KNEES UP MOTHER EARTH

In the London suburb of Brentford, developers seek to buy the local soccer grounds as part of a devilish conspiracy to rouse the snake from the Garden of Eden. A couple of blokes from the local pub decide to stop them. Silliness ensues, as it does in most of Robert Rankin's popular comic novels. This is the seventh volume of his Brentford trilogy. True to form, it's whimsical, slapstick, full of eccentrics, and turns on the supernatural. With idiomatic Cockney inflections, the author gaily moves through his opus with affectionate fun-poking at his real-life hometown. For this reviewer, his otherwise satisfying delivery is spoiled by mouth noises--though perhaps listeners in moving vehicles will not notice them. Y.R. © AudioFile 2007, Portland, Maine [Published: APR/ MAY 07]