Print

Email story

Comment

Letter to the editor

'Living Biblically' frames a religious experience

By Steve Weinberg, Special to the Times
Published November 4, 2007

The Year of Living Biblically: One Man's Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible
By A.J. Jacobs
Simon & Schuster, 400 pages, $25

---

So far, AJ. Jacobs is not a household name as a writer. But The Year of Living Biblically, his second book, in combination with his regular features in Esquire magazine, might allow him to break the fame barrier.

If a writer lives who combines humor and life lessons any better than Jacobs, that writer is unknown to me. Jacobs shares certain dual humorous/serious writerly qualities with better-known authors - Calvin Trillin, Dave Barry and the recently deceased Molly Ivins come to mind - but he is not really quite like any of them.

Jacobs' most obvious strength is his conceptions. His first book, The Know-It-All, was grounded in Jacobs' quest to read every word of every volume of the Encyclopedia Britannica, to see how it would affect him.

As he takes readers through absorbing knowledge in such a manner, they experience the impact of Jacobs' increasing cockiness that he might be among the smartest individuals in the world. Occasionally he is endearing. But to those around him regularly in real life - especially his wife, who is both patient and outspoken - he more often seems insufferable.

For readers not forced to spend lots of time with Jacobs in real life, The Know-It-All is like going to a cram-all-the-facts-you-can-into-your-brain type of school by proxy, with the bonus of a teacher who sounds like a standup comedian.

The Year of Living Biblically produces a similar effect, but with slightly more gravitas. After all, this time Jacobs' text for his behavior is the Bible (Old and New Testaments).

Because so many biblical admonitions are contradictory, Jacobs is sometimes unsure how to act and thus confuses his relatives, friends and magazine colleagues. Even when biblical rules are unambiguous, they can play poorly in the first decade of the 21st century.

As a result, when he tells the whole truth all the time, or grows what becomes an unsightly beard, or refuses to touch women because they might be menstruating, the laughter contains hints of pain as individuals in Jacobs' life take offense.

As Jacobs learns a lot about himself and religion and secular society, he shares the alterations in his body, mind and soul. He grew up in what he describes as "an extremely secular home in New York City." When asked, he says he is "officially Jewish, but I'm Jewish in the same way the Olive Garden is an Italian restaurant."

As Jacobs' experiment in living biblically progresses, he senses religiosity creeping into his life or, at the very least, poignant spirituality. That development confuses him, and at times even frightens him. To Jacobs' credit, however, he drops the laugh track for a few pages at a time as he applies his impressive mind to the nature of belief.

Occasionally, accompanying Jacobs on his personal odyssey becomes exhausting, because he is repetitious about where he has been and where he might be going. That comment about exhaustion is not a criticism. Rather, it suggests the depth of a book that could have devolved entirely into slapstick. When it does devolve into slapstick once in a while, the result is more likely to be laughter than groans.

At the close of the book, A.J. sheds his alter ego Jacob, the name he used for his Biblical self. "I'll never be Jacob again. I'll never live with so many restrictions. But a part of my Biblical alter ego has carried over. If my Bible self had a foot-long beard, what remains is barely a five o'clock shadow, but it's there. I think it will always be there."

Steve Weinberg is a director of the National Book Critics Circle.

[Last modified October 31, 2007, 16:28:26]