![]() Biff loves Maggie, and Maggie loves Joshua. It’s a kind of research.įrom childhood, Biff and Joshua are friends with Maggie, Mary of Magdala. Banned by the angel from sex, Joshua pesters Biff for descriptions of his many sexual encounters. Biff ain’t genteel.īiff has an anarchist’s affection for backtalk and subversiveness and a deep and abiding loyalty for Joshua who, while not a prig, is somewhat innocent and naive. I was going to say smart-aleck, but that’s too genteel. And he never even thanked me.īiff, as you can tell, is a smart-ass. You can make a pretty good living as a beggar with that kind of talent. He was the only kid I ever knew who could pee around corners. That’s more fun than it sounds, or at least it was until my mother caught us trying to circumcise my little brother…Overall, I think it was good for little Shem. My ability to learn Hebrew and the Torah was spurred on by my friendship with Joshua, for while the other boys would be playing a round of tease the sheep or kick the Canaanite, Joshua and I played at being rabbis, and he insisted that we stick to the authentic Hebrew for our ceremonies. My proper name, Levi, comes from the brother of Moses, the progenitor of the tribe of priests my nickname, Biff, comes from our slang word for a smack upside the head, something that my mother said I required at least daily from an early age… He’s studious, compassionate, responsible and more than a little obsessed with sex, mainly because he knows - the angel Raziel has told him - that he’s not supposed to engage in it. Joshua knows - his mother’s told him more than enough times - that he will be the Messiah, but he’s constantly trying to figure out what he needs to do to fulfill that destiny. Well, why not? Why would Jesus have been any different from other kids?Īnd, like many best friends, the two are very different. Most of the humor arises out of the idea that Jesus, whose name is actually Joshua in Hebrew, had a best friend. I realize that might not seem like thigh-slapping comedy to many people, but, for anyone like me who has spent a lifetime hearing references to this or that, often obscure, verse in this or that, often obscure, book of the Bible, it’s hilarious. Part of this, I’m sure, is that I’ve heard the book’s jokes before, such as Biff’s tendency to prove a point by quoting from a non-existent biblical book, to wit: Re-reading Lamb again recently (for a book club meeting), I was less struck by Moore’s humor than by his earnestness. “What I ended up with is essentially ‘Perky Noir,’ a lot closer to Damon Runyon meets Bugs Bunny than Raymond Chandler meets Jim Thompson…But what was I going to do? ‘Noir’ was already typed at the top of every page.” Drudges and Excretions In 2018, Moore published a noir novel, called, surprisingly, Noir, which was sad and daffy and wacky and surprisingly heartfelt, but not all that dark, and not at all hopeless. His characters live in a world of darkness and threat, pain and violence, yet they find with each other hope and love and delight. He’s cheeky, rude, mocking and profane, but his heart’s in the right place. That’s what’s apparent in all of Moore’s books. Prior to this year, I’d read Lamb twice and reviewed it once, in 2017, reveling in its over-the-top irreverent humor with an undertone of seriousness. Yet, as much as it might seem a sacrilege to make fun of the Bard - Moore even has a novel called Shakespeare for Squirrels - he really swung for the blasphemy fences with his 2002 Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ’s Childhood Pal. ![]() Christopher Moore is a writer of joyfully goofy and ribald novels about such things as vampires, demons, San Francisco, a Native-American trickster and the comic aspects of Shakespeare’s tragedies, such as the randy fool in King Lear.
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