MOSES A Life

In the 1950's, the neighborhood kids had a joke about selling the Bible with the dirty parts underlined in red. Journalist Jonathan Kirsch took the joke seriously with his popular tome, THE HARLOT BY THE SIDE OF THE ROAD. Now he casts his iconoclastic eye on Moses, parsing canonical, extra-biblical and archaeological records to discover if there was indeed a historical law-giver and, if so, what he was like. Michael Gross, the bland father on TV's "Family Ties," gives a surprisingly dramatic reading. Although given an excellent abridgment, as well as an arresting performance, the book still sounds padded. Nonethless, we are rewarded with a distillation of the latest scholarship attractively presented. Y.R. © AudioFile, Portland, Maine [Published: FEB/MAR 00]