TheBook of Eli, by Sam Moffie begins with a
monologue about Eli done in such a humorous fashion!I could imagine the introduction being performed
by someone like Jerry Seinfeld or possibly the late Rodney Dangerfield as a
stand-up act.Hilarious!It even gets funnier as it continued on,
making it impossible to put down.Of
course, no comic humor is without countless references to sex, as Eli himself was
a self-proclaimed adulterer.As Sam
Moffie so eloquently stated, Eli was a very respectable citizen.He loved his wife, provided for his family,
didn’t cheat on his taxes, paid as much as he could afford to all charities,
called his parents daily (while they were alive), took out the garbage late in the
evening so his neighbors wouldn’t see the trash cans, washed his hands after
going to the bathroom, squeezed toothpaste from the bottom, always put down the
toilet seat, however, he had sex with women other than his wife as often as he
could; so 9 out of 10 isn’t bad.
Eli, being a sexaholic, had his challenges, but the orgasmic
benefits of “hitting a home run over the fence,” as he put it (many times and
in many ways), were worth the risk.When
he did get caught by his wife, he was truly sad; sad he got caught.Incorrigible and relentless in his pursuit of
carnal knowledge he lived his life until one day – bingo, he died.This was when the book took on a Charles
Dickens’ type of twist.One where, if
casted as a movie, Eli, the Warren Beatty of Shampoo character changed into the Jim Carrey of Bruce Almighty, complete with Orson
Wells playing God – or was that Groucho Marx?You’ll see what I mean when you read this book.
The dialogue between Eli and Julius, his guide through
heaven, constitutes the majority of the galley to The Book of Eli and allows a tremendously imaginative comic relief
to the serious philosophical issues and historical analysis of society – and
just about everything else Sam Moffie can think of. At one point Julius is walking through a
locker room with Eli, glancing at the names on the lockers of dead people when
they come across one with Peter O’Toole on it, who isn’t yet dead but has a
reserved locker.“Did you ever notice
that the name Peter O’Toole is a double phallic?” asked Julius. There is even a guest cameo appearance by
Jesus, and he had plenty of “Jewish Jokes” up his sleeve.Really, you have to be pretty open minded to
allow for this type of sacrilegious humor to entertain you, and I can see how
some people will be turned off by Sam Moffie’s sense of humor.But to each their own, and Moffie has the
skill to present his work in a clearly non-prejudiced fashion.That is, if you poke fun at everything and
everyone, in a comic license sort of way, you’re let off the hook of being
called a bigot.So be it.
The Book of Eli is
strong humor for those strong enough and thick skinned enough to take it.It is definitely “out of the box” thinking,
some heavenly original humor from the excellent mind of the immaculately
conceived character Eli.The only thing
noticeably absent from the book was the Latin phrase; Eli, Eli lema sabachthani.When
you think about it, it’s hard to make that line funny.
