The Gospel According to Larry

The Gospel According To Larry by Janet Tashjian is a very uplifting novel about a boy named Josh who rights internet sermons under the name of Larry about anti-consumerism, and gains a huge following with still no one knowing who he is. The novel is written extremely well and brings the reader in.
There are many strengths in this novel. It is written in the first person and seems like you are actually in the book with Josh, getting the big picture by using descriptive writing, An example of this is a quote about how he is in love with his best friend, Beth. "Good old Beth. I wanted to tell her she was the only person who truly comforted me when my mother died. But from my emotional straightjacket, all I said instead was Thanks. I shuffled off to my next class with my heart aching." The quote shows exactly how it feels and gives you a feeling of being there with him.
I would highly recommend this book to children and adults of any age. The story is very fun to read and hard to put down. I give the book 5 out of 5 stars, it is one of the best books I have read in awhile.

I ate 'TGATL' with a spoon. I literaly skipped out classes to read it. This is a great tale of Josh Swenson, a 17 year old senior struggling with the loss of him mother, teen issues, a crush on his best friend (Beth), and being a prodigy. He was doing equations with magnetic numbers when he was 2 and doing numerical equations on napkins for fun. This child genius lives with his step-dad who, oddly enough, is in the advertising business. Josh, who is very anti-consumerist, wants to express his feelings in secret, so he creates a virtual alter-ego, Larry. He creates a website nad give sermons about a different kind of activism. But when betagold hunts him down...well , I won't tell you the ending. I reccomend this book to anyone.

Oh, and for those who seem to believe no teenager thinks that way, you can look to your left, becasue I hear I am. I identify with Josh/Larry because I am very much like him.
2 thumbs up!
--Buggy--

The book "The Gospel According to Larry" is a great philisophical novel about a very intelligent boy; Josh/larry; who starts a website about anti-consumerism(www.thegospelaccordingtolarry). This book sucked me in and didn't let go until I finised it. In the book Josh only owns seventy-five items and whenever he wants anything he thinks over it for days until he decides he really wants it. I notice myself thinking really hard about an item before I buy it. This started to happen after I read this book. I will pass this on to my friends because some of my friends pay ridiculous prices from plain shrits. The message I got from this story is to think for yourself and don't follow the masses. Follow the beat of your own drum! Be unique and be yourself. The language for this book goes right with the story. The book was not too long or too short it was just enough to finish with a well fed mind. The good thing about this book is that it is a true story about a real person who actually came up with these ideas and sermons for the website and the book. The little story before the book about how Josh had to track down Janet Tashjain to publish this book is very interesting. This would make a great book to read in classrooms and discuss because consumerism is a part of every day life. Quoted in one of larry's sermons " Slip on your Gap jeans, your Nike T-shirt, your Reeboks- or maybe even your Cons if you think that makes you cool in a Kurt Cobain kind of way etc." This makes you realize how advertizing companies are invading our daily lives. The book was profound and a great read; so if your into anti-consumerism and want to enjoy a good book read "The Gospel According To Larry".

i rarely write reviews for books - i'm not one to voice my opinion (very un-Larry-like) - but I just had to say a few words about this book. i was positive that josh swenson was real, and as soon as i finished his story i stopped by [a] website to read the reviews to confirm if this book was fiction or fact. silly me - it was only fiction. josh - the most amazing character i ever encountered - was only a fictional character; much to my disappointment. but i'm glad to have met him - real or not.

Seventeen-year-old Josh Swensen is your not-so-average teenager, dealing with many normal teenage things. He worries about his placement in the social hierarchy of high school, and has been in love with his best friend, Beth, since the eighth grade. But where most teenagers are worried about passing their classes, Larry breezes through them with absolutely no sweat. You see, Josh is a genius. He taught himself how to do algebraic equations when he was just two-years-old, and since then he's always enjoyed learning. Which is what brings us to Larry. Josh, afraid of people not listening to his views on anticonsumerism, creates a website called THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO LARRY, where he posts all of his views anonymously, and soon everyone in the country, teenagers and adults, are logging on and listening to everything that he has to say. Suddenly Larry is a God to everyone. The only problem is that now the whole world is trying to find out who the real Larry is, and Josh just feels trapped inside his own creation. Now it's up to him to figure out a way to dodge being exposed, or his life could be destroyed forever.

I picked this up at Barnes & Noble on a spur of the moment whim. I had never read anything by Janet Tashjian, or had even heard of THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO LARRY, but it sounded interesting, so I purchased it. Let me tell you, this book will change your life. Josh is a complex character, who creates almost an alter-ego with Larry, to vent out all of the frustrations he has in life, but is too afraid to say out loud. He is interesting, and intelligent, and captures the world, in his intricately written, and poignant views on anticonsumerism. I will be sure to pick up Tashjian's other novels, as this was absolutely amazing, and something that all teens should read. A must-have.

Erika Sorocco