In a CNN interview, Christopher Moore explained his goal in writing the novel Lamb: to show how Jesus, in his growing-up years—about which the Scriptures say nothing—learned “to be the Messiah that he knew he was.” So Jesus “sets out on a loopy and sometimes hilarious quest to discover his destiny,” Kirkus Reviews explains, accompanied by his “thoroughly cynical and amoral” best-bud, Biff. The result? A critic for one California newspaper calls it “one of the funniest books I’ve ever read.”
Off to the Far East they go, where Jesus learns “philosophies and ideas which later shine through his teachings,” starlitbook.com reports. “I was hoping to show a number of parallels in the great religions of the world,” Moore told CNN. While “this book is sure to offend,” Kathryn Tiede of workingpreacher.org adds, “Ultimately, this is a book of faith.”
Its author is, according to Wikipedia, “an American writer of comic fantasy. …An only child, Moore learned to amuse himself with his imagination.” Though hardly a religious scholar, as he confessed on CNN, “I thought, someone should write this story [about the missing years]. And since I know nothing about religion or history, I should be that someone.”
Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ’s Childhood Pal
By Christopher Moore
Harper Perenial, 2002