Magnus Mills

This short novel contains many aspects that will be familiar to Magnus Mills fans. While the novel is clearly set in the UK and not some unnamed land, as is often the case, this is a UK that has been purchased by The President and most of the inhabitants have moved to the coast to sunbathe. This is mostly a masculine world too, as many of his novels are. The two gatekeepers and most of their visitors are male. Magnus Mills shows a working life where you do what you need to do, tolerate show more authority and ask as few questions as possible. It is impossible not to read this as a Brexit novel, Great Britain struggling on alone, owned by some distant President and unable to get parts for anything that has broken. It is funny, absurd and beautifully written, as always. show less

I’ve been in a rare and unsettling reading slump this week, during which I failed to properly get into [b:The Beach Beneath the Street: The Everyday Life and Glorious Times of the Situationist International|10325403|The Beach Beneath the Street The Everyday Life and Glorious Times of the Situationist International|Kenneth McKenzie Wark|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1414351916s/10325403.jpg|15227846] and [b:The Sellout|22237161|The Sellout|Paul show more Beatty|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1403430899s/22237161.jpg|41610676] so instead read a large chunk of the internet. It was therefore a relief to pick up [b:Three to See the King|325603|Three to See the King|Magnus Mills|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1312003080s/325603.jpg|1787312] this evening and read it straight through. It’s very similar in tone, structure, and ambiguity to Mills’ more recent fables, [b:A Cruel Bird Came to the Nest and Looked In|11076156|A Cruel Bird Came to the Nest and Looked In|Magnus Mills|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1327334315s/11076156.jpg|15997637] and [b:The Field of the Cloth of Gold|23471579|The Field of the Cloth of Gold|Magnus Mills|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1425373568s/23471579.jpg|43063374]. Personally I prefer it when he puts more of a sting in the tail, as in [b:Explorers of the New Century|1502616|Explorers of the New Century|Magnus Mills|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1184365917s/1502616.jpg|316249] and [b:The Restraint of Beasts|323208|The Restraint of Beasts|Magnus Mills|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1348299275s/323208.jpg|1310862]. Nonetheless, there is something uniquely soothing about his tales of nothing in particular. In these abstract worlds he conjures, capitalism doesn’t seem to exist, which makes me think that they are metaphors for it. In this case, I began the book hoping the narrator was a woman (disappointingly this turned out not to be the case), subsequently became convinced in the middle that it was an allegory for industrialisation, and at the end had shrugged off attempts at deriving a definitive meaning from it. Perhaps there is only as much meaning to the story as the reader brings with them. There could be some message about human social relations, consumerism, or political organisation, perhaps. Just as likely, it’s a little parable about how contrary people can be. I found it pleasantly diverting, in any case.

[EDIT: Just noticed that the reading slump followed my 666th goodreads review. So I guess Satan was to blame for it.] show less

This novella provides a deadpan romp through the world of occupational rules and regulations as a bus driver and his mates discuss endlessly the strictures under which management makes them operate. Their minute observations concerning the times various rules are appropriate and how to evade them when they are not are familiar to most wage employees, and their encounters with the managers who enforce the rules provide a familiar spectrum of tolerable and less tolerable petty martinets. show more Though Mills has elsewhere taken on some bigger slices of the human experience, this is a fine look of the jobs we do. show less

Two printable comments that immediately spring forth when I finished was an angry "What the.." and "I cannot believe he just did that". Yet half an hour later I was smugly basking in the glow of having just finished a wonderful book, deliciously imagining what exactly was going on. This is not a book for people who like neat & tidy plots, nor those who do not appreciate black humour. It's a wonderful piece of misdirection really.

Through deadpan humour and tight sentences we follow the our show more narrator who has just been made foreman of two lazy ne-er do wells in a small high tensile fencing company. Yes it's the exciting world of building fences, mingled with that great British past time of pub drinking. And quite frankly it's great.

The characters are superb, the plot amusing and an un-nerving feeling that clashes wonderfully with the every day. It's a great book to try Magnus Mills plus it's quite short so what have you got to lose? Fans of his will of course have read this already.... show less