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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
26 of 27 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Inspired lunacy,
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This review is from: Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal (Paperback)
Did you know that Noah postponed his death for 800 years by convincing a sympathetic Angel of Death that he (Noah) was behind in his paperwork? Such is one of the fascinating factoids found in LAMB, the story of Christ's life as told by his life-long best bud Biff, otherwise known as Levi, son of Alphaeus and Naomi of Nazareth.Biff, so nick-named for the daily slaps upside his head he required as a child, is raised from the dead in the twentieth century to write another gospel. As the millennium approaches, the Son of God is unhappy with the versions written by Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, and wants a re-write. So, Biff is held a virtual prisoner by his minder, the angel Raziel, in the St. Louis Hyatt Regency until the manuscript is finished. After a few introductory scenes in which a young Joshua (aka Jesus) restores life to dead lizards, has mixed luck with deceased humans, and becomes infatuated with a budding Mary Magdalene ("Maggie"), Biff's story hits its stride after Joshua, at about thirteen, debates the Pharisees in the Temple of Jerusalem. Then, our two heroes set out for the Far East in search of the Three Wise Men (Balthasar, Gaspar, Melchior) that attended Joshua's birth. From them, in Afghanistan, China, and India, Joshua learns the wisdom of the Eastern religions in preparation for his own ministry. Since Joshua is forbidden by his Heavenly Father from "knowing" women in the biblical sense, he relies on Biff to apprise him of the experience. And Biff, a ladies man, is just the one to do it, especially after several years living with the Eight Chinese Concubines, who have such names as Tiny Feet of the Divine Dance of Joyous Orgasm, Silken Pillows of the Heavenly Softness of Clouds, Pea Pods in Duck Sauce with Crispy Noodle, and Sue (short for Susanna). After seventeen years of wandering and adventure, Biff and Joshua return to Galilee, where the latter gathers his apostles and disciples and begins the ministry familiar to readers of the traditional gospels. Of course, there are embellishments. Biff's narrative ends on the evening of the Friday of Joshua's crucifixion. LAMB is inspired humor. It's also irreverent, but not maliciously so. The book is author Chris Moore's attempt to flesh out the story of Jesus (Joshua) - to give him a more endearingly human side. For example, when Joshua transforms water into wine at the wedding feast at Cana, he samples his miracle perhaps a little too much. And, when his disciples are astounded when he walks on the surface of the Sea of Galilee, Joshua says: "I just ate. You can't go into the water for an hour after you eat. You could get a cramp. What, none of you guys have mothers?" As one born and raised Catholic (and since "fallen away"), I immensely enjoyed the flippancy of LAMB. Sister Mary's grade school catechism class was never so much fun. While a Christian of a more fundamentalist belief might find LAMB faintly blasphemous, I would hope not. I trust even JC could laugh at a good dirty joke as he sat around the village well with the lads.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A Satirical, Fictional Look at the Savior's Childhood,
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This review is from: Lamb: A Novel: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ`s Childhood Pal (Paperback)
Very little is known about the childhood of Christ, and I love Moore's imagination of what happened during those "lost" years between his birth and age 30. In Moore's epilogue, he explains the narrative choices that he made, and they are all plausible, some are even laudable. He has researched his subject, and the poetic license he takes with the story is done with full understanding of his choices.
Although I consider myself a Christian, my knowledge of the Bible is rudimentary. I have not made a lifetime of studying the scriptures, but I did recognize a lot of things that were part of my childhood Sunday school teachings. I appreciate and admire that Moore has given Christ a sense of humor and foibles and doubts. He was, when all is said and done, a human, and growing into the role that he was born to play had to be painful, and even funny, at times. Humor, too, is one of God's creations, and I would love to think that He who died for my sins smiled and joked and was amusingly confused by his situation on occasion. The story is told through the voice of Biff, Jesus' best childhood friend. Biff is not the unquestioning follower that we might expect to see - he wants to save Jesus from his destiny and protect him from all who would hurt him. He is also tempted by sins of the flesh and swears early and often (but then, many of the characters do, including Jesus). For lack of a better word, he's a goofball, and he's the perfect foil for the serious aspects of the Savior's journey. Jesus is frustrated at times by the stupidity of people around him. He is amused by the irony of healing the Untouchables by actually touching them. He accepts his chaste life but is curious to hear about what he's missing. He is occasionally angry with God for not answering when he sorely needs answers to his many questions. In short, he's unsure what he's supposed to do, and this book is a humorous slant on what might have taken place on that journey to Golgotha. I give Lamb four stars instead of five because some sequences went on a bit longer than they needed to. Moore makes his points brilliantly, but then adds more to them, and it doesn't serve the story as well as some judicious editing might have done.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
The New Testament gets an update,
By
This review is from: Lamb: A Novel: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ`s Childhood Pal (Paperback)
Christopher Moore is very very brave. His works so far have been for the most part extremely funny, setting a benchmark for himself which is hard to consistently write at. Lamb, is not as overtly funny since it is heavily grounded in history. That said, Lamb is still the funniest take on religion out there and of equal importance (and this is where skill with creativity comes in) it is not overtly blasphemous. Sure, it'll have some readers frowning as Jesus gets high on caffeine and gets heal-happy, some will believe that it mocks their chosen religion (for it's not just Christianity that is central to this book - oddly enough) and some will suggest that Jesus could never fit in to a wine amphora and it's just plain ridiculous. Moore doesn't really aim this at people who know The Bible, but is aiming at a larger audience, the General Public, who know all the miracles and stuff, and have a faint idea about the history. So with this in mind Lamb creates a marvelous, although lengthy, wry story, based on a story everyone can relate to. Most of the story details what the existing Gospels ignore, Jesus' adolescence. Kids will be kids right? It's brave and it's very well done. Guaranteed to provide smirks as a minimum.
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