Customer Reviews

Ladies and Gentlemen, the Bible!

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I had incredibly high hopes after reading this book's hysterically funny preface. Unfortunately, the rest of the book did not come close to the preface in either its wit or its descriptive power. The concept of writing the backstory for specific tales from the Bible is a great one, and some of the stories in this book do live up to the challenge and are entertaining, but many of the stories barely scratch the surface of the originals and just seem silly rather than creative. On the positive side, the preface is so funny that it makes reading the book worthwhile.

I had heard the author reading the Adam and Eve story on NPR, which I thought was wonderful. It was a whole different take on the Biblical characters, and was a fascinating (and funny) imagining of their respective characters and motives...making 3-D people out of the relatively flat and familiar Bible characters. And the first half of the book is very much like that and highly recommended (also great to read at the same time as R. Crumb's illustrated version of Genesis).

But then it runs out of steam, and gets too far away from the source material. King David is made into a sort of failed Shecky Greene wanna-be comedian, and it's more of just a superimposition of flat Jewish stereotypes onto Biblical characters. It has little flashes of brilliance, such as the following passage (thoughts of David): "Gone are the carefree days of slaying giants. As you get older you strip away the things you don't have time for, and then you are left only with things you have time for. Your life gets skinnier and skinnier until you wonder why you go on. You go on because there are things that must get done. You become no longer a person so much as a place, an unfunny place where things come to get done." Unfortunately, they're sandwiched between thick layers of schtick.

Of course, humor is in the eye and ear of the beholder. If you're a deep Catskills devotee, then you may get a lot out of the second half. In my eye, the first half is worth the price of admission.

This book is hilarious, and very cleverly-written. Everyone should read it.

Jonathan Goldstein is my best friend (call me).

I agree with what other reviewers have said: the preface is the best part. I think that's because the preface deals with people the author likes, while it's hard to feel any sympathy for the Bible characters in the chapters.

The casting of David versus Goliath as a battle of comics is also one of the highlights of the book, IMHO. I actually warmed up to the book as it went on. The end of the David story, as well as the Jonah story and the Joseph stories, are pretty good. I helps a lot if you have heard the author on the radio, so you can imagine the stories read in his voice.

For whatever it's worth, my favorite book in this genre is still Peculiar Treasures: A Biblical Who's Who

After hearing one of the stories from Goldstein's collection on This American Life, I ordered the book. Each of these reimagined Biblical tales is not only entertaining and laugh-out-loud funny, but also deeply reflective. These stories could be straightforward parodies or "roasts," given the subject material, but instead they are complex and full of human frailty under their compulsively readable surface. Unlike New Testament stories, there is no attempt to paint God as an infinitely caring, loving, knowing parent in the Old Testament canon, so these stories paint a more complicated relationship where God's favor does not necessarily come to those who are "good," or even morally sound. In these pages, being God means never having to say you're sorry. This God is much more human in character--insecure, demanding, despotic, even petty--which, not surprisingly, makes for an excellent page-turner.

......didn't laugh once. In fact, a lot of the chapters went on too long and were just boring. If you want funny, read the Good Book by David Plotz.

From the first chapter, I knew something was different about this biblical interpretation. The book is laugh outloud funny - a radical departure from what King James read. The author paints biblical figure with such a human brush stroke as to make them instantly relatedable. I for one, loved it.

I found the stories as told on NPR much funnier than reading them. It gave me a chuckle so I guess it did its job.

enjoy it!This book was fantastic!! His sense of humor kept me reading until I was finished. The more knowledge of bible stories you have, the funnier the book but everyone will thoroughly

What a great book and perspective on some of the greatest stories of the old testament. Stories are presented in a way that every one can relate to and then recall afterwards.