The Book of Genesis
Ratings3
Average rating4
From Creation to the death of Joseph, here is the Book of Genesis, revealingly illustrated as never before.
This eagerly awaited graphic work retells the first book of the Bible in a profoundly honest way. Peeling away the theological and scholarly interpretations that have often obscured its most dramatic stories, R. Crumb - using actual text word for word - has imagined the Bible as it really was. Now, readers of every persuasion - Crumb fans, comic book lovers, history buffs, and believers - can gain astonishing new insights from these harrowing, visceral, and even juicy stories. Crumb's "The Book of Genesis" reintroduces readers to Adam and Eve's Eden, Noah's Ark, Sodom and Gomorrah, and the Pharaoh's Egypt. Using clues from the text, Crumb fleshes out the parade of biblical originals: from the sensitive dreamer Joseph to the crafty Jacob, to the still-fetching Sarah, to God Himself. The result, four years in the making, is a tapestry of extraordinary detail, the finest work of Crumb's legendary career.
Reviews
Popular Reviews
Reviews with the most likes.
R. Crumb, biblical scholar? Indeed, this is a scholarly and respectable work that preserves the spirit of Genesis. Other comicbookifications of the bible cut and simplify and modify, but Crumb preserves the actual text of Genesis in all its despicable wretchedness: the nastiness, the inconsistencies, the sheer absurdities. It's all there, beautifully illustrated and even annotated (be sure to refer to the end notes).
Crumb's illustrations add richness to the text and also help by slowing down the reader's pace, improving comprehension. I even made it through the genealogy parts. Ultimately, I was both disappointed and exhilarated by this book. I was expecting satire and humor, but Crumb rose above that to deliver something better: by remaining true to the biblical text, he created something that satirizes itself.
