ROBERT RANKIN - "SEX AND DRUGS AND SAUSAGE ROLLS" (DOUBLEDAY)

 

It is difficult to get used to Robert Rankin if you've never read anything by him. He's one of those authors who revels in puns and starts lots of sentences with "and" and "so". And that's irritating. So I was irritated.

The story revolves around a brilliant band called Ghandi's Hairdryer, a band whose vocalist's voice (she's called Litany) can heal. It's also a very confusing story involving THE END, time travelling, a current-day Beatles Concert, and a world in which Richard "Virgin" Branson in fact has his face on the pound notes. "Sex and Drugs and Sausage Rolls" is a deceptively easy read. It reads easy, I mean, with the odd bit of language humour thrown in, but while reading it the easy way you fly off the narrative track. In fact, the story is almost impossible to relate in a few words, with the time travelling and the killings and all. In fact, if I were a teacher at secondary school such as I was for six months over two years ago, I think I could get some sort of sadistic pleasure out of letting the book by read by the pupils. For their exam. So they'll fail. And things like that.

Back to not beating around the bush, the book is extremely chaotic and to me it was a bit too evident that Robert Rankin knows he's funny. And for all the references to them, both the devil and the sausage rolls were sadly lacking. All in all, it's pretty funny at times but not altogether that stonking a read.

Released 1999, ISBN 0-385-60056-9

RK

 

Written January 2000

 

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