The Final Testament of the Holy Bible [Paperback]

A man living initially as a drunk, when not working on a construction site, gets brained by a massive piece of plate glass dropped by a crane but miraculously doesn't die. Following his recovery the miracles start to happen and we begin to hear from the people in this man - Ben Zion's - life and the extent to which he is perceived to be the second coming of Jesus Christ, the Messiah, returned!

But this Messiah doesn't act like the Messiah in the Bible. He "loves" everyone sure, but does so sexually, literally instigating orgies and having sex with men and women. And while Ben Zion can quote Biblical verse, he doesn't reinforce the Christians' beliefs in a male God who watches and cares what his humans are doing below, and whether or not they follow the words of his Bible.

Blasphemy! is the knee-jerk reaction this setup is designed to provoke, at least amongst Christians. And written by who else but James Frey, notoriously told off by Oprah for lying about parts of his memoir "A Million Little Pieces". I think this book will definitely receive a lot more attention in the US where Christianity is taken much more seriously than in Europe but the book does seem to try it's hardest to mock Christianity.

Don't get me wrong, if I had to label myself it would be a secular humanist, and I certainly didn't object to Frey's messiah carrying on the way he did. But I do care about reading a good book and I felt that this was rather a weak effort. The story seemed to slow considerably in the second act, and falter in the third before ending in the inevitable way.

It's because Frey uses Ben Zion as a soap box rather than a real person. There are lengthy passages on the wrongs of Christianity, arguments which I was already aware of and believe in, but they became rather repetitive, as were the constant messages of love, love, love, and more love. I believe this is a totally worthwhile message, that love is the best thing about life, and that we should seek love and make no judgments on whether it's a man or a woman that we choose, but as part of a novel it seemed a bit dull to read again and again.

All of the narrators become followers and believers of Ben Zion and eventually begin parroting his message of love, so to read the same thing over and over for 150 pages is a bit much. And between Ben Zion leaving the subways until his eventual end, there isn't a whole lot that happens. Ben "loves" everyone, Christianity is mocked (they are an easy target, especially the Catholics, deservedly so), and... that was it?

I expected a bit more than a whole lotta humping. Granted there are moments that are a wink at some of the Bible stories, such as when Ben sits down to supper with his family for the first time in 16 years; he stands and picks up a plate of fish and begins to put them onto everyone's plates - "What are you doing Ben?" "Feeding you. Bread roll?".

It was well written, enjoyable at times, well presented (the text is laid out like in the Bible, with chapters named after the characters, most of whom mirror the disciples' names), and some set pieces were certainly memorable. But as a fan of his last book, the excellent and frankly underrated "Bright Shiny Morning", I felt that this book was a bit flat. It felt like Frey was looking to antagonise the Christians and wasn't really interested in much else. In that sense, he's succeeded. I'm sure the Americans will get into a flap once passages become posted online and people will once again talk about Frey being a "bad boy of letters". But I think Frey is capable of better novels than this and I look forward to reading his next effort, hopefully realising that poking fun of Christians, fashionable as it is these days, isn't enough to sustain a novel. Not a terrible book by any means but not Frey's best and a bit disappointing in its repetitiveness.

This book is repetitive and preachy, for a book that is supposed to be anti-religious, and unoriginal.
I wouldn't read anything else by him on the basis of this.

I've not had a book grab my attention like this did in a long time. So much so that I was nearly walking into lamp posts on my way to and from work because I couldn't put it down. I'm a new comer to James Frey and started off with A Million Little Pieces which I loved. I've just finished this book and have now bought My Friend Leonard. More books please Mr Frey! If you don't like bad language and sexual references then this isn't the book for you and don't buy it just to moan about it! Excellent.