“Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ’s Childhood Pal” by Christopher Moore

I have just finished reading this book and wanted to share my thoughts with my beloved book club. This book covers the 30 or so years of Jesus’ life that basically go uncovered in the Bible or historical texts—and culminates with the part of the story that we do know, albeit with some twists and turns. The story is told by Levi who is called Biff, the obviously fictional childhood friend of Jesus. While the story is fictional, there are many references to biblical events, and the humorous and clever ways that Moore brings these elements into the story is what I liked most about the book. As a result, I especially found myself struggling through the portion of the book that is purely fictional, based on the missing years with little reference to actual events. However, I still found it very entertaining to imagine Jesus in some of the situations that arose. At the same time, I must admit that if I knew the Bible a bit better, I probably would have enjoyed the book more. Based on my knowledge and what I liked about the style and idea of the book, I found last 150 or so pages very enjoyable and difficult to put down because it returns to the time period covered by the Gospels. Perhaps a passage or two to give you a sample of the tone/humor of the book would be beneficial.

Biff is a firm believer in Jesus (called Joshua in the book) being the son of God, but he takes a fairly light-hearted approach to the endeavor of spreading this message to the masses. As a result, he does not remember Josh’s sermons word for word, but offers the following outline to give you the gist of his message:

“You should be nice to people, even creeps.
And if you:
a) believed that Joshua was the Son of God (and)
b) he had come to save you from sin (and)
c) acknowledged the Holy Spirit within you (became as a little child, he would say) (and)
d) didn’t blaspheme the Holy Ghost (see c),
then you would:
e) live forever
f) someplace nice
g) probably heaven.
However, if you:
h) sinned (and/or)
i) were a hypocrite (and/or)
j) valued things over people (and)
k) didn’t do a, b, c, and d,
then you were:
l) fucked.”

It is possible that this simplification could be offensive, and if it is taken as such, then I would not recommend this book. Jesus’ character is certainly more serious in the novel than Biff—and it should be noted that the book is filled with serious characters and moments for everyone, it’s not just a pleasure romp—but Jesus too is written as a character with a sense of irony about what he is undertaking and attempting to do. In other words he has a sense of humor. At one point, Biff is amazed at the compassion that Jesus shows for some particularly annoying/objectionable children and expresses how impressed he is that Jesus treated them so well.

“Yep, I love all the children of the world, you know?”
“Really?”
He nodded. “Green and yellow, black and white”
“Good to know—Wait, green?”
“No, not green. I was just fuckin’ with you.”

Anyway, I don’t want this to go on too long, but I’ll wrap up by saying that I enjoyed the book on the whole, and loved parts of it. At times, the book really made me laugh, but also used humorous situations and references to make very interesting and thought-provoking points. I am going to now spend some time, as I have throughout my reading, looking things up to see what was factual—or at least based on writings—and what was completely fabricated. However, I must admit that I felt that the idea and premise of this book were better than the execution in many cases. A final note—an unexpected bonus for me was that Biff has returned in the present to write this story, so there are also some funny observations about the modern day from the perspective of someone living 2,000 years ago. Anyway, I’ll give it a 3.8 out of 5 and call it a day. If anyone wants to borrow this book and go on an adventure with Jesus, Biff, Mary, Joseph, the Apostles, and the rest of the gang, let me know. Otherwise, happy reading!

Do Not Take This Kid's Bacon

Because I work in internets video I thought I could contribute some hard hitting, book club specific, thought-provoking video: