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fallen_adam's review
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
1.5
"When Robert Rankin embarked upon his writing career in the late 1970s, his ambition was to create an entirely new literary genre, which he named Far-Fetched Fiction. He reasoned that by doing this he could avoid competing with any other living author in any known genre and would be given his own special section in WH Smith."
(from Web Site Story)
Well, you sort of managed that. It's crap, and it's unlike any other crap I've ever come across.
I'm not going to spend the time to write a proper review of Sprout Mask Replica, because well, just no. A 1.5:star: book doesn't deserve the effort it would take. So here are some random thoughts I had while listening to the audiobook. I'd actually give it a worse rating than that, but there must be something worse than this somewhere in the world, and I'm giving them a chance to earn their 1:star: reviews.
It's somehow absurd and surreal, without being the tiniest bit interesting. And frankly, it's just boring.
It's just absurd for absurdity's sake, with no thought on how it works as a literary device.
He's employing just about every literary device ever conceived – other than Chekhov's Gun – without any thought as to how they work together. That, or he's done it all purely by accident, which really wouldn't surprise me.
It's like a pale imitation of a Richard Huelsenbeck poem in novel form. Only, with absolutely no mastery of the form.
(from Web Site Story)
Well, you sort of managed that. It's crap, and it's unlike any other crap I've ever come across.
I'm not going to spend the time to write a proper review of Sprout Mask Replica, because well, just no. A 1.5:star: book doesn't deserve the effort it would take. So here are some random thoughts I had while listening to the audiobook. I'd actually give it a worse rating than that, but there must be something worse than this somewhere in the world, and I'm giving them a chance to earn their 1:star: reviews.
It's somehow absurd and surreal, without being the tiniest bit interesting. And frankly, it's just boring.
It's just absurd for absurdity's sake, with no thought on how it works as a literary device.
He's employing just about every literary device ever conceived – other than Chekhov's Gun – without any thought as to how they work together. That, or he's done it all purely by accident, which really wouldn't surprise me.
It's like a pale imitation of a Richard Huelsenbeck poem in novel form. Only, with absolutely no mastery of the form.
chramies's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
_Sprout Mask Replica_ starts with a series of tall tales purporting to be the story of Rankin's ancestors, including the owner of the Sporran from Hell and the man who ate a motorbike. Rankin seems to be more popular in Ireland than in England, and his brand of public-bar mythologising and telling of tall tales is certainly very much an Irish thing and may account for this. Joe Haldeman suggests in a "Locus" interview that actual writing, piling on incident and amusing yourself with dialogue, is easy; it's telling a story, shaping the whole into a coherent structure when we know that life doesn't *do* coherent structures, that's harder.
There is also plenty of poetry, if you can call it that, recalling the days when Rankin used to run 'Poems and Pints' at the Brentford Watermans Arts Centre. Much of it was real doggerel, including his. *Sprout Mask Replica* is ostensibly the story of someone who creates chaotic events: the butterfly flapping its wings in the Amazon that creates a hurricane in China, that lad.
RR has admitted that he wrote this and the other books of his around this time while taking copious amounts of drugs. Later on around 2000-1 he seems to have been in a decline from this state (as witness "Web Site Story" which he has practically disowned) and only picked up in the years after that.
There is also plenty of poetry, if you can call it that, recalling the days when Rankin used to run 'Poems and Pints' at the Brentford Watermans Arts Centre. Much of it was real doggerel, including his. *Sprout Mask Replica* is ostensibly the story of someone who creates chaotic events: the butterfly flapping its wings in the Amazon that creates a hurricane in China, that lad.
RR has admitted that he wrote this and the other books of his around this time while taking copious amounts of drugs. Later on around 2000-1 he seems to have been in a decline from this state (as witness "Web Site Story" which he has practically disowned) and only picked up in the years after that.
lowthor's review
3.0
Wierd and funny in places, but not up to scratch I'm terms of the narrative. All over the place really, and I'm not sure if that's on purpose.
mathew's review
2.0
Easily the worst Robert Rankin book I've read. It has its moments, but mostly it's a series of unconnected vignettes that feel like leftovers from his much better novels, glued together with a character who has more than a touch of Gary Stu. Read the Brentford Trilogy or "A Dog Named Demolition" instead.
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