Monday 25 June 2007

The Gospel...with some dumbfucks thrown in for good measure

I will preface this post with the following: I am Roman Catholic. I have a minor in religious studies, and I have a lot of background in church ministries.

Now, I will tell you this:

Read Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal

I have never actually laughed out loud while reading something, despite the ubiquitous use of the LOL and LMAO in my comments of blogs. While reading this book, I laughed so loud that I snorted my tea through my nose to stifle the sound so as not to wake the little dude in the next room.

It is a highly irreverent look at the missing years in Christ's life, namely from birth to age 30, as told by Jesus' best friend, Levi aka Biff. Making matters more LOLable, Biff has the gift of tongues, which enables him to tell the story using today's language and linguistic idioms - hence the use of the word dumbfuck, asswipe, and so on. If you ever imagined how bunnies came to be associated with Easter, it's in this book. Don't know where sarcasm was born? Read this book. What about Judo? Here it is. What would it have been like if Jesus did martial arts? Take a gander into the pages. This book does not really touch on any of the gospel stories, rather a speculative behind-the-scenes look at Jesus' life. A "Making-Of" featurette that could appear on the bonus disc of the Bible's DVD companion, if you will.

The first question people ask when I talk about this book is "Is Jesus married in it? He doesn't sin, does he?" Not to spoil anything, but no, the author maintains Jesus' integrity as the Messiah in that sense. What he also shows, however, is an imaginary view of what Jesus would have been like "off the record." And he seems like he would have known how to have a good time.

Any one else read this book? What did you think?

3 comments:

  1. I *loved* that book. It turned me into a massive Christopher Moore fan - it's great fun!

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  2. Looks like a funny read! I'll have to pick it up.

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  3. my roommate has had this book on his shelf all year and I've been meaning to pick it up. I might soon.

    You should submit this review to http://motherapproves.net or at least peak around and see what you think

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Thoughts? Comments? Questions?