Book Review: The Year of Living Biblically

{ Books & Learning }

May 19, 2008

The Year of Living Biblically: One Man’s Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible… by A. J. Jacobs

A.J. Jacobs and I are not that different. Secular, self-deprecating, Internet-bound, Wikipedia-obsessed, urban, relatively young, literary and with an approach of forced cleverness. Yup. That’s kind of me, too. But for all this familiarity of style, I didn’t find myself laughing out loud as much as I’d wanted. Perhaps it’s too familiar.

The premise is straightforward: Jacobs lives an entire year following biblical law as closely as possible. Hilarity ensues, but it’s mostly foreseeable hilarity. The conflict between fundamentalistic literalism and more metaphorical interpretations. The bizarre anachronisms. The marginalized situation for women. I could see it coming.

Not that this book is not worthwhile. Jacobs does legitimately seem to self-reflect, and he’s remarkably tolerant of a wide spectrum of beliefs. In the end, not much changes with him but he does have sensitivity and understanding.

The writing is good in that it wasn’t particularly assertive, letting the anecdotes unfold with their own timbre. I appreciated that.

I sure spent a lot of time feeling sorry for his wife, who endured the more extreme rules (for example: no contact whatsoever whilst menstruating, honoring the edict of “impurity”). She deserves an award. ( )

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