Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal
Ratings194
Average rating4.1
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.
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.
Hilarious! Sort of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern meets Kevin Smith's Dogma. Lots of fun and never veers too far into judgement or timid reverence. Great for someone like myself with a passing Sunday school knowledge of the Christian faith.
Really liked this bromance novel - Biff and “Josh” getting into trouble and traveling around the Eastern world. It felt a bit rushed as they returned home and gathered apostles quickly but overall a fun read.
What a wild a crazy story.
This is a lighthearted very post hoc story of Jesus' young life - from about age 6 to the end. The point of view of a friend, who is a little bit of a trouble maker, keeps it light. There is some in your face humor, but there are also some real gems. The plot is well done. There is always a reason for the next action that is inevitable for the characters.
The author takes an equal opportunity approach to a somewhat accurate but comic book version of described religions and cultures. It would be easy to be offended if the reader cannot let the book be a work of fiction.
In some places, this book goes over the top in the in-your-faceness for me, but I think the author hit the mark he was aiming for.
The narrator does a seamless switch across many characters to keep you in the moment. Well narrated.
So I didn't finish this. As of now I am right at the halfway point. I really enjoyed the first half, but the second ground to a halt of epic proportions. If I get interested enough to slog through the rest, I'll revisit. But I have other books to get to in the meantime!
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.
The first two-thirds of it was decent, but I gave up partway through the last third when it was just a rehash of all the bible stories with some extra stuff thrown in because it got boring.
I gave it 66 pages, and it just didn't work for me. Moving on.
I was deeply offended by this book. Christopher Moore waxes sacrilege in his book about Joshua (Jesus) and his best friend Biff. Though the book tackles many religions, there are some religions and some topics within those religions that are best left unmolested. It wouldn't hurt Moore to learn this. There is nothing—ABSOLUTELY NOTHING—funny about Coffee. Adherents of the Coffee Bean do not take such matters lightly. Though we may not be recognized by other religions whose validity we ourselves question, we are strong and organized (and very energetic). For Moore to introduce Coffee into his narrative is one thing, but to laugh at its stimulating qualities is another. However, what can we expect from society? Many poke fun at the Coffee Bean and its miraculous powers. But Moore takes it one step further—he perverts the history of Coffee. No, Mr. Moore, Joshua and Biff DID NOT consume coffee anymore than Abraham Lincoln slammed down a Slurpee. In fact, Coffee and its wonderful effects wouldn't be discovered for another 1500 years. Not even close. Did you even make an attempt at research? And no, obviously Biff couldn't have been the first to add milk and sugar to Coffee, because, as I've already established, COFFEE HAD NOT MADE ITSELF KNOWN TO MAN. One offense is ignorance, two offenses is pardonable, but no, you just kept going and going, dragging Coffee through the mud of not only Palestine, but into the east, as far as China and India. Coffee came to India in 1670. 1670 AD! Do your research, Mr. Moore, or perhaps next time you'll be roasted.
Putting the issue of Coffee aside for the moment, the book had its highs and lows. Some will hate what Moore does with other religions, but I don't think he was too harsh (so stop your whining you babies). He certainly set out to be offensive, but he doesn't directly attack the claims of these faiths—in fact, you could say he largely embraces them for the sake of this novel. I was impressed with this, and didn't expect it (why he couldn't do the same for Coffee is left to debate). The humor swings from Junior High bathroom jokes to absurdest, Monty-Pythonesque skits. Relying too much on penis-this and sex-that, the book isn't all that funny. It has its moments though; I especially enjoyed the duo of Abel and Crutus though their presence was limited to only a few pages.
Largely, the book's biggest issue is its time spent in the East. Joshua and Biff's pilgrimage, while relevant to the ideas Moore was trying to get across, were a chore to get through. The demon-monster, the yeti, the teachers, the sex, sex, sex—none were entertaining, all took us away from the story that paralleled the greatest story ever told. Had the book not returned to the gospel stories as we known them, I would've hated this. It's when Moore is reinterpreting the classic that he is at his best.
So here's how we fix the problem. Next time, I want less East, more Abel and Crustus, and more bunnies. Definitely more bunnies, especially toward the end. And one last thing, Mr. Moore, leave the Coffee to the experts.
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.
Hilarious book. Was curious to see if it was as good as I had been led to believe. It was much better!
The thing about this book is that it wasn't ‘laugh-out-loud' hilarious, which is what I was expecting from everything I'd heard about it. Now, mind, I was in no was disappointed by this. I was glad. Because rather than super hilarious fun times, the book is damned clever and smart. Which is what you want in a good satire. Loved it.
Really funny book... I can see how some might think this is a dangerous book, and I probably would want my own kids to have a strong grounding in Christianity before reading it. That said, very highly entertaining, I definitely want to read more from Chris Moore.
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.
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!
I was a little disappointed by this book. The author's book “A Dirty Job” was so funny, and I had high expectations for this one. The title alone is hilarious. But I felt like there was just too much going on in the book - it would have been much better at half the length. At the end, it seemed like Moore was just trying to squeeze in everything that happened up to Jesus' crucifixion. Jesus/Joshua didn't seem to have a consistent personality throughout the book. And, he tried to take credit for inventing coffee. The whole thing just got too far-fetched. But with the rapid-fire dialogue, it might make a good movie, if they shortened it.
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.
http://fantasycafe.blogspot.com/2007/10/review-of-lamb-gospel-according-to-biff.html