The Restraint of Beasts
Ratings3
Average rating4.7
15
Ratings3
Average rating4.7
'A heaving cauldron of black humour ... 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 'Tam and I took hold of Mr McCrindle and lowered him into the hole, feet first. We decided to leave his cap on.' Fencers Tam, Richie and their ever-exasperated English foreman are forced to move from rural Scotland to England for work. After a disastrous start involving a botched fence and an accidental murder, the three move to a damp caravan in Upper Bowland and soon find themselves in direct competition with the sinister Hall Brothers whose business enterprises seem to combine fencing, butchering and sausage-making... The Restraint of Beasts introduced readers to the now much-loved unique voice of Magnus Mills and his surreally comic world.
Reviews with the most likes.
I bought this novel years ago from a used book store because of the Pynchon blurb. I finally started reading it because Scarlett Thomas mentioned it in her preface to Bright Young Things and because it seemed like a good follow up to Sputnik Caledonia.
I'm not really sure why I loved this book, but I did. The narration is deadpan, the settings are bleak, and the action is repetitive and insane. Yet it was hilarious and propulsive and engrossing. Reminded me of Raymond Carver and Lars Iyer and Withnail and I as well as oft-mentioned-in-other-reviews Kafka.
