Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal | Christopher Moore

Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal | Christopher Moore | Jesus and bud on the road

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Lamb: The Gospel A...

	Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal Christopher Moore Harper Paperbacks, 2003 - 464 pages average customer review:based on 477 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Moore's Best Work

This book was one of the best things I've read in a long time. Many of the review here did it justice, but I'll try to cover a few points I feel were missed:

-This book is not religiously offensive. As a practicing Catholic, I had no problem with the humor - one merely has to take it with a grain of salt. The more devout might wince when Jesus uses the f-word, but this is a minor complaint, and a bad reason to stay away from the book.

-This book is much funnier if you are biblically literate. A few other reviewers have said that the last third of the book, where Jesus and Biff go back to Israel to preach, is the weakest part. However, those familiar with the Wedding at Cana and the Sermon on the Mount will find the retellings deeply amusing. I think my favorite twist was when Jesus cures two blind beggars, and after thanking Jesus profusly (as is the usual matter of course in the Gospels) they whine that there isn't all that much to look at in the Judean desert...not to mention all the references to pillars of salt (one of God's strangest, if not most creative, punishments).

-Others have complained that the ending, which retells the crucifixtion fairly faithfully, is sappy and disapointing. I thought that Moore cleverly managed to make this tragedy fit in with this story, without ever being offensive or crude about Jesus' ultimate sacrifice. I've also personally felt that Moore's endings sometimes fall apart - in particular, "Fluke" and "A Dirty Job" have confusing, overblown endings that don't really seem to tie up the plot. However, Lamb had a built-in ending which had to be treated very delicately. This forced Moore to avoid the showy, confusing endings which populate most of his books.

-This book had a heart of gold. Underneath all the jokes, one develops a real affection for Biff, who while weak and stupid, is loveable, and Jesus, who is never sanctimonious, but only compassionate. When I saw their lifelong friendship torn apart by the crucifixtion, I couldn't stop myself from crying - something I rarely do for any book, much less a humorous one.

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Jesus and bud on the road

OK, here's the premise of this book: imagine if Jesus Christ's best friend was Bart Simpson. OK, is you aren't turned off yet then you'll probably enjoy this absurdist parody. I liked the book as it never for one second denys that Jesus was the Son of God. So, we have Jesus (here called Joseph bar Jacob) who is compelled to travel East to learn about his destiny to become the Messiah. The narrator of the book is Biff. Biff goes with Joseph as he goes looking for the three magi who were present at his birth. They meet demons, gurus, and various con men along the way, always learning something new that comes in handy later (like how to multiply food). This is actually funny book, I found myself laughing out loud several times at some of the situations they found themselves in. Biff is world weary and very fleshy sinner, but somehow he is never a bad guy. In the afterward Christopher Moore says you are not to take this book seriously, so don't. Just go with the flow and be entertained. If you liked "Good Omen" by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett, then you'll enjoy this little gem too.

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There is Only One Gospel

There is only one Gospel. The "Gospel" according to Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, and now Biff are five versions of the story of Jesus's life. However only in Biff are the "missing" thirty years revealed. And hilariously so. This book is sure to create detractors and down-right meanness from critics but I loved it. First, it's a novel and only a novel which is to say it's fiction. So relax and enjoy the story as told by Biff.

The book is Douglas Adams (Hitchhiker's Guide) meets Remo Williams (as created by Warren Murphy and Richard Sapir in the Destroyer Series), and, of course, the Bible. Some of the humor is juvenile but the story is overall entertaining, funny, and thought-provoking. Shining through all this is the underlying theme which while important, it will be overlooked (or unrecognized) by many.

Moore writes:
"Others may perceive the Divine Spark in themselves only by realizing through enlightenment that the spark resides in all things, and in that they find kinship. But because the Divine Spark resides in all, does not mean that all will discover it. Your dharma is not to learn, Joshua, but to teach....

We are all seekers. You are that which is sought, Joshua. You are the source. The is divinity, in the beginning is the word. You are the word."

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Surprisingly Touching

Let's just say that if God does not have a keen sense of humor, Christopher Moore is in a lot of trouble because "the Gospel according to Biff" is filled with the kind of irreverent, often slapstick, humor for which Moore has become well known. Without a doubt, some readers will consider the book to be blasphemy and will not get far with it; most, I think will enjoy Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal as the humorous and rather tenderly told coming-of-age story that it is.

Levi bar Alphaeus, a stonemason's son known as Biff, has been Joshua's (the Greek equivalent of the name Jesus) best friend as long as he can remember. Although Biff and Joshua were best friends, they gladly accepted Maggie, more formally known as Mary of Magdala, into their lives when her family came to live near them. No one knew Joshua better than Biff and Maggie, and that is why the angel Raziel has been assigned to keep the resurrected Biff locked in a modern-day St. Louis hotel room until he completes his writing assignment: a new text filling in the 30-year gap that exists in the known Gospels.

Biff was happy to be alive again but really did not feel like writing down his experiences of a lifetime as Joshua's best friend until he stumbled upon a copy of the Bible in his hotel room (a copy that the angel tried to hide from him) and saw that none of the Gospels so much as mentioned his name or existence. That is when he decided it was time to set the record straight by telling his story...and what a story it was.

As the boys grew older, Biff realized just how special his friend was and he became protective of Joshua, trying to keep his true nature a secret from anyone other than Joshua's closest friends and family, especially the Romans. Joshua understood that as the Son of God he was placed on Earth with certain responsibilities and obligations to his people. But the details were fuzzy and Joshua could think of no one better to answer his questions than the three wise men who visited him upon his birth. Thus began a twenty-year adventure in which Biff and Joshua spent a period of several years with each of the wise men learning everything that could be taught to them (well, Biff did not learn a whole lot other than some super martial arts skills that would later serve him well), a journey that took them as far as India and China.

This twenty-year period, constituting the bulk of Lamb, is narrated with great humor and candor by Biff as the reader watches the evolution of Christian thought as Joshua is exposed to the other major religions of the world. Moore uses humor to emphasize the human aspects of Joshua in much the way that he used it in describing the antics of the two boys from ages five to ten (my favorite portion of the book). As Joshua approaches thirty years of age, though, Moore does not stray far from what is recorded in the New Testament and Lamb becomes a dark tale in which humor does not work nearly so well, though Moore continues to use it.

Lamb is a thought provoking book for those willing to read it rather than condemn it for its very subject matter. There is a huge difference between blasphemy and irreverence and Christopher Moore never crosses the line. His portrayal of Joshua/Jesus as a human being, a man with all of the usual strengths and weaknesses, has a remarkable impact. After all, at the core of Christianity is the belief that Jesus became human in order to redeem the world. Moore's portrayal of Joshua makes exactly that point, and makes it very well.

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What's So Funny About Peace, Love, and Understanding?

It must have been something about the end of the century that made people interested in looking beyond the Bible to understand the life of Jesus Christ. First we had "The Last Temptation of Christ" in the late `80s, which I've never seen more than five minutes of, that tried to make Jesus seem like a real, flawed person. About fifteen years later came Dan Brown's "Da Vinci Code" that poured existing conspiracy theories about Christ's life into the mold of a standard thriller and subsequently set the literary world on fire--and ensured Brown will never be hurting for money. We also had Mel Gibson's bloody, gruesome "Passion of the Christ" which I've never seen and never want to see. In between all this came Christopher Moore's "Lamb," which like Brown's novel takes existing material and this case pours it into the mold of a comic book superhero, only without the POW! and BAM! sound effects.

Most people, even if they aren't Christians, already should have an idea about the basics of this story. The birth in the stable and all that isn't covered in Moore's book. Instead it starts out in Nazareth when Joshua (his real Hebrew name) is six years old. His best friend is Levi who is called Biff (so at least we get one of those comic book sound effects) who is the Son of God's constant companion throughout most of the novel. At this point Joshua can already bring lizards back to life, but soon his powers grow so he can bring people back to life--almost.

At the age of thirteen, Josh decides it's time to go find his destiny so he and Biff travel to the East in search of the wise men present at Josh's birth. First they go to what is now Afghanistan, where Josh begins to study Confucius while Biff studies the carnal arts with six Chinese servant girls. Eventually they go off to find Wise Man #2, who is a Buddhist monk in China. There Josh and Biff master kung fu while also meditating on the secrets of the universe. Finally they have to go to India to meet Wise Man #3, who is an aesthetic hermit, who teaches Josh yoga while Biff learns the Kama Sutra from a prostitute.

Finally it's time for Josh and Biff to return home and begin the ministry by enlisting disciples and all that. I suppose I'm only spoiling the end for non-believers when I say Joshua is crucified, dies, and rises from the dead on the third day. As for Biff's fate, you'll have to read the book yourself.

I suppose people would (if anyone reads it) disagree with my remarks about this being like a comic book. Actually the first hundred pages is more like a Biblical "Little Rascals" with young Joshua, Biff, and Mary of Magdala getting into mischief in ancient Israel. But it still follows that pattern of first the superhero gains his power, then he has to learn how to control his abilities, then he has to figure out how to battle evil, and then he finally battles the villain. (Alternatively you could also think of Luke Skywalker in the "Star Wars" movies, who realizes he has the Force in the first movie, then goes off to learn from Yoda, and finally uses it to destroy Vader and the Emperor in the last movie. If that works any better for you.) Then there's the snappy one-liner banter, Biff in the role of sidekick, and of course the love interest who in the tradition of Lois Lane and Vicki Vale even has the same letter in both names. All we need are some tights and a secret identity. But then I'm the same one who calls "Fight Club" a Marxist fairy tale, so feel free to disagree with me on this point.

At any rate, probably the most you can get out of this book is a reminder that most religions at their base all teach very similar things about love and forgiveness and being good to fellow man and so forth. Some are a little more strict and have different dietary rules, but the core beliefs are very similar. If we focused on these deeper similarities than the more surface-level differences we'd have a lot fewer problems in the world. But really you could probably figure that out without this book.

Overall the book is entertaining in a blasphemous way. It's as sharp and witty as a "Simpsons" parody, so if that's your thing you aren't likely to get bored reading it. Though as an official reviewer on Amazon noted it can be hard to tell Biff and Josh apart because they sound the same. Also, they sound pretty much the same from age six right on up to age thirty-three with the same sarcastic quips and one-liners. In a way that's all right because if you grow up close to someone for all those years you do develop your own sort of language style with your own in-jokes.

My main complaint is we spend 100 pages on the Biblical Little Rascals, then 200 pages on the gratuitous training montage, and then only a little more than 100 pages on the actual events recounted in the Bible. The crucifixion especially seems rushed and the ending a little abrupt. It'd be like paying to see the latest "Spider-Man" movie and then the final epic battle between Spidey and the latest villains is over in three minutes. You'd feel a little cheated. But at least it saves us from an unpleasant Mel Gibson-style bloodbath. Definitely a bonus.

Should you read this book? Probably not if you're a Republican. If you're a "liberal" and can tolerate a mildly offensive satire then knock yourself out--POW!

That is all.

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