Fionnáin reviewed The Restraint of Beasts by Magnus Mills
enclosure~enclosure~enclosure
3 stars
Magnus Mills presents a sharp, funny and caustic story about three fencers in Scotland – the narrator, Tam and Richie – who are embroiled in a purgatory of repetitive tasks building enclosures for "beasts". Fencing by day and drinking in the pub each evening, the characters are locked in a self-defeating cycle. While this continues, the company that they are working for gradually modernises, leaving them with less wages and more work at each iteration.
Written without any flourish like a story told in a pub, this is a book of non-events. Even when major climactic or shocking things happen, the storytelling never breaks stride as if the monotony somehow buries the life that should be lived. The writing is compelling throughout and the way the poverty trap is presented is cleverly unfolded. Enjoyable, short and darkly witty; a modern parable about work.
