Ladies and Gentlemen, The Bible!
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4.5 • 34 Ratings
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- $9.99
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
A hilarious re-imagining of the heroes of the Old Testament for a modern world-and the neurotic, demanding reader.
In the beginning...there was humor.
Sure, it's the foundation for much of Western morality and the cornerstone of world literature. But let's face it: the Bible always needed punching up. Plus, it raised quite a few questions that a modern world refuses to ignore any longer: wouldn't it be boring to live inside a whale? How did Joseph explain Mary's pregnancy to the guys at work? Who exactly was the megalomaniacal foreman who oversaw the construction of the Tower of Babel? And honestly, what was Cain's problem?
In Ladies and Gentlemen, the Bible!, Jonathan Goldstein re-imagines and recasts the greatest heroes of the Bible with depth, wit, and snappy dialogue. This is the Bible populated by angry loners, hypochondriacs, and reluctant prophets who fear for their sanity, for readers of Sarah Vowell and the books of David Sedaris. Basically, a Bible that readers can finally, genuinely relate to.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Several Bible stories get a rewrite in this funny collection by This American Life contributing editor Goldstein (Lenny Bruce Is Dead). In this version, David kills Goliath not so much for his people as for laughs, and Jonah's lesser-known brother Vito fears that God's hand in Jonah's stint inside the whale has less to do with Jonah than Vito's own role in a youthful penis-touching incident. In "My Troubles (A Work in Progress, by Joseph of N )," a worried father-to-be deals with the ambiguities of having one's wife knocked up by an angel. The voices of these stories sound like that of the semiobservant Jew in the book's preface, who describes one of God's failed universes as consisting "of just one person a man named Morris who sat in a room by himself, trying to decide whether to cuff his pants or let them drag." With refashioned language and reimagined motivations, Goldstein's biblical characters evoke the kind of touching truths only found at the bottom of deep barrel laughs.
Customer Reviews
Great!
For anyone who is a fan of This American Life, or Lamb: the gospel according to Biff, this book will be down your alley. It is not written from a religious perspective, but in its cynical re-imagining, Goldstein brings about truth out of Biblical narratives. As a clergy person, I love this book, and would recommend it to anyone who is able to bend a bit their religious sensibilities.
Really Great Book
Very entertaining read but slows down towards the middle
Very enjoyable
I heard a short reading of this book on NPR and just had to buy it. Very clever, well written. Humorous and thoughtful. A good read.