The Restraint of Beasts - Magnus Mills

Today I want to speak to you about THE RESTRAINT OF BEASTS by Magnus Mills. Those who have heard of the book will have done so on any one (or more) of these three accounts: 1. it was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and the Whitbread Award in 1998. 2. its author, who was at his debut with this novel, is a former bus driver for whom book-writing constituted yet another job deviation. 3. in its latest edition, available in "all good bookstores", it has one of the most luscious* covers imaginable. [*luscious adj. ... 3 richly luxurious or appealing to the senses ... Middle English lucius, perhaps alteration of licius, short for ...  Read the complete review

I hated this book. My partner read it before I did and told me not to read it. But I didn't listen and I deserved what I got. This is a very personal opinion and this book is obviously of individual taste, so here we go....... I thought it was rubbish. It's a pile of smug "look how clever I can be" rubbish that has been written solely to confuse people and get the literati so worried that they don't understand it, that they write good reviews about it. It's written by a working-class lad turned very clever writer type bloke and I think he could do much better. I don't think that this book did him any justice at all. I ...  Read the complete review

The Restraint of Beasts is the first novel by Magnus Mills, it was nominated and short-listed for both the Booker Prize, and The Whitbread Award. Can't be a bad thing. The I remembered some of the other books I've read with these grand titles – A Hundred Years of Solitude for example. I know it's supposed to be a classic, but to be honest, I would rather spend a hundred years in solitude than read that book again. The reason I picked up this book in the first place was simply because I liked the cover, not the same as the one pictured on Dooyoo. Dark brown with two pairs of muddy boots at the top, and a couple of beer marks half way down. ...  Read the complete review

The Restraint of Beasts, first novel by Magnus Mills, is simply hilarious. It contains no complicated plot, no mysteries, no tangled webs, no love affairs and very little sex. Just a very straightforward tale of workers and their work, and the few errors that they make along the way. I admit it doesn't sound very funny put like that, but the completely deadpan nature of the text, interwoven with irony, makes it so outrageous that you cannot help laughing out loud, over and again. I read it on holiday last year and ended up laughing dementedly, with my teenage daughter raising her eyes to the ceiling, until I persuaded her to read it and she laughed even more! ...  Read the complete review

I bought this book to read on holiday, and I must admit that when I started it, I almost put it straight down and picked up another. Now however, it rates as one of my favourite books of the last few years. The story follows the lives of 3 men who make fences out of poles and wires and their very normal attitudes to the world. This book made me laugh more than any other book I've read in the last 10 years (since THHGTTG). The style of humour is very dry but everyone I've recommended this book to (basically everyone I know who reads) has really enjoyed it. The author writes in such a way that you don't really realise how much you are being ...  Read the complete review