Goldstein’s Bible book no knockoff of earlier Jacobs volume

“The Year of Living Biblically” by A.J. Jacobs (Simon & Schuster; $15.00; paperback) “Ladies and Gentlemen, The Bible!” by Jonathan Goldstein (Riverhead Books; $15.00; paperback)

By KATIE SCHNEIDER

article created on: 2009-05-14T00:00:00

Hype is the name of the game in today’s publishing industry. Blurbs on the back of the book are always glowing, the covers carefully designed to attract the attention of as many buyers as possible. Trends come and go. Best-sellers spawn imitations. That’s just how it is.

One trend these days is biblical humor. It first came to my attention in the fall of 2007 with the publication of A.J. Jacobs’ “The Year of Living Biblically.” Jacobs, an editor-at-large at Esquire magazine, spent one year following the Bible as literally as possible. “To obey the Ten Commandments. To be fruitful and multiply. To love my neighbor.…But also to abide by the oft-neglected rules: to avoid weaving clothes made of mixed fibers. To stone adulterers. And naturally, to leave the edges of my beard unshaven.”

“The Year of Living Biblically” (now out in paperback) is clever and engaging. What makes it work is both Jacobs’ sincere interest in the project and his considerable writing skill. He is slightly compulsive (who else would bring a folding stool onto the subway to avoid a situation where a seat might be unclean?), yet open-minded and willing to show respect (especially when surrounded by Hasidim sacrificing chickens on Yom Kippur).

On the surface, Jonathan Goldstein’s new book “Ladies and Gentlemen, The Bible!” seems to be grabbing for Jacobs’ audience. Goldstein’s blurbs, some written by his colleagues on PRI’s “This American Life,” call him funny and original. “Anything by him is better than anything by just about anyone else,” David Sedaris attests. The cover of the book itself, with its red velvet curtain half open, make it seem like a vaudevillian romp through the pages of scripture. “How did Joseph explain Mary’s pregnancy to the guys at work? And what was Cain’s problem anyway?” the back cover reads.

The problem with this is that Goldstein’s work deserves more respect. He isn’t milking the Bible for laughs. Humorous at times, his short stories are also deeply moving. Ten stories take the original biblical versions and stand them on their respective heads. Like all good midrash, Goldstein fleshes out the bare bones version and updates it for our time.

Where else to start but the beginning? Adam is your average middle-class schlub, not too bright and satisfied with talking to animals. Eve is smarter than him and he knows it. Her disdain for him and his need for her, that’s the real root of their trouble.

Jacob’s nature is twisted by a mother who loves him too much and a father who’s been screwed up ever since his father bound him and put him on a pyre. A young David wants nothing more than to be funny, a feat he never quite achieves. Noah has disdain for just about everyone, while his son Ham is the one affected by the pounding and screaming as floodwaters rise.

It’s too bad that “Ladies and Gentlemen, The Bible!” is limited by its marketing. Goldstein isn’t doing slapstick, offering up a laugh a minute to keep them rolling in the aisles. His work has more resonance than that. He isn’t a pale imitation; he more than deserves to stand on his own.

This story made possible by a grant from the Judith and Edwin Cohen Foundation.