Book Review: Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal
Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal
by Christopher Moore
My review
Rating: 5 of 5 stars
Fiction/Historical Fiction
I really, really liked this book. I wasn't sure what to expect on picking it up. It was one of those things where you've never heard of something in your whole life, and then you hear about it in three places in one day. In the end I mentioned it to my boss, and he said, "Oh! I have that! You can borrow it!" Well, I'm glad he was able to find it.
First of all, from what I can tell from the book blurb and the promotional stuff I've read about it, the publishers seem to be really pushing the humor side of things, without acknowledging the fact that this is most certainly a Thinking Book. I think that Wicked had exactly the same issue; it sounded like it should be pretty entertaining, I mean, it was supposedly retelling The Wizard of Oz from the witch's viewpoint! However, what I found in Wicked was a long political, religious and social rant with few recognizable elements. That is so not my kind of book, and so I really detested that book.
Personally, I thought that Lamb had more heart to it (despite the fact that it was about as skanky, sexual-content-wise, as Paris Hangover). Also, I found the concepts and story elements Moore presents-while obviously fiction-to be much more intriguing.
(A bit spoilery here...)
I loved the idea of Joshua developing his views on what his new faith should be from deep study of the other major world religions. I thought Moore really solidly demonstrated how Joshua might have come to those conclusions by looking at other faiths and traditions: deciding to abandon the Jewish concept of the gentiles being damned because he doesn't like the concept of the Untouchables being born to their fate, etc. Really interesting ideas. No historical proof, of course, but really interesting.
(Spoilery parts over.)
The book WAS funny, although for me the chuckle-inducing moments were mostly in the last half of the book. (Palpable irony... hahahah.) I expected MORE humor based on the marketing, but enjoyed it nonetheless.
I just liked it. I cared what happened to Joshua as a person as well as in his role as a religious figure, and cared about Biff and Maggie too. It made me think, and also made me laugh. I'd recommend it for anyone, of any religious background. (Totally outside of the religious stuff, there are certainly people [like my mother!] who would probably hate it for all the sex and swearing.)
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