- Hardcover: 272 pages
- Publisher: Arcade; 1st U.S. Ed edition (13 Sep 1998)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 1559704373
- ISBN-13: 978-1559704373
- Product Dimensions: 21.8 x 14.5 x 2.2 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (49 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 830,580 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
Building high-tension fencing with a couple of rural Scots louts--what could be a more likely premise for a black comedy? An eerie noir fable told in a grim, deadpan voice, The Restraint of Beasts tells the story of an English fence-builder promoted to foreman over two under-motivated labourers. They've just been sent out to fix a badly done fence when events go horribly awry--and not for the last time either. For the rest of the novel, as his charges drink, loaf and pound the occasional fence-post, events go badly amiss over and over again. In a sense, that's all you can truly rely on in Mills's fictional world. It is not giving away too much to say that if you hire these workers to assemble your high-tension fence, you'd best watch your back. Or your front, for that matter. And keep a firm eye on the skies, just in case.
The team travels south to England, where they live out of a damp, cold caravan in the town of Upper Bowland. Here they soon find themselves at loggerheads with the sinister Hall brothers, whose business enterprises seem to combine fencing, butchering, sausage-making and the mysterious "school dinners". "We committed no end of good deeds!" cries John Hall. "Yet still we lost the school dinners! Always the authorities laying down some new requirement, one things after another! This time is seems we must provide more living space. Very well! If that's the way they want it, we'll go on building fences for ever if necessary! We'll build pens and compounds and enclosures! And we'll make sure we never lose them again!"
In between placing Kafkaesque obstacles in his narrator's path, Mills seeds his novel with small, darkly comic touches: Tam's father, whom we last see erecting a stockade round his house "to stop you from coming home any more"; the sound of Richie's Black Sabbath tapes "slowly being stretched in an under-powered cassette player"; the caravan's encroaching squalor; An Early Bath for Thompson, the book that Richie tries in vain to read when they run out of money for pubs. No doubt about it, this is a strange book that only grows stranger as it progresses; with any luck it augurs well for more brilliant, odd work from debut novelist Mills. --Mary Park --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Review
'A demented, deadpan comic wonder' Thomas Pynchon
'A heaving cauldron of black humour… I can guarantee that if you buy this book you'll never look at a stretch of high-tensile agricultural fencing in quite the same way ever again' Time Out
'Extremely unusual, finely crafted and funny' Observer
'Clever and funny and rewardingly strange … in a manner which may be called Kafkaesque' Independent on Sunday
'Unpretentious, comic and intelligent' Daily Telegraph
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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First Sentence
'I'm putting you in charge of Tam and Richie,' said Donald. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
'I'm putting you in charge of Tam and Richie,' said Donald. Read the first page
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Magnus Mills' has crafted a particularly well-written black comedy around the unlikely theme of fence construction. In 'The Restraint of Beasts', the English narrator receives the dubious honour of being appointed supervisor of two Scottish fence-builders: the bone idle Richie and his even lazier offsider Tam. Both Richie and Tam are live for the day - or at least a few pints at night - and never seem to have two pennies to rub together. The novel faithfully captures the sheer drudgery of repetitive and mundane physical labour, as well as the humour that can occur in such workplaces. The work of this team as they construct supposedly high-tensile fences comes under a great deal of scrutiny from management, clients and rivals - with darkly funny consequences. Suffice it to say that there are many laughs in this quirky novel that has resonances of classic English comedies such as 'Withnail and I' and 'The League of Gentlemen'.
Magnus Mills' debut novel would have been a possible 5-star contender for most of the journey. However, the novel becomes significantly blacker and less humourous in the final stages with no apparently good reason, ending most abruptly in an annoying and unsatisfying manner. Nevertheless, 'The Restraint of Beasts' is a highly entertaining, off-beat black comedy that accurately portrays the lifestyle of workers fenced in by economic forces.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I can't give this book the 5 stars others have awarded, even though I would agree with most of the other comments; the book is a good read, an excellent black comedy.
The only problem is the way it is finished off - the story has been carefully crafted and the possibility of some more delicious moments meticulously set up. And then .... nothing! As I was reading it I was thinking, "this is good, how is it going to be resolved?" It wasn't, much to my annoyance.
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
What a great book! Everything is written with superb understatement to the point where you eventually come to think that every strange occurence in this book is completely normal.
There isn't much else you can say about it. All I would say is, don't expect an in-depth character study or a deeply moving novel. Relax before you read it, then laugh your head off when you do read it - I did.
There isn't much else you can say about it. All I would say is, don't expect an in-depth character study or a deeply moving novel. Relax before you read it, then laugh your head off when you do read it - I did.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
A very funny and intelligent book
I'll just add to what everyone else has said that it is a very funny and intelligent look at the sort of physical work that ordinary people have always done. Read more
Published 2 months ago by Mr. P. I. Browne
Beautifully Banal
This is a tale about three men who work for a Scottish construction company, a calm foreman and his two bickering colleagues. Read more
Published 8 months ago by Book Republik
Just who is restrained?
The question Mills asks is "Just who is most trapped by the work of the fencing contractors?"
The ending is top notch, once you think laterally
The ending is top notch, once you think laterally
Published 10 months ago by C. Cairns
something's not quite right here
A wonderful offbeat story, full of dry deadpan wit, about ordinary lives with just a hint of the absurd.
Published 21 months ago by Tom White
Dark
Dark, weird, funny. Not everyone's cup of tea, but definitely different. Check out his other books.
Published 21 months ago by M. Mcardell
Bizarre and wonderful!
I read this in one sitting over the course of a wet Sunday. I won't rehash the plot (such as it is). Read more
Published on 24 Aug 2009 by Telboy
Fantastic read!
Have been looking for a new book to read after long hectic day at work and after having to deal with my toddler when I get home. This fits the bill. Read more
Published on 9 July 2009 by H. Stephens
Effortless genius
How is it possible to write such a beautiful, engaging and un-put-downable book without any discernible plot? Read more
Published on 8 Aug 2008 by Jim Ashton
From the outset it has a real quirky feel about it....
Magnus Mills has written a very funny novel. From the outset it has a real quirky feel about it and the humour is so black you could tar the road with it! Read more
Published on 5 Aug 2008 by Daniel Parsons
An eerie fable
I loved `The restraint of beasts' by Magnus Mills but it's not for everyone.
It's the grim tale of 3 fence builders and their adventures in Scotland and England. Read more
It's the grim tale of 3 fence builders and their adventures in Scotland and England. Read more
Published on 13 July 2008 by Farah Yousif
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