When I put out the call for book recommendations, my friend Colleen suggested I read Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal by Christopher Moore.  I got it from the library back in September and started reading, but then someone put it on reserve so I had to return it before I finished.  I didn't get it back until November, so my reading was a bit broken up, and it's been awhile since I've finished it, but let's see what I can remember.

Lamb is a highly, highly fictionalized account of Jesus' life from his childhood to his crucifixion, told from the point of view of his best friend Biff.  Jesus is trying to understand exactly what he's meant to do as the Messiah and so he sets out, with his friend in tow, to find the three wise men. 

The story is funny and quite blasphemous.  The Jesus in this telling swears and drinks, and while he doesn't fornicate he's pretty curious about what he's missing; his best friend Biff, without the burden of being the Son of God, is happy to experiment on his (His?) behalf. 

Not being Christian, none of this really bothered me.  In fact, if anything, I thought the story made Jesus very likeable, in no small part because it humanized him; in the story he is special, yes, chosen but he also has human worries and curiosities and doubts.  I rather like that in a religious figure.  I suspect that, not having read the Bible, I also missed out on a lot of in-the-know Christianity references (although I did catch the joke in a quick passage about some guys from Turin with a cloth).  But the funny thing is, I found that this satirical imagining of Jesus' life made me kind of interested in learning more about his real one, not so much from a religious point of view as an historical one.

I'd be curious to know what Christian readers think of this book.  Of course, opinions would differ amongst members of the Christian community, I'm sure, but I'd be particularly interested to know, setting aside the plot, if Christopher Moore's characterization of Jesus is that far removed from the popular view (if there is one particular popular view) of Christ, who he was as a man and, I guess, what it would have been like to hang out with him, other than awesome of course.

In terms of learning something from this book to take into my own writing, Christopher Moore is daring, not only in his choice of subject, which is gutsy to say the least, but also in the approach he takes to his characters and plotlines.  In reading Lamb, I got the feeling that the author just let the story take him wherever it wanted to go without second guessing it.  "How about Jesus meets a yeti?  Fuck yeah!"  I imagine him thinking.  It was probably more thought out and structured than that, but the writing is just so playful and witty and creative that it comes across as easy.  And honestly, after reading Lamb, I feel empowered to just write the story as it comes, the dialogue as I hear it in my head, and let go and trust my own voice.  Because if Mr. Christopher Moore can write a bestseller with a drunken, swearing Jesus as a main character and get away with it, then what's holding me back?

All in all, a very entertaining read and I'm glad that Colleen recommended it because I'm not sure if I would have chosen it off the shelf otherwise, which is what these recommendations are all about!  I have two more recommended books to write up, both completely different than Lamb and each other, which is awesome.  And I'm looking forward to diving into a new book tonight.  So stay tuned, book lovers.  As for you book haters, I'll return to writing about other topics soon.  In the mean time, please return to your internets and TVs and...sudoku?  Dragonboat racing?  What do you do?  How do you not like books?!