Books: East of Ealing By Robert Rankin (1984)

“'Ahead, where once had been only bombsite land, the Lateinos & Romiith building rose above Brentford. Within its cruel and jagged shadow, magnolias wilted in their window boxes and synthetic Gold Top became doorstep cheese...' Something sinister is happening east of Ealing. The prophecies of The Book of Revelation are being fulfilled. Lateinos & Romiith, a vast financial network, is changing all the rules with a plan to bar-code every living punter and dispense with old-fashioned money. A diabolical scheme, which would not only end civilisation as we know it, but seriously interfere with drinking habits at the Flying Swan. Can Armageddon, Apocalypse and other inconveniences of the modern age be stopped by the humble likes of Pooley and Omally, even with the help of Professor Slocombe and the time-warped Sherlock Holmes of Baker Street?”

 In this third book set in the British village of Brentford, Pooley and Omally are forced to deal with a high-tech Satanic takeover of Earth by way of bar-coding the entire population – a bit prophetic in 1984.  As noted before, this series basically resets in each book. They’re standalone tales about the end of the world, yet feature the same characters going through the same motions. It’s funny, but not technically brilliant. It features a lot of surrealist humor and some laugh out loud moments. Still, not all of it works, mostly because author Robert Rankin has a lot going on. It lacks some depth, some female characters, and a bit of a disappointing ending. It doesn’t lack imagination, but the silliness does get tedious after a while.

Books: The Brentford Triangle By Robert Rankin (1982)

 

“Omally groaned. "It is the end of mankind as we know it. I should never have got up so early today" and all over Brentford electrical appliances were beginning to fail...' Could it be that Pooley and Omally, whilst engaged on a round of allotment golf, mistook laser-operated gravitational landing beams for the malignant work of Brentford Council? Does the Captain Laser Alien Attack machine in the bar of the Swan possess more sinister force than its magnetic appeal for youths with green hair? Is Brentford the first base in an alien onslaught on planet Earth?”

The second book in the series –and seemly not connected to the first book, which gives me the impression each book is a sort-of-reset or stand-alone (we’ll see) escapade – The Brentford Triangle continues the misadventures of Pooley and OMally, the town of Brentford and eccentric characters that inhabit this universe. These two are not real heroes in any sense of the word, but it seems adventure is drawn to them instead of stumbling upon it. Much like the first book, the plot is a bit incredulous –an alien invasion is about to happen when the natives of Ceres, which was once the fifth planet in our solar system before it exploded and became a dwarf planet inside our asteroid belt, return thousands of years later to reclaim it. But that becomes less important than goings on at the vegetable allotment and goings on with a video game console at the Flying Swan. 

The book is wry, with dry British humor, and is faster paced than the first book. Both Pooley and OMally (and the eccentric Time Lord-ish Professor Slocombe) are likeable. Still, while I understand this book was released forty years ago, it features some unnecessary moments of casual racism and homophobia. And while it’s possible for people to be this way, in such a humorous fantasy that is not that complex to begin with, it seems out of place then and more even now. And none of these things actually effected the plot, so there seemed to be no need for them to be there in the first place.

So Robert Rankin lost a bit luster here for me. I hope as I read other books by him, this aspect does not resurface, but we’ll see. Otherwise, it’s an enjoyable read, with some cleverness added to the less-than-original idea.   

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.