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Lamb: The Gospel According To Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal by Christopher Moore
01/07/2008 . Source: Neale Monks 
pub: Orbit. 506 page enlarged paperback. Price: £ 6.99 (UK). ISBN: 978-1-84149-452-4. Buy Lamb: The Gospel According To Biff in the USA - or Buy Lamb: The Gospel According To Biff in the UK  check out website: www.orbitbooks.net
The idea of creating stories to fill in the gaps between the Nativity of Christ and his Baptism around the age of 30 is hardly new. The celebrated 'Tring Tiles' displayed at the British Museum in London reveal an attempt by a fourteenth century tilemaker to fill in the missing years of the life of Jesus by drawing upon various myths current at the time.
Among other things, the young Jesus kills some boys who play too roughly, and then brings them back to life after their parents (unsurprisingly) complain to Joseph. Elsewhere, Jesus rescues a boy who has been locked at the top of a tower, heals the sick and turns a single grain of wheat into a bumper harvest.
In other words, while some might find the notion of turning the early life of Jesus into a story quite startling, there's nothing actually all that unusual about the practise. With this in mind, Moore's funny and very human take on the subject fits neatly into the tradition, albeit with a post-modern twist.
The protagonist of the story is Levi, also known as Biff, Joshua-bar - Joseph's best friend. Biff has been brought back from the dead to help finish off the Bible by supplying additional information that the Gospel writers left out. This framing story itself is fairly lightweight, but rotates around not just the shared experiences of Joshua and Biff, but also how the two of them relate to Maggie (known to us as the Magdalene).
Most of the book consists of Biff re-telling the full story of his experiences of growing up alongside Joshua and the various adventures they had both in Nazareth but, more importantly, on their travels into the East. Biff is carefully drawn as a human rather than saintly character and while loyal to his friend is also much more 'worldly' and even cynical and this helps throw the things Joshua does into sharp contrast. At the same time, it keeps things feeling believable, so that the story remains personal and even touching, right to the very end.
As Biff and Jesus travel eastwards through Afghanistan, India, Tibet and, eventually, China, they encounter various 'eastern' religions and, in the process, Joshua develops his understanding of humanity and of what it is his Father wants from him. In other words, while the book is definitely humorous, it is not without a certain level of serious philosophical exploration. The humour comes first though and the author does a great job of getting the pitch just right.
Of course, things become less pleasant once Joshua gets back home and as the events known to us as the Passion unfold, we experience events through the eyes of poor Biff, a character readers will come to like, making the tragedy of the ending seem all the more poignant.
'Lamb' is a great read. It's both a comic adventure story and a clever re-telling of a familiar and powerful story. Unquestionably irreverent, it manages to avoid being flippant and remains engaging and believable from start to finish. Highly recommended.
Neale Monks
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