Praise be to God - and to Biff
Written: Nov 18 '05
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Wonderful - funny, warm, moving!
Cons: Too short - I wasn't ready for it to end
The Bottom Line: This is a wonderful book - warm, funny, sad, moving... and you don't have to be a Christian, or a non-Christian, to love it.
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| tlbwriter's Full Review: Christopher Moore - Lamb: The Gospel According to ... |
Sometimes you put down a book and you say, "Damn. I wish I had written that. I wish I had that kind of imagination." Or "God, I love that guy's writing style. I wish I could write like that." Or maybe "I wish I had that author's sense of humor," or "I wish I had thought of that slant on the story." And sometimes one book inspires you to say all of that, which is how I feel about Christopher Moore's Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ’s Childhood Pal.
Lamb tells the story of Christ's life as a child and young adult – years that are not described in the Bible. The story is told through the viewpoint of Levi, a.k.a. Biff, who becomes best friends with Jesus (then known as Joshua) when they are six years old after Biff sees him calmly resurrecting lizard that his little brother has killed. Who wouldn't want to be friends with a guy like that? Biff and Joshua fit together perfectly, and Biff becomes both Joshua's foil and his most faithful follower and protector, not to mention his occasional straight man.
This is a book with heart and soul, as well as a sense of humor. There are silly moments, but it is not a silly book. In the beginning (no pun intended) Lamb is fairly lighthearted. The humor is sometimes subtle, sometimes not-so-much. Some of is laugh-out-loud humor ("Surrender Dorothy" - heh heh), but most is simply clever or sarcastic, or both. As the book progresses, Joshua and Biff deal with broken hearts, horrors and demons (literal and figurative), and the story gets darker and darker. The inevitable conclusion was more moving to me, reading it through Biff's eyes, than any bloody finale Mel Gibson could hope to conjure up.
Many reviews on Epinions and Amazon warn that this book is "not recommended for Christians." Why not? Aren't we taught that Jesus lived as a man? Why should we be so offended at the suggestion that he had doubts and fears, human desires, and a bawdy best friend? And aren't we taught that he was wise and accepting? So why should we squirm at the idea that he might have explored other spiritualities?
You don't have to be a Christian, or a non-Christian, to love this book. You just have to love a good, well-written story.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
tlbwriter
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Member: Tracy
Location: Oklahoma
Reviews written: 76
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