For instance, Joshua remains celibate throughout their journeyings. Moore uses the few pieces of information from the Gospels and other non-Biblical Christian accounts as a thin framework on which to describe Joshua and Biff as children, their friendship with Mary Magdalene (called Maggie) and their nearly two decades of wandering in the East where, under the tutelage of the three Wise Men, they study Buddhism and other spiritual traditions.īiff is the sort of best friend of a goody-two-shoes guy who gets into trouble so the goody-two-shoes guy doesn’t have to. The bulk of this book deals with the 30 years that Joshua lived before starting his public ministry, years about which very little is known. It’s a re-telling - a randy and raucous re-telling - of Shakespeare’s King Lear, and, like Lear, Moore rages at the deterioration that comes with age and the death that follows. In his 2009 novel Fool, Moore tackles a related subject, the pain and terror of growing old. It’s hilarious, but it grapples in a real way with the fact and mystery that humans live their lives, knowing they will die. In others, though, there’s an added layer of real-life angst that he appears to be dealing with.įor instance, his 2006 book A Dirty Job is about death. In some of his novels, Moore approaches his task with the sole aim of having zany fun. “We don’t talk about it.”Īt the same time, though, in its own weird and wacky way, Lamb is a reverent attempt to tell and understand the story of Jesus. Lush blossoms of a half dozen vibrant colors stood surrounded by the deadest landscape on the planet. The new guy…noticed some flowers growing where Joshua had just relieved himself. It’s very funny and outrageous and in the worst possible taste, as in this scene:

Generations of Christian theologians would probably nit-pick that teaching to death, and, yet, really, isn’t that the heart of Christianity? “You should be nice to people, even creeps.” Here, for instance, is how Biff summarizes the gist of virtually every sermon he ever heard Joshua give: That gives you an idea of the general tone of Lamb and of Levi who is called Biff, one in a long line of Christopher Moore characters who are ribald, raunchy, cheeky, confused, intrepid, vibrant and - did I mention? - randy smart alecks with a heart of gold. It’s one of the things I should have asked him. It’s Greek for the Hebrew word messiah, meaning anointed. Jesus, he explains, is a Greek translation of the Hebrew name Yeshua. As Biff notes at the beginning of Christopher Moore’s comic 2002 novel Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ’s Childhood Pal, his friend’s name was Joshua.

Lamb biff christopher moore