The Dance Of The Voodoo Handbag

Barking Mad Trilogy

by Robert Rankin

The story of Billy, whose Grandmother left him the "voodoo handbag" in her will, after he had sold her soul to science. The tales it told Billy would change his life for ever - and the lives of other people too.

Genres: Fantasy, Humor, Fiction, Comedy, Science Fiction, Audiobook, Mystery

340 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1998

About the author

"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)

Robert Rankin describes himself as a teller of tall tales, a fitting description, assuming that he isn't lying about it. From his early beginnings as a baby in 1949, Robert Rankin has grown into a tall man of some stature. Somewhere along the way he experimented in the writing of books, and found that he could do it rather well. Not being one to light his hide under a bushel, Mister Rankin continues to write fine novels of a humorous science-fictional nature.

Reviews

[D.L. Morrese · Rating 4 out of 5]

The story begins in an insane asylum, and it is mad all the way through.

This novel is a first person account with the author (or someone of the same name) as the main character. It also includes Voodoo gods, a Guardian Sprout (like an angel only vegetable based), and a madman bent on taking over the world. It is the second book in the “Completely Barking Mad” Trilogy, preceded by 'Sprout Mask Replica,' and followed by 'Waiting for Godalming.'

It’s hard to pick a genre for this book, let alone summarize the plot, but I’ll give both a try. For genre, I’d label it ‘comic science fantasy.’ It’s certainly funny. None of the characters comes within shouting distance of ‘sane,’ but it also includes a little light philosophical messing-with-your-head stuff and a few pokes at contemporary culture, which take it a step above pure slapstick. It has some high-tech virtual reality elements (Sci-Fi), as well as supernatural entities (fantasy). The plot, such as one exists, centers around an insane fellow who adopts different personalities to suit the occasion (and has a voice in his head named Barry) trying to stop a less obvious but far more dangerous lunatic from subjugating humanity -- or something like that. This is Rankin. It’s not really supposed to make a lot of sense.

What it lacks in plot and character development, it compensates for with pure zany antics, complete with a classic cartoon scene climax with a dropping piano and dynamite in the trousers. It reminded me of the movie, 'Who Framed Roger Rabbit.' Yeah, it’s juvenile, but it’s funny!

I’ll recommend this book simply because it’s fun, and fun is good.

[Marta · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is as bonkers as the title sounds. Robert Rankin writes himself into the story as a teller of tall tales - differentiated from lies by meaning to entertain, thus create fun instead of harm. He is also completely mad, as in an insane asylum, and keeps shifting in and out of dream world - which might also be the Necronet. Robert - and his multiple personas - is trying to save the world from the evil corporation NecroSoft, run by the evil maniac psychopath Billy Barnes. (No similarities to our world here, of course.)

We are running from one mad joke to a mad action scene to comic book violence (like a falling piano) through running gags like the insane asylum interview that keeps popping up and means something else every time, even though it repeats. Rankin is very self-referential: there is a collapse of the book publishing industry, commenting on the literary devices used in the books, and mentioning that a running joke is just not working. His dad appears in the story as a teller of tall tales, and we are left wondering if the tall tales are invented by the father or by his son as tales his father would tell. The whole book is a play with tales within tales, worlds within worlds, madness and dreams and that there really is no line and we should just have fun with it.

Robert Rankin reads the audio himself, which is a special treat as he knows exactly where to put the emphasis on the jokes. It is included in the Audible Plus library for free for subscribers.

It is a crazy ride and not for the faint-hearted. If you have read Rankin before, you know what to expect. ;)

[John Defrog: global citizen, local gadfly · Rating 3 out of 5]

The second book of Rankin's Barking Mad Trilogy, though that probably doesn't matter since I read them out of order and didn't even know this was part of a trilogy at the time. This one is pretty standard Rankin –madman tries to take over the world with occult magic – though there’s some ultra-clever twists in it where you try to figure out if the narrator (the private eye Lazlo Woodbine) is sane or not. And there’s the usual great running gags and old jokes and whatnot.

[Andrew Lawston · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm a late convert to Robert Rankin - I wasn't convinced by his apparently improvised style and rambling storyline. But then I met Rankin at a couple of conventions over the last couple of years, and I've come to look at his books at an extension of the man himself.

Dance of the Voodoo Handbag makes some of Rankin's other novels look positively coherent. Robert himself (though often in different personalities including private eye Lazlo Woodbine who's had 158 adventures in just four locations) is trapped in the Necronet, a dreamscape that is part cyberspace, part dreamland, part fictional and possibly... the mind of someone terribly important. Pitted against Rob is Billy Barnes, the world leader and owner of Necrosoft.

Though it's frequently unclear what's going on, Dance of the Voodoo Handbag is never less than a thoroughly entertaining ride.

[Keri Robinson · Rating 4 out of 5]

WOW

This book was a spiralling descent into madness and I enjoyed every minute of it.

This was my first Robert Rankin book and I was so pleasantly surprised.

This is the kind of surreal Avant Garde fiction I wish I could write but my brain could never conceive.

The book is split into chapters with short poems between each which was a nice change and the whole book was hilarious, well thought out and brilliantly creative and well-written.

I have a suspicion that whoever wrote Inception may have been inspired by this but I could be totally wrong.

If you want to read something funny and absolutely surreal this might be the book for you....

...if realism is important to you then you might give it a miss 😂

- K 🐝

[Mel · Rating 2 out of 5]

So... okay it wasn't that terrible but it was also like trying to read a Steven King novel through a kaleidoscope filled with bees. It got better near the end.

[Fernando Olea · Rating 4 out of 5]

Everything that can happen will happen, and everything that can't happen will happen too... if you are prepared to wait.

[Chris Amies · Rating 3 out of 5]

From his debut with The Antipope in 1981 he has perpetrated a series of ever more improbable and bizarre novels, the first few taking place in a London that would be magical-realist if it were not so plain weird, and the very latest introducing elements of alleged autobiography. The Dance of the Voodoo Handbag involves a narrator who may be a private detective called Lazlo Woodbine, or Billy Barnes who wants to control Necrosoft, the company marketing a virtual afterlife, or someone else entirely. Reality is a matter of viewpoint, as in the urban legend involving the novelist Johnny Quinn whom everyone claims to have read and admired but nobody can ever lay hands on one of the books. Then there’s that Voodoo Handbag, and the voodoo loa analogues lurking in cyberspace: so far, so Neuromancer, but that’s by no means all there is to it. Rankin’s fascination with Forteana and weird religions puts his own spin on the story.

[Geoff Battle · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you've never read Rankin before then here's an easy, if not bizarre, novel to start with. It's a standard save the world from the madman affair, except it's from the viewpoint of a deluded schizophrenic, in a world populated by equally odd misfits. What strings this toegther is Rankin's off-the-wall (and at times hilarious) musings on our universe (no subject to large to tackle) and a clever mix of technology and religion (although not in much of a serious way, this is Rankin after all). As you might expect there are a few recurring gags in there, just to ensure conisitency with his other books. It's a clever plotline (for once) and there's no gaping holes that are evident in some of his other stories. It's also not too long, another prevalent problem in a few of his books. This is spot one. Quirky, yet funny. Dark at times, slapstick at others. A book well worth the time.

[Colin Forbes · Rating 4 out of 5]

More of Robert Rankin doing what Robert Rankin does best.

The running gags, the bad puns, the preposterous storyline, all told with the wit and charm of an author who knows his niche and absolutely revels in it.

I recommend the author-read audiobook, which most Audible subscribers can now get without even spending a credit.

[Lucas Brown · Rating 3 out of 5]

Far less linear of a plot than Rankin’s Brentford novels, this is much more a series of vignettes connected through dream logic and running gags, but full of the usual RR nonsense that we know and love.

[Sean Keefe · Rating 4 out of 5]

It’s FUN, and one of Rankins best outside of Brentford, aka The One With Necrosoft.

[GraniteBeltWeb · Rating 5 out of 5]

The first Robert Rankin book I ever read and I think it is the best one.

[Bob · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bonkers

[Adrian · Rating 1 out of 5]

Rare funny moments and last half truly boring.

[M.G. Mason · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dance of the Voodoo Handbag follows very much in the nature of Robert Rankin's earlier work. Often that means it is lampooning an element of social culture at the time and integrating it into a bizarre and often amusing fantasy. In this case, having been written in 1998, I'm not entirely certain whether it is a parody of The Matrix or lampooning the Microsoft trial (knowing Rankin, probably both).

Necrosoft has finally achieved the possibility of human immortality by creating a virtual world in which it is possible to upload our entirely personality prior to physical death. Themes of what make us human are not tackled here thankfully because that is not what we expect of Rankin. What it does is give us an amusing adventure through territory that is ironic and familiar, and a number of gags the style of which he is famous.

On the plus side, it is very relevant to the time it was written and the themes are identifiable. There are some genuine laugh out loud moments, particularly a conversation about Astrology and the silliness and reinventing old gags that makes Rankin a great comedy writer. On the negative side, the story rarely seems to have a direction. The Voodoo Handbag of the title is not central to plot plot; it barely qualifies as a mcguffin.

There is nothing here to recommend new readers but to those already familiar with Rankin, there is no reason to avoid it.

See more book reviews at my blog

[Nathan Dehoff · Rating 4 out of 5]

The follow-up to Sprout Mask Replica is more focused than its predecessor. Since it’s Rankin, it still isn’t THAT focused, but it does follow one basic plot. There’s a company called Necrosoft that has discovered how to download personalities onto the Internet, which turns out to also be the world of dreams and the mind of God. Rankin’s fictional self runs afoul of Billy Barnes, the ruthless second-in-command to Henry Doors, owner of Necrosoft. He finds himself trapped in the Necronet, with his only hope being to outsmart Billy. The titular handbag, which belongs to the voodoo goddess Erzulie and is a gateway between the worlds of the living and the dead, also plays a role.

[Simon Jones · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rankin at his best. A twisted plot that really doesn't make any sense (is the whole thing a "tall-story" being told to us by someone in a pub?) but then it's not really supposed to. Great fun.

[Paul Devall · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although I have read all the Robert Rankin work to date, I prefer the older stuff.

RETURN TO BRENTFORD!!!!!

[Steve Marler]

Funny