Lamb

With the exception of my constant dread of what happens at the end, I enjoyed reading this. It was funny and sweet. Not exactly laugh-out-loud funny, but funny. Probably funnier if the reader knows more of the details on the Gospels than I do. But it seemed a reasonable telling of the missing years of Christ's story.

WONDERFUL book. Not in the least disrespectful in my eyes (and I am a Christian who can be sensitive to that kind of thing at times), although of course it is fiction, just as the author himself emphasizes. I would really suggest this to everyone. The afterword was the icing on the cake to me when finishing this book.

This is one great book, just freaking hilarious while also being pretty useful to me.

Lamb gives me context where I hadn't completely understood before.

Christopher tells the story of Christ from birth. While he talks about his life after he comes out and begins preaching openly, he focus much more on Christ's formative years, everything from an interest in sin to learning the ways of the Buddha.

This is, of course, a complete work of fiction. Everything is made of from the author's mind. While he stuck to historical documents to keep some of it accurate, he certainly stretched a lot to make the story fun and fill in gaps which no one knew about.

I can't really explain the book in one post, though I'm always happy to talk about it. Needless to say, I got to live alongside Jesus as he grew up and was shaped by the world around him. I really gained a deeper understanding of the place of Jews within Roman rule as well as what the heck the difference between a Pharisee and a Sadducee was.
The best quotes I got from the first reading of the book were.

Joshua's ministry was three years of preaching, sometimes three times a day, and although there were some high and low points, I could never remember the sermons word for word, but here's the gist of almost every sermon I heard Joshua give.

You should be nice to people, even creeps.
And if you:
a) believed that Joshua was the Don 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

Awesome summation of Jesus' teachings. Oh yeah, did I mention there was some swearing?

Then there was this conversation between Biff and Maggie (Mary Magdalene)

“When we were in India, we saw a festival in the city of their goddess Kali. She's a goddess of destruction, Maggie. It was the bloodiest thing I've ever seen, thousands of animals slaughtered, hundreds of men beheaded. The whole world seemed slick with blood. Joshua and I saved some children from being flayed alive, but when it was over, Joshua kept saying, no more sacrifices. No more.”

Maggie looked at me as if she expected more. “So? It was horrible, what did you expect him to say?”

“He wasn't talking to me, Maggie. He was talking to God. And I don't think he was making a request.”

“Are you saying that he thinks his father wants to kill him for trying to change things, so he can't avoid it because it's the will of God?”

“No, I'm saying that he's going to allow himself to be killed to show his father that things need to be changed. He's not going to try to avoid it at all.”

Another great conversation which helped me better see Jesus' relationship with His father.

Definitely pick this book up. It'll definitely ruffle some feathers with the stuff he made up, like Jesus learning the ways of the Buddha and such. It's a work of fiction, get over it.

This was an overall enjoyable, laugh-out-loud funny read. I don't think it was consistent all the way through. The early, “unknown” years in the life of Jesus came across more interesting than when the author put his own spin on the story we all know.

It's interesting how in recent years writers and filmmakers have shifted to making Jesus a more human and understandable character, stressing the humanity rather than the divinity. This book fits really well in that tradition.

For some reason, I spent the whole book picturing Biff as played by Jeff Anderson from the Kevin Smith movies – something about the know-it-all outrageous quippery.

As much as you can only take this book so seriously, there are touching moments that make you really hope that Joshua did have a good (smart-alecy) friend to help teach him patience.

I honestly didn't think I would like this book, it is way out of my norm for reading. Boy was I wrong! I loved it! At first Moore's style of writing put me off, but after the first few chapters I was hooked! I was laughing throughout most of the book! I would not recommend this for anyone who is easily offended, but in all honesty Moore's purpose isn't to offend. He uses a lot of sarcasm and Biff is a wise-ass sidekick for Joshua. He makes Joshua a very down to earth person who has gone through extraordinary circumstances because he is the Messiah. I enjoyed how Moore incorporated Joshua learning about different religions and the ending for Biff was rewarding.

I was in a tug-a-war with
myself all through this book.
So clever, I'd say; Disrespectful,
I'd reply. I'm left, at the end,
not knowing what to say. Parts
were wonderful; parts left me
horrified.

There is only one thing to do.
I'm passing this book on to
my friend, Karen, for her
thoughts. Oddly, she and I
never agree about controversial
books. She always seems to
love the religious/spiritual themed
books that I hate, yet she is the
more conservative Christian. Or is
she?

I'm left asking myself: Why couldn't
I warm to this book? Why can't I
recommend this to others? Why do
sections of this book make me want
to set it on fire?

Its been awhile since I've read this but I may just put a couple sentence's here. Its a very funny and easy read. The plot is good and I really like the writing style but the story sort of drags about half way through and you kind of just want the book to end. Overall though it had a couple of good laughs with Biff, and the first chapter just cracked me up a lot.

There is something so blasphemous about this book and yet I just laughed from page 1 to the end!

I was raised in a Christian household and knew the story of Jesus forwards and backwards. Or at least I thought I did. Now, I try not to take myself to seriously and I try to maintain a certain amount of humor about my faith and religion as a whole. This book made me bust a gut and there were several times when just a little of “pee” came out, that's how hard I was laughing.

I happened upon this book at a “going out of business sale” at my favorite Colorado Springs indy bookstore: The Chinook. After reading the back cover and learning that this is the story of Jesus as told by his best friend from childhood, Bif, I decided to buy and see what happens. From my knowledge of the Bible, I know that there is a gap in ages for Jesus – we see him as a child and then we see him as a man of about age 30. “Lamb” fills in the gap by providing the reader with the adventures of Jesus and his best friend Bif, leading up to his the day he meets his 12 disciples and is crucified. The reader is introduced to a young Mary Magdalene, who is sweet and beautiful and very much the fantasy of young Bif. As Jesus and Bif journey through childhood and puberty, on their way to Jesus' destiny, they travel the world and meet various people.

This is a fun imagining of the years of Jesus' life that are not mentioned in the Bible. The author has managed to maintain the divinity of Jesus but has also made him a not so typical human being with a divine future at hand. Bif is downright hilarious (and lewd and crude and way too horny) and makes a good foil to the goodness of young Jesus. It's good for a laugh!

As the title says, this is the Gospel according to Biff who is Jesus' best friend and has his back. The book covers the lost years of Jesus in which Joshua and Biff set out to the east in search of the three wise men so that Joshua can learn the knowledge and wisdom he needs in order to be the messiah.

The book is often hilarious but there are lulls in the laughs, a problem that might have been solved if the book was shorter. Also I got the impression that the author pulled his punches for fear of offending someone. Bill Hicks never puled his punches and he was FUNNY. A worthy effort, worth another half star but not enough to round upwards.