All Quiet on the Orient Express: reissued
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Amazon.co.uk Review
Magnus Mills may have single-handedly invented a new fictional genre: the Kafkaesque novel of work. First, his Booker-shortlisted The Restraint of Beasts brought to fence building the kind of black humour found in a Coen brothers movie. Now, in All Quiet on the Orient Express, Mills turns his deadpan prose on some very odd jobs indeed. The unnamed narrator is on holiday for a few weeks, camping in the Lake District before beginning an extended journey to India. He sees no reason not to agree when the campground owner--the sinister Tommy Parker, who seems mainly to engage in "buying and selling"--asks him to help out with a simple chore. As this is a Magnus Mills novel, however, no chore can possibly be simple. Through error or bad luck, one task leads to another and the narrator quickly finds himself trapped by his own passivity and a very English reluctance to cause a fuss. Soon he's doing homework for Parker's daughter, being kicked on and off the darts team at the local pub and learning how to perform a series of menial jobs. ("Have you ever operated a circular saw?" "Driven a tractor before?" "What are you like with a hammer and nails?")
There's a lot that's strange about this little town. Where have all the females gone? Why does everyone seem to think he should take over the town milk route? Why won't the shops stock his beloved baked beans? Both the grocer and the pub are oddly eager to let him run up tabs and there's no sign of payment from Tommy Parker. It seems, in fact, that the narrator's early suspicions have been fulfilled: "I'd inadvertently become his servant." Like the Hall brothers from The Restraint of Beasts, Parker is volatile, irrational and all-powerful--a primitive god ruling over his own creation. As the narrator falls further and further under his sway, All Quiet on the Orient Express becomes a striking allegory of labour and capital, purgatory and judgement, and the uncanniness of manual work. --Mary Park --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
The Independent on Sunday, 19 September 1999
The arrival of Magnus Mills on the British literary scene is extraordinarily refreshing. He represents a genuinely avant garde voice who has breathed new life into the genre (if it can be called a genre) by flouting all expectations of what a novel can be about... Mills is genuinely unique, but if he is to be placed anywhere in the jigsaw of literary history, he will have to slot between Albert Camus and Enid Blyton. [He is] oneof the handful of British writers to work in a unique fictional universe. For this, Mills is to be treasured and revered. You cannot ask more of a book than for it to make the familiar seem fresh, strange and scary. In a modest, sneaky way, Mills pulls this off better than any other writer at work today.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
11 of 11 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
What is amazing about this book is just how little of it there is. Mills doesn't waste words describing every pointless little detail, creating beautifully tight prose. Even the protagonists name is omitted - but so what? What difference does it make whether it is John or Jack or Peter or whatever? Other reviewers claim that this makes the book unevocative, shorn of individuality. Rubbish. Instead the sparse writing leaves your imagination room to create connections, giving the book a wonderfully brooding and almost surreal feel. The protagonist says 'Hi' to his landlord, but because it is so underwritten, you read in sinister undercurrents to the exchange. You are also more aware of themes and motifs, which helps set up a wonderful twist. A fantastic book, well worth buying.
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I don't know how he does it, but Magnus Mills captures the dull emptiness of the unexamined life without turning the reader off. This book might be hard going for the first few pages but before long you'll be purring with pleasure even if you don't know why. A guy plans to motorcycle to India but ends up playing darts and delivering milk instead. He buys baked beans. He'd like some biscuits but the shop is out of stock. Stuff happens, but not much. But the book grows ever more creepy and weird while never letting on that anything is happening, until you get to the end and realise how utterly strange, compelling and mad it all was. From the grim banality of the dullest lives imaginable he slowly conjures up a dark, feral bad-dream world that seems more real than life no matter what bizarre events happen. The only current writer I can compare him to is George Saunders of "Civilwarland in Bad Decline", but Mills is even more low key and deadpan, creating delicious madness from the most unpromising material imaginable.
It's a rare book that leaves you both very satisfied and thinking "what the ****ing hell was that all about?" And this is it.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I am surprised by the general lack of support for this book among the reviews. The world created is deadpan, sparse, cold, threatening, strange - a bit like the Lake District on a cold March day, really.
From the first spillage of green paint, the reader is left waiting for something to happen - and whatever the something is, you know you're not going to like it.
But 'it' never comes - which is what makes this book so clever. How Magnus Mills manages to fill every sentance with nuances of threat or helplessness and manages to maintain the pace of an action thriller in a book without action is admirable.
Read it. It'll only take you two hours, but you won't forget it in a hurry..... you better not, because he wouldn't like that. He's got a temper on him, you know.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
A new genre of fiction
As is claimed in the blurb, this guy has invented a new genre of fiction.
It can be summed up as follows: Short story with (minor) sting in the tale, padded, padded,... Read more
It can be summed up as follows: Short story with (minor) sting in the tale, padded, padded,... Read more
Published 8 months ago by Easy Goin Roj
The worlds longest joke?....
Could this be essentially the worlds longest joke? Without giving a spoiler away:
I first read this book years ago, but it's still an old favourite of mine. Read more
I first read this book years ago, but it's still an old favourite of mine. Read more
Published 8 months ago by Andy Gibson
Utterly Brilliant!
Some of the people who have left bad reviews just don't seem to get it, but then the world would be a very dull place if we all liked the same things! Read more
Published 12 months ago by Phonics Fan
Is that it?!
I didn't enjoy this book (to put it bluntly!) The spare, unemotional prose didn't appeal and there wasn't enough dark undertones to make the book interesting. Read more
Published 17 months ago by pbgeary
Ever so slightly absurd
A wonderfully enjoyable tale, written in a deceptively simple way. A comedy with a very subtle, dark undertow.
Published 21 months ago by Tom White
Not so quiet.....
I'm not sure if the early Magnus Mills are the best - certainly this one manages to combine his usual deadpan humour and horror simultaneously. In 'All quiet.. Read more
Published on 15 Oct 2009 by Peter Burke
A Cup Of Tea And Baked Beans On Toast
I make a cup of tea. I pick up the book. I read it. Well, some of it. There were a lot of pages. I read every word of each page, then put the book down for a bit. Read more
Published on 20 Mar 2009 by P. Bilzon
For those who love dark, dry humour
`All is Quiet on the Orient Express' is another gem by Magnus Mills. His dark, dry humour and dead-pan writing is brilliant. Read more
Published on 14 July 2008 by Farah Yousif
The emperor's new clothes
I had to read this book upon seeing the wildly differing views on it's absolute brilliance, or lack of it. Read more
Published on 18 Sep 2007 by Mills bombs
The Archers' Blair Witch Project
This is Magnus Mills's best book I think. The narrative encapsualtes his quietly threatening approach to storytelling. Read more
Published on 1 Oct 2006 by P. Childs
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