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enamouredSometimes I wonder why people don't talk to me as much as they used to.
Random Awesome News:
That is a picture of Vice President Biden at Bullock's Barbecue. Bullock's is this amazing barbecue place in Durham that has the best hush puppies EVER. This picture pleases me greatly.
Continuing in 30 Days of Meme: Your Favorite Book
Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal, Christopher Moore
Until eighth grade, I'd been mostly educated in schools that were affiliated with churches. I went to a Baptist preschool and from kindergarten through seventh grade I went to Catholic school. Add that to the fact that my parents were pretty steady churchgoers (of neither the Baptist or Catholic persuasion, actually), and I was pretty familiar with the story of Jesus from a young age. On the other hand, due to the nature of the Gospels, my earliest understandings of Jesus' life were something like, "Okay, December = baby, grows up, March/April (depending on the year) = crucified and back from the dead". Of course, later on I realized this was kind of ridiculous, but, well, there's a good thirty year chunk missing from the life of Christ in the book, how else could you fill in the blanks?
Christopher Moore actually does a pretty job of doing that. As the title says, it's the story of Jesus's (Joshua in the book) life told through the eyes of his best friend, Levi (who is called Biff). It takes a story that's familiar and makes it fascinating and funny. I don't remember how I heard of Lamb first (I think it was via someone on LJ), but when I read it for the first time I fell in love with how funny it was, because there is this idea that there is nothing funny about Jesus; Jesus is Serious Business. I don't know about you, but I like the idea of Jesus cracking a joke or two, and practicing Jewdo and hanging out with a yeti, you know? And while this book is funny and a breeze to get through, it's always the inevitable end that gets to me. You have all of this backstory and fun, and then it gets serious and it always reminds me of being back in Catholic school again and how the week before Easter Break it would be fun and games until Thursday, when we'd do Stations of the Cross and nobody is in a particularly cheerful mood after Stations of the Cross.
But still: great book, and I have been known to quote it in IMs at random ("NO DUMBFUCKS!") or whenever something vexing comes up about religion.
Random Awesome News:
That is a picture of Vice President Biden at Bullock's Barbecue. Bullock's is this amazing barbecue place in Durham that has the best hush puppies EVER. This picture pleases me greatly.
Continuing in 30 Days of Meme: Your Favorite Book
Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal, Christopher Moore
You think you know how this story is going to end, but you don't. Trust me, I was there. I know.
The first time I saw the man who would save the world he was sitting near the central well in Nazareth with a lizard hanging out of his mouth. Just the tail end and the hind legs were visible on the outside; the head and forelegs were halfway down the hatch. He was six, like me, and his beard had not come in fully, so he didn't look much like the pictures you've seen of him. His eyes were like dark honey, and they smiled at me out of a mop of blue-black curls that framed his face. There was a light older than Moses in those eyes.
Until eighth grade, I'd been mostly educated in schools that were affiliated with churches. I went to a Baptist preschool and from kindergarten through seventh grade I went to Catholic school. Add that to the fact that my parents were pretty steady churchgoers (of neither the Baptist or Catholic persuasion, actually), and I was pretty familiar with the story of Jesus from a young age. On the other hand, due to the nature of the Gospels, my earliest understandings of Jesus' life were something like, "Okay, December = baby, grows up, March/April (depending on the year) = crucified and back from the dead". Of course, later on I realized this was kind of ridiculous, but, well, there's a good thirty year chunk missing from the life of Christ in the book, how else could you fill in the blanks?
Christopher Moore actually does a pretty job of doing that. As the title says, it's the story of Jesus's (Joshua in the book) life told through the eyes of his best friend, Levi (who is called Biff). It takes a story that's familiar and makes it fascinating and funny. I don't remember how I heard of Lamb first (I think it was via someone on LJ), but when I read it for the first time I fell in love with how funny it was, because there is this idea that there is nothing funny about Jesus; Jesus is Serious Business. I don't know about you, but I like the idea of Jesus cracking a joke or two, and practicing Jewdo and hanging out with a yeti, you know? And while this book is funny and a breeze to get through, it's always the inevitable end that gets to me. You have all of this backstory and fun, and then it gets serious and it always reminds me of being back in Catholic school again and how the week before Easter Break it would be fun and games until Thursday, when we'd do Stations of the Cross and nobody is in a particularly cheerful mood after Stations of the Cross.
But still: great book, and I have been known to quote it in IMs at random ("NO DUMBFUCKS!") or whenever something vexing comes up about religion.
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Date: 2010-03-20 10:52 am (UTC)Thanks! :D