Books: The Antipope By Robert Rankin (1981)

 

“You could say it all started with the red-eyed tramp with the slimy fingers who put the wind up Neville, the part-time barman, something rotten. Or when Archroy's wife swapped his trusty Morris Minor for five magic beans while he was out at the rubber factory. On the other hand, you could say it all started a lot earlier. Like 450 years ago, when Borgias walked the earth. Pooley and Omally, stars of the Brentford Laboiur Exchange and the Flying Swan, want nothing to do with it, especially if there's a Yankee and a pint of Large in the offing. Pope Alexander VI, last of the Borgias, has other ideas.”

A lot of this off-kilter book reads like a collection of stories, linked by a framing device. Which in some ways, it was. The Antipope, originally released in 1981 (and reissued in 1991), was Rankin’s longed desired effort to get his loose collection of short stories published. The book details the rogues, madmen, shysters, and others average citizens of the small English town of Brentford who all frequent the local pub known as The Flying Swan. There is also a subplot that involves some end of the world Revelations, the good vs evil stuff that seemly takes place in small English villages. Still, that plot meanders and Rankin seems more interested in dealing with a lot of silliness that Brentford seems to exist in. So Rankin’s writing is very similar to Douglas Adams, with doses of Monty Python’s off-the-wall humor added for good measure. But it’s also real hard to pin down what genre this book belongs in, though it would most likely end up in the sci-fi section of any bookstore. But it’s enjoyable, a little slow (and the whole Pope plotline does not kick in until about halfway through), but there are some carefully constructed lines here, and you get the sense that Rankin –in his desire, again, to get his writing published- knows people won’t be getting what they expect from what it says on the tin.

Interestingly, this started out as a trilogy that eventually expanded to at nine novels over the years. In 2017, he began the final Brentford trilogy. A prolific writer, his other books include the Armageddon trilogy, Armageddon: The Musical, They Came and Ate Us: Armageddon II: The B Movie, and Suburban Book of the Dead: Armageddon III: The Remake. The Cornelius Murphy Series: The Book of Ultimate Truths, Raiders of the Lost Car Park, and The Most Amazing Man Who Ever Lived. 

I would say that Rankin is a writer most in America has never heard of, but should read. Yes, it's not a broad comedy, but satire of the highest order and something the British are very good at.