The Restraint of Beasts - Magnus Mills

Having previously read many of Magnus Mills' books, the first thing that strikes this reader when going back to his first novel from 1998, The Restraint of Beasts is that while it is very recognisably a Mills situation involving men in a Sisyphean task or mundane employment that has strict rules, his first novel is slightly different in style and how it approaches its subject. It is however quintessentially Mills, hugely entertaining and opens up all kinds of consideration of society, people and the rules they live by.

What is perhaps different, certainly to anyone coming back to this debut having read the other books, is that subsequent books become more refined, laid back and surreal in situations, while The Restraint of Beasts, …well …the beasts are rather less restrained, if I can put it that way. Which isn't surprising since that is the situation posed at the start of the novel. 

Mr McCrindle's high-tensile fence has gone slack. Tam and Richie have only just put it up, so that shouldn't have happened. This is a right state of affairs and their boss says they need to fix it quickly. He appoints the nameless and, as also usual with Mills, somewhat ineffectual narrator as foreman to oversee the repair of the slack high-tensile fence. Unfortunately during the repair work, Tam manages to accidentally kill Mr McCrindle. Obviously the only decent thing to do in such a situation is bury him, and it just seems right and fitting to put another post down to mark the spot. With such a team the forthcoming trip over the border for a big job in England doesn't look too promising.

I love how narrator, who tries to be reasonable, and is certainly more reasonable than some, has his own narrow of view of how things should be done. It's the typical Magnus Mills narrator. This one has a fixation on whether the posts are straight, which according to Mr McCrindle (predeceasing) has nothing to do with the price of tea in China (Mills' brilliant in use of peculiar laconic English idioms and understatement phrases is excellent as usual). He doesn't take well the narrator's suggestion that the cattle farmer would be better off with sheep in such a field.

What is different here is the level of outward aggression. There is definitely that familiar stoic English discontent simmering with resentment of course, but it actually boils over into brawls on occasion with strong language. Perhaps that because Tam and Richie are Scottish, while the narrator is English and a boss - of sorts - and that leads to a certain tension. So as opposed to later books, which can be more abstract, this one deals with identifiable real-world prejudice. In essence however, Mills still deals with general pervasive attitudes and character behaviours that are applicable in many everyday everyman situations. That's what Mills does so well, and it's there from the outset, covered in various ways through other books.

More than that, right from the outset in his first book, Mills uses a small localised situation of human behaviour, miserable conditions and adverse declining standards and manages through it to suggest that this is also how the world operates on a global scale. There is a subtle dehumanisation and removal of rights, individual freedoms, fences suggesting barriers and evidently when it leads to high electrified fences and pens, that has other connotations. With an edge of surrealism and constant expectation of things going wrong, not to mention a dry sense of humour with a sinister edge, there is definitely a Samuel Beckett like character to the work. It's just a joy to read, to enter into this world and mindset, and for all their similarity you could read each of Magnus Mills' books again and again, find new lines and juxtapositions and still find much to enjoy in the reading of them.

Reading notes: I picked up a second hand US First Edition hardcover published by Arcade Publishing, New York. The cover includes a worthy seal of approval from from Thomas Pynchon no less as, "A demented, deadpan-comic wonder". My edition has handwritten notes and commentary from the previous reader who clearly notes the eccentric behaviours outlined in the book, wondering at the deeper significance or if there is any. There most certainly is. I thought I had read all Magnus Mills up to The Forensic Records Society, but it was soon apparent that I hadn't read this one before. It can be difficult to distinguish one Mills from another over time, but this one definitely had a character of its own.