Today in “On the Square,” Joseph Bottum reflects on Anne Rice’s dramatic rejection of Christianity. In Rice’s Release , he writes that she is
Always a day behind the fair. Always a beat behind the crowd. Mind you, that can be a very profitable position to hold: You can catch the popular wave, when youre not too inventive, and you can ride it to good sales. As she did with her novels.. . . She rejoined the Church just in time to get whacked around, and she left the Church again just in time to look like a woman who cant stand the heat. From all her hipster friends. And all her relatives.