Ladies and Gentlemen, the Bible!

by Jonathan Goldstein

Book Overview

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...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1594483671
• ISBN13: 9781594483677
• Release Date: April 2009
• Publisher: Riverhead Books
• Length: 256 Pages
• Weight: 0.51 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.0" x 8.0"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

the bible

Great book. It was fun to read and reminded me of some of the bible stories that I had forgotten.

Great Book!

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.

The best Bible I've ever read!

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.

More than funny.

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.

Hipster Midrashim

My 23 year old son turned me on to "Wiretap," the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) radio humor program of the author, Jonathan Goldstein (if that is your real name, Jonny). On Goldstein's radio program, fantasy is blended with reality in such a fashion as to make you question everything you hear. In the book, "Ladies & Gentlemen: The Bible," Goldstein offers his midrashim, or stories about stories in the Jewish Bible, from the viewpoint of the modern-day hipster. They are refreshing in their novel take on familiar tales and sensitive in the way Goldstein showcases his personality on the radio. Further, they are believable because of their adherence to the Torah text. The only disappointment is that there is little or no material which has not been aired on the CBC. But this drawback is not sufficient to dock him a single star. Well done, Jonathan, and write on!