Lamb: A Novel

Product Information

Like the best of comedies, LAMB is filled with tragedy, love, loss, beauty, anger, and, above all, an unfailing and intelligent sense of humour.” I swore to myself I would write a proper, in-depth, meaningful review of Lamb: something that actually had some meat and substance to it, not one of the one-paragraph rush jobs I've often done when I don't have the time or inclination to get into a proper-write up. Something that would make people sit up, take notice and think, 'wow, I really want to read this book'. Although he succeeds in frightening Tommie, nonetheless the next time they see each other they begin a relationship. They begin to seek each other out. Tommie is loved but neglected by her mother and her mother’s new boyfriend. Lamb feels compelled to pay her some attention, feed her, buy her a new coat to keep her warm. Slowly, their relationship builds until Lamb begins to spin out a fantasy for Tommie in which they run away and take a vacation together in the west. Eventually, the fantasy turns into reality and the pair take off in Lamb’s car after a carefully planned exit. Joshua was bumping people in the crowd as he passed, seemingly on purpose, and murmuring just loud enough so I could hear him each time he hit someone with a shoulder or an elbow. ‘Healed that guy. Healed her. Stopped her suffering. Healed him. Comforted him. Ooo, that guy was just stinky. Healed her. Whoops, missed. Healed. Healed. Comforted. Calmed.'” It's impossible to read this book in the wake of the Jerry Sandusky scandal and not think of the parallels, the common techniques and the monumental deception of others and self.

Lamb by Christopher Moore: Summary and reviews - BookBrowse

Da Lamb a Lions, comunque, Bonnie Nadzam è ormai una certezza, la sua è una scrittura potente, capace di sovvertire certezze e di scuotere nell’intimo. David Lamb’s language is elegant, but the undertone is creepy, and Nadzam reaches poetic heights when writing his dialogue. Lamb is what Robert Greene categorizes as a “rake” in his book, Art of Seduction: “He chooses words for their ability to suggest, insinuate, hypnotize, elevate, infect…The Rake’s use of language is demonic because it is designed not to communicate or convey information but to persuade, flatter, stir emotion turmoil, much as the serpent in the Garden of Eden used words to lead Eve into temptation.” We get the sense that Lamb’s mistress Linnie also fell victim to his rakish words. David Lamb is middle-aged, a liar and a loser, a narcissist and a dreamer, a kid who never really grew up. Living alone in a hotel with other marital flotsam, he pines for his ex, thinks about having been with her sister, then calls his girlfriend, a Princeton grad he bangs in hallways. Dave is full of promises, and espouses idealized aspirations, but he always runs rather empty on delivery. After his father’s funeral, Dave is sitting in a parking lot, wallowing in his existential crisis when a child approaches.

Richard Brody of The New Yorker was more critical of the film, saying that it "preens and strains to be admired even as it reduces its characters to pieces on a game board and its actors to puppets." [28] Barry Hertz of The Globe and Mail criticized the film's ending as being "like a parody of an A24 horror movie", and wrote, "I won't make the obvious joke and say it's baaad. But its sheep thrills are mutton to write home about, either." [29] Alison Willmore of Vulture wrote, "By the time the final act rolls around, Lamb approaches the idea that there's a price that must be paid with a shrugging diffidence rather than impending doom. It's such an underwhelming conclusion to a film with such a compelling start." [30] It contains all manner of “adult” themes: graphic sexual passages, brutal violence, frightening political scenes, and so forth. This book is also laugh-out-loud-and-weep funny, and presents Jesus as a friend you would like to have known in his youth. Personalmente vorrei abbracciare Tommie e rassicurarla che il mondo non è sempre così e, nonostante i suoi problemi, vorrei schiaffeggiare Lamb, che proprio non riesco a giustificare nè tollerare. Anyone who can look past its irreverence will recognize LAMB as both highly entertaining and surprisingly thoughtful.” Tommie sedeva a gambe incrociate sul sedile del passeggero e Lamb le lanciava occhiate di sbieco, pensando che, se avesse voluto davvero uscire dal furgone, l’avrebbe lasciata andare.

Lamb by Bonnie Nadzam | Goodreads Lamb by Bonnie Nadzam | Goodreads

What follows is an account, from an unknown narrator, of their trip. The intimacy of the narrator, and the almost oblique and quiet ferocity of narration, brings the reader to a suspenseful, uncomfortable place that is both familiar and alien. It is appalling and suggestive at intervals; the question of personal boundaries lurks on every dangerous, winding road.

Reader Reviews

I can't yet grasp the mechanisms by which the elements of the prose serve to exert such an irresistible force; the atmosphere evoked by the way Nadzam uses description; the way Lamb so cleverly gets Tommie's attention (and ours) and holds it with the tall tales he tells; the extensive use of dialogue especially by Lamb (we get only his point of view); or the degree to which the action is unclear for the reader. Everything conspires. When Biff admonishes Joshua to stop this behavior due to the risk of his being found out, Joshua replies with a mixture of bliss and helplessness: “But I love these people,” Josh said. Walsh, Katie (October 7, 2021). "Review: Horror haunts the edges of darkly meditative Icelandic folk tale 'Lamb' ". Los Angeles Times . Retrieved October 15, 2021.