Title: The Gospel According to Larry
Author: Janet Tashjian
Release Date: 3rd June 2004
Publisher: Puffin Books
Josh Swensen is no average 17-year-old. His IQ is sky high, he owns only 75 possessions, he communicates with his dead mum at Bloomingdales’ make up counter, he’s completely besotted with his best friend Beth. And he is now got an anti-consumerist alter ego called Larry who is worshipped by millions of teenagers…
Conundrum #1 betagold is on his tail. How can he prevent her from exposing his identity?
Conundrum #2 How can he let Beth know how he really feels about her?
Conundrum #3 What drastic steps will he take when it all goes horribly wrong?
Josh Swensen, an American teenager, creates an online persona, Larry. What he doesn’t bet on is the hero-worship Larry generates and his new found celebrity status online. U2 even start a concert promoting his ideas. However, all this is fine until someone, calling herself betagold, decides to reveal who Larry is. From then on Josh’s life spirals out of control and he realises that by being Larry, he isolated those who loved Josh. The book is in the form of a manuscript which Josh gave to the author to publish.
This book is certainly interesting and made me think a lot in terms of consumerism. While I don’t want to sound negative, I felt the beginning of the book was an anti-consumerism rant from Larry’s character. While the reader still gets bits of information about Josh’s family life with his stepdad, Peter and potential stepmother Katherine (both his biological parents are deceased) and his love interest, Beth, it was hard to follow the plot with so much politics being thrown at the reader. However, I do agree with Larry’s theories (though I’m not sure I could only live with 75 possessions… what about the books?) and the book made me think about my own life in terms of the importance of possessions. Why are we so obsessed with material possessions when those in less developed countries barely have enough to eat?
In this sense, the book makes you reassess your own views. The message within the pages becomes more complex when Larry’s identity is revealed and Josh’s decision not to revel in his new celebrity status makes his character appeal to the reader even more. What happens next is quite strange and I don’t want to reveal too much but I found Josh’s actions to be melodramatic and slightly uncalled for. Then his philosophy changes from anti-consumerist to just general caring for each other on a small level. I also agree with this idea, that day to day positive actions can make the world a better place. I just felt that Josh gets a little bit confused over his politics and the book loses some of its potency because of this.
Janet Tashjian has done a series of Larry books, this being the first one I have read but they all have interesting titles, Vote for Larry and Larry and the Meaning of Life. There is also a website with regular posts from Larry http://www.thegospelaccordingtolarry.com/
Overall, I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to approach their consumer driven life in a different way. The politics may be a little too enthusiastic at times but Larry does raise some relevant points to modern life and the manuscript format of the novel makes for interesting reading.
4/5 Analyse your life!
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