A Review for you and yours on Christmas! (A review of Lamb, by Christopher Moore)

Given that it's Christmas, I figured that I would post a previous review I'd done a while back (almost 2 years ago!) of a little book that is near and dear to my heart, Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal by Christopher Moore. This book still resonates with me, and once you read through this review you'll understand why.

Originally written February 26, 2009

I just got done reading Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal by Christopher Moore. I had about an hour to kill before work since I got to the mall early (left uber early due to the massive amounts of snow we got today), and I couldn't wait to read it at home. Wow. Just... wow. It's a simply amazing book. I had never read anything by Moore before but had heard his stuff was good. And given I'm of the Christian persuasion, I decided to read Lamb first.

An angel, Raziel, is ordered to raise Levi (aka Biff) from the dead in present times, in order for him to write down the lost events of Christ's life, because God has deemed that the world needs to know. So Biff is set upon the task of writing down the life of Jesus (who he calls Josh---Jesus is the Greek for Joshua). The most amazing and mind blowing part of the book was when Biff and Josh go on a quest to find the three wise men so Josh can learn how to be the Messiah. This quest takes up the "missing" 17 years between Jesus' trip to the temple when he was 13 and when he is baptized by John when he's 30.

I found this story amazingly touching, tender, and insightful, as well as hilarious as sin (ha!). Moore surprised me with how he focused on Jesus' human half and how he wasn't quite sure if he was the Messiah, how to be the Messiah, and how to balance the human and God parts of his being. And seeing the Passion Week through the eyes of Biff, Josh's life-long friend, I was dreading reading the end when Josh was crucified, knowing that Biff would take that hard (even though I know it has a happy ending afterall!). The only thing I wasn't too thrilled with was the actual crucifiction and how Josh's "death" played out. Being that his death and resurrection is the cornerstone for the faith of millions... playing it off the way Moore did was a little said, given the other Biblical and faith related stuff he did put in the book (demons, healings, God talking, etc.). So that knocked down the awesomeness of the book by a few percentage points. Bummer.

I for one found myself reconnecting with my faith while reading this book, especially once I realized that through the how many years I've been in private Lutheran schools (Pre-K through college!), I've been exposed to the humanness of Christ only once: in college, my sophomore year in New Testament class. Dr. Schuler was the only person to point out the human points of Christ, how he had to live just like us, be tempted just like us, do everything a normal human had to do, but have that extra Godliness element to his life that mad things more interesting. Moore was able to point out that struggle in the book. I loved the part when Biff has sex for the first time and Josh, unable to "know" women because of his divine calling, asks him constantly what sex was like. It was funny, yet sobering because Jesus had to give up certain human needs/actions because of his divine purpose. I found it touching and almost heart-breaking when Josh couldn't figure out why people were mean to each other, why mankind ocnstantly hurt/killed/destroyed things that it didn't understand, why there was suffering in the world... it was almost childlike. A pure look at the world that was truly refreshing.

I loved the quest Josh and Biff go on to figure out how to be the Messiah. That part through me for a loop and I found totally believable. Josh was God and man, but that didn't mean he knew all the answers. He still prayed and sought God's counsel in the book, and it was interesting that God didn't really respond. I found that to be inspiring, because Jesus had to find his own way to be the Messiah, something totally different than what the Jews and the old guard had seen before. It was also fun to see the links between Buddhism and Christianity; Josh and Biff spend time in a Buddhist monastary to be taught by the 2nd wise man, then go to India to learn from the 3rd. Two different views, Buddhism and Hinduism, but some of the core values Josh takes and merges it into the first (and purest) form of Christianity. Reading the quest in the book was amazing for me, for it caused me to look at my own faith and reevaluate how I see things, what I believe in... and most importantly: Why? I love books that start out being for fun then somehow change your life along the way as an added bonus.

On my scale of 1 (only viable option is hari kari) to 10 (literary orgasmic bliss), this book is a 9.9; seriously. The only thing that kept it from being a perfect 10 was the crucifiction scene. That one scene cost Moore my first ranking of orgasmic bliss.

And amazing roller coaster ride of laughter, faith, drama, love, sex, divine sparks, and bacon (yes, bacon.). I definitely recommend this book... but only to those who can laugh at a fictional take on their faith and know not to take it too seriously.

I think Christopher Moore's vision of Josh, er, Jesus, is the closest I've found that matches what I invision Jesus to be like in my head. When I get to heaven, I'm calling him Josh. =^_^=