“Lamb” by Christopher Moore – Viva Las Nazareth

Regardless of which side of the religious fence you fall on (or sit on?), you can probably agree that Jesus was in fact a real person whose teachings and supposedly glorious acts have been chronicled.

While it is true we will never really know beyond all doubt how much of it is true, we have a good idea of the kind of person he was. However, certain parts of his life are covered in grey than others, and in Lamb by Christopher Moore, Jesus’ best pal Biff is suddenly resurrected for the sole purpose of filling in the blanks… and he obliges.

Lamb is basically Biff’s narration in regards to Jesus’ early life… and boy was it an eventful one. It seems that before he could really control his powers, Jesus didn’t shy away from going on long and amazing journeys, using his magic to achieve his own end, participating in corpse reanimations, interacting with demons, and of course, picking up the legendarily hot Nazareth babes. All in all, we get to find out how Jesus came to be the man he was and what extraordinary roads his father made him travel.

Now, it might sound like Lamb is some kind of crude parody that trivializes Jesus’ life and accomplishments, perhaps even being immature in its approach of the whole thing. However, I can assure you that the novel is much more intelligent than the initial description of it.

The reason I put it the way I did is because there is no better way of giving you the summary of the story. When looked at from the outside with a small glance, the whole of it just appears to be ridiculous. However, the more you invest yourself in the story and the book, the more you realize that the humor is actually in very good taste.

Yes, there are some people that will be against this book for religious reasons, and the only thing I can say to that is: “you’re probably missing the whole point of it”. Despite of how Jesus is portrayed here, in the end, Moore drives home the idea that Jesus was willing to redeem all of our sins by sacrificing himself, a point made even stronger by the fact that Jesus is treated as an actual human in the book and not a godlike being.

Of course, there are some parts where the humor becomes a tad drawn-out or simply not funny, but they are far and few in between; in the end, this book offers a very entertaining and unique look on the lost years of Jesus Christ.

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Christopher Moore Personal site Christopher Moore is an American writer whose forte lies in the weaving of comedic fantasies. The rights to his first novel, Practical Demonkeeping were sold to Disney before the book was even published. He is also known for writing A Dirty Job and Fool.