is honest and moving nonetheless." - Kirkus Reviews.

This information about Called Out of Darkness was first featured in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.

Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.

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Author Information

Anne Rice Author Biography

Photo: Becket M. Ghioto

Born Howard Allen O'Brien on October 4, 1941 in New Orleans, LA. Anne Rice chose the first name "Anne" as a child. She married Stan Rice in 1961, and their daughter Michele was born in 1966. Sadly Michele died of leukemia at the age of 5.

Anne wrote her first published novel, Interview With A Vampire, in 1973. A son, Christopher, was born in 1978 (now an established author in his own right). After living in Texas and San Francisco, Anne settled in New Orleans. However, after Stan died from a brain tumor she moved to California, where she currently lives.

She has written under three names: her own, Anne Rampling, and A. N. Roquelaure. Under her own name, she has written The Vampire Chronicles series, The Mayfair Witches, the New Tales of the Vampires series, and numerous single novels...

... Full Biography
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Link to Anne Rice's Website

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