Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal

There is something so blasphemous about this book and yet I just laughed from page 1 to the end!

I was raised in a Christian household and knew the story of Jesus forwards and backwards. Or at least I thought I did. Now, I try not to take myself to seriously and I try to maintain a certain amount of humor about my faith and religion as a whole. This book made me bust a gut and there were several times when just a little of “pee” came out, that's how hard I was laughing.

I happened upon this book at a “going out of business sale” at my favorite Colorado Springs indy bookstore: The Chinook. After reading the back cover and learning that this is the story of Jesus as told by his best friend from childhood, Bif, I decided to buy and see what happens. From my knowledge of the Bible, I know that there is a gap in ages for Jesus – we see him as a child and then we see him as a man of about age 30. “Lamb” fills in the gap by providing the reader with the adventures of Jesus and his best friend Bif, leading up to his the day he meets his 12 disciples and is crucified. The reader is introduced to a young Mary Magdalene, who is sweet and beautiful and very much the fantasy of young Bif. As Jesus and Bif journey through childhood and puberty, on their way to Jesus' destiny, they travel the world and meet various people.

This is a fun imagining of the years of Jesus' life that are not mentioned in the Bible. The author has managed to maintain the divinity of Jesus but has also made him a not so typical human being with a divine future at hand. Bif is downright hilarious (and lewd and crude and way too horny) and makes a good foil to the goodness of young Jesus. It's good for a laugh!