Sex and Drugs and Sausage Rolls [Paperback]

Robert Rankin (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1, 2000

This is the anarchic comedy of one man who realizes his secret ambition to get into the music industry—managing a band called Gandhi's Hairdryer. But he's soon to find out something very odd about the band—something other-worldly.

Product Details

• Paperback: 381 pages
• Publisher: Transworld Publishers (October 1, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0552147419
• ISBN-13: 978-0552147415
• Product Dimensions: 6.9 x 4.2 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.9 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #564,288 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

47 of 50 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A pint of large at the Flying Swan, October 31, 2004

By 

David Benson "dave_benson" (Aberdeen) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Sex and Drugs and Sausage Rolls (Paperback)

This was the first Rankin novel I tried, and I'm now chewing my way through the rest of them. The humour is about as zany as it gets, and there are some real laugh-out-loud moments. The premise of many of his novels is the same, and very british: Jim Pooley and John Omally live in Brentford and lack gainful employment. Their picaresque adventures could be interpreted as products of their overactive imaginations. In various novels they come face to face with the antipope, aliens from Ceres, time travel, and a host of other delightful oddities, always helped by their friend the Professor. Don't expect anything deep, but expect a riot of imaginative humour. Maybe I should just read you the first few sentences of this novel.

`She does what?' John Omally looked up from his pint and down at Small Dave.

`Reads your knob,' said the wee man. `It's a bit like Palmistry, where they read the lines on your hand. Except this is called Penistry and they can tell your fortune by looking at your knob.'

It was spring and it was Tuesday. It was lunchtime. They were in the Flying Swan.

`I don't believe it,' said John. `Someone's been winding you up, Dave.'

`They have not. I overheard two policemen talking about it while I was locked up in a suitcase.'

`Excuse me, Dave,' said Soap Distant, newly returned from a journey to the centre of the Earth. `But why were you locked in a suitcase?'

`There was some unpleasantness. I don't wish to discuss it.'

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars There's no time like the present, June 1, 2005

By 

wiredweird "wiredweird" (Earth, or somewhere nearby) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Sex and Drugs and Sausage Rolls (Paperback)

And a lot of time travelers put in a lot of - well, time to make it this way, so don't go messing it up.

Rankin gives us a seriously skewed view of a world a lot like ours. All of commerce, all of industry, and a fair bit of the government have been taken over by one megacorp, but the placid little town of Brentford putters along the way is has for the last few hundred years. And a good thing, too. For one thing, there's that new band with the feel-good music, the kind that really leaves you feeling good. There's Jim Pooley whose name goes down in history as the biggest cockup ever, and getting killed early on doesn't seem to get in his way. There's a stove-top genetic experiment in horse breeding, with success of peculiar sorts. There's the fortune teller who doesn't read your palm but your - well, women don't seem to have very much ahead of them. And there's the end of the world, not that anyone seems to care very much. It all comes together in a readable, entertaining story that all ends just about where it began, only not quite.

This seems to be one interlude midway through a series of books centered on Brentford, but a newcomer will pick up the who's who and what's what (even the when's when) quickly enough. It lacks Terry Pratchett's level of fantasy and huge personalities, and lacks Tom Holt's sense of frenzy. Still it's a good read, and I'll be back to Brentford again.

Rankin is just starting to catch on in the US, but deserves a lot more attention. He puts together an amusing story. If nothing else, it should hold you until Pratchett or Holt come out with their next.

//wiredweird

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The title says it all!, May 23, 2002

By 

Milos Tomin (Netherlands) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Sex & Drugs & Sausage Rolls (Hardcover)

Very little sex though real or simulated but keep on reading and... you will laugh really hard twice on each page and chuckle to yourself in between. That said this book is best not to be read in public or in transit, for obvious reasons. This is my third Rankin read and I am continuing through his work but I think this will remain one of my favorite. It has: A Beatles reunion no less, although a Serbian SF/Horror writer had that on before Mr. Rankin. The reason why not to use the internet, demonic possession explained, the Terminator rip off (We all know James Cameron had to pay off Harlan Ellison for his rip off) Definition of Rock 'n Roll as it should be. And the extraordinary funny bit with stable boys, buckets and gene splicing!