Jonathan Goldstein, Turning to the Good Book for a Good Laugh

Noah was a crank who couldn't relate to his artsy sons, the snake from the Garden of Eden had a huge crush on Eve, and Moses' second commandment caused nothing but grief for Gomer, who had been the best golden calf salesman in town. It's religion as you've never experienced it before in Jonathan Goldstein's "Ladies and Gentlemen, the Bible!," which he'll read from tonight at 7 p.m. at Politics and Prose.

Sure, there have been a bunch of Bible-meets-modernity books recently -- think "Good Book," "Year of Living Biblically," "My Jesus Year" -- but we're pretty sure this is the only one that sounds like a recipe for a sketch-comedy show ("Drunk Hebrew School," starring Jonah Hill?). Still, Goldstein hopes readers will find some meaning in the laughs.

Did you grow up in a religious household?

We were kosher-style. We had the Jerusalem napkin holders and we watched "The Ten Commandments." I remember one Seder where there was "Jeopardy!" on in the background. Halfway through, the dinner stopped being about the Four Questions [of Passover] and started being the four answers of "Jeopardy!" . . . But between 14 and 17 I started attending services. By the time I was in grade 11, I was going every morning before school, and strongly considered going to yeshiva instead of university.

You even visited one for a weekend as a teenager?

I remember goofing off there, and I thought it was funny to call the dean of the school Dean Martin. In the end they said I wasn't mature enough. It felt like being rejected by the Hare Krishnas. I didn't know that could happen.

You say you picture this book as somewhat autobiographical?

It came about from a fascination with these [biblical] characters that loomed so large in my mind -- right up there with superheroes and Greek gods like Hercules. But they had even more resonance because they were supposedly real and related to me somehow.

A lot of the characters in "Ladies and Gentlemen" seem more like real people than heroes.

In the Bible . . . [Noah and his sons] are stoic action figures that are less about character and more about representing certain moral truths. When you unravel them, they become more human. [In my book] Noah was very much cast in the figure of my friend Howard's dad, who had children late in life. . . . I imagined Noah looking like Howard's dad, sitting around in his cabana-wear and flip-flops, reading the paper with a frown on his face . . . and referring to everyone in the family as "dummy."

Is this modern midrash, in some ways? Your interpretation of biblical text?

Every religion has their relationship with God, and the Jewish relationship is one of wrestling. . . . Mine took the form of a book that had my personality in it. Other people's relationship with God would not be as shticky. . . . It's punched-up midrash, with a little more ha-ha. . . . But then, maybe the midrash had a lot of jokes that we don't get anymore, just like those early seasons of "Saturday Night Live."