The Secret Doctrine of V. H. Rand

Victor Hippolyte Rand, the son of a Jewish butcher in Nazi-occupied Paris, is a self-proclaimed Master of the Universe. Rand, a stumblebum if ever there was one, runs an Academy of Magic, where student acolytes become initiates in occultism, white magic, and the arcane.

Good news spreads fast. The dark forces of the Wehrmacht attempt to recruit Victor. Naturally, he refuses. Victor spends the next few years in a Nazi dungeon, stapled to a one hundred-pound ball and chain.

Victor's adventures -- more like skirmishes, cul-de-sacs, Pyrrhic victories -- spin out in a variety of fantastic settings. Read forbidden books with Victor under cover of a Jesuit monastery; practice stage magic and prestidigitation with him in seedy nightclubs; make world tours in search of wisdom, of arcana, rubbing elbows with luminaries such as Aleister Crowley, Rudolf Steiner, and Alexandra David-Néel. At the end of Rand's day, he acquires a secret doctrine and a unique perspective: when God gives you a gas chamber - inhale!

The humor is manic, definitely overthought, overwrought. Victor Rand has previously appeared in the eponymous novel Victor Rand, where he helped mismanage spirit traffic control in the Bardo.