Christopher
Moore’s previous novels have all been humorous contemporary novels.
His newest novel, Lamb is a departure in many ways from
earlier fare such as Island of the Sequined Love
Nun and The Lust Lizard of Melancholy
Cove, and not just because the title is so much shorter.
In fact, the book’s descriptive subtitle is more akin to the
titles of earlier books and gives the reader an excellent idea of what the
book will be like. The
subtitle is The Gospel According to Biff, Christ’s Childhood Pal.
One
of the difficulties with the four Gospels which are included in the
New Testament is that from birth to the beginning of his ministry,
practically nothing is said about the life of Jesus.
Moore has decided to rectify this lack by having Levi bar Alphaeus,
also called Biff, write about his adventures with Jesus from the age of
six, when he saw a strange kid bringing lizards back to life, until the
Crucifixion.
While
Jesus is a reasonably serious child attempting to come to terms with both
his adolescence and being the Messiah, he is accompanied by his best
fried, Biff, whose irreverence saturates the page as he lies, cheats,
tries to teach Jesus about the sins Jesus may not experience firsthand and
watches over his increasingly unworldly friend.
Moore
not only fills in the blanks of Jesus’ childhood, but also reintroduces
the magi who visited Nazareth upon Jesus’ birth.
Making use of apocryphal tales of Jesus’ travels in the East,
Moore has Jesus and Biff visit a monastery in modern day Afghanistan to
learn the secrets of the Tao from Balthezar, continue to China where they
learn the ways of the Buddha from Gaspar and finally journey to India to
learn Hindu mysticism from Melchoir.
Along the way, Jesus learns the philosophies he will bring back to
his homeland and rejects aspects which do not seem to fit.
He will also have his first taste of bacon.
Over
the course of the novel, Moore reveals the minor secrets of Jesus’
ministry (how and why he walked on water) as well as the major ones (what
the H. stands for in Jesus H. Christ).
He also humanizes several of the characters, including Jesus and
Mary Magdalene. His
depictions of the various disciples is more caricaturistic, but anyone who
will be annoyed with his depiction of, for instance, Bartholemew, probably
will not enjoy the book enough to make it to the end.
At
times, it seems as if Moore has spent a little too much time watching
“Monty Python’s Life of Brian” while he was writing Lamb,
however despite some similarities, Moore’s humor and version of the
events of Jesus’ life are different, although they will appeal to the
same audience. It is
extremely tempting to share some of the more humorous lines from Lamb,
but doing so would be a disservice to both author and reader.
Although
all of Moore’s novels are humorous, Lamb is his most ambitious
work to date and is possibly the funniest work Moore has published.
It has the additional distinction of being more philosophical than
his earlier books, possibly because of the topic Moore has decided to
lampoon. For all his
depiction of Jesus and the disciples, Moore’s humor never stoops to
being mean-spirited. It is
clear that he is taking religion seriously and, rather than attack
religion, demonstrates that the evils which Jesus preached against are
very much apparent in modern society.
