Rating: 
Summary: Not funny.
Review: Not funny. Not well written and worst of all cardinal sins in a book, boring. Mills went for something like a dark comedy, but came out with a dull, dreary book with lackluster dialogue, indistinguishable characters and an unfinished ending. Nuff said...
Rating: 
Summary: Recommended by Penelope Fitzgerald
Review: Penelope Fitzgerald, one of my all time favorite writers, liststhis as one of her 5 favorite books. So it must be good --
Rating:
Summary: Kafka meets Bukowski
Review: Restraint of beasts is the most accessable, and probably the best of the Mills work trilogy (All Quiet on the Orient Express and Scheme for Full Employment are the others). A darkly funny exposition of our views of work and community that never fails to frighten and amuse. A sense of brooding doom hangs over all of Mills' work; this is is no exception. Our brave hero is continuously undermined by his co-workers, two Scotts that make indolence an art, harassed by the evil Hall brothers and stands witness to several accidental deaths that are dealt with by immediate burial under the fence. Hysterical. We must restrain these beasts.
Rating: 
Summary: Dilbert meets Beelzebub
Review: Restraint of Beasts will feel familiar to anyone who has held a crappy job. Our narrator, suddenly made "foreman" over Rich and Tam - "Why me?" "There's no one else left" - faces the usual on-the-job problems - his employees are lazy slobs, his boss is remote but demanding, his work is exacting, and there are all those "accidents". He brings to these problems the messy partial fixes we all know and use. Mills's simple narration sucked me in so completely that I was soon a collaborator. But how did I ever think this was just a fencing company? The book reads fast, and the right-on-target ultra-simple style - "Got a fag Rich?" is as complex as it gets - can grow wearing, but the work is quirky and very real. You might like to compare this to holocaust survivor - and later suicide - T. Borowski's horrifyingly straightforward (4 star) "This Way For The Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen", in which a prisoner saves his life by becoming a helper, only to experience inevitable on-the-job problems. We all have those, right?
Rating:
Summary: Fence Posts...
Review: The matter of fact absurdity of life looms large in this novel. Life is a ludicrous experience, of course! Especially when you're a fencer stuck in a caravan in Scotland.Mills reveals the true nature of his characters with a good humoured frankness and understatement. The repititious minutae of the narrator's life continues until it becomes like a hilarious rythmic nightmare. I felt like it was nothing when I started but like a hamster on wheel I just felt compelled to keep going. The bits of carrot at the end of the stick are the hilarious/honest minor variations to the days and nights of the characters and they're the kind of variations that definately make life interesting but don't usually cut it in novels. But with the help of three characters who work hard-ish, drink very hard and think small Mills manages it. Although ... on another note ... I have to admit the ending is a little out of whack and uneccesary.
Rating:
Summary: A hilarious ride
Review: The perfect off-beat hilarious picaresque...excellent for long plane-rides...or even an extended bathroom break. Do yourself a favor...leap into it today.
Rating:
Summary: To the contrary, I see a wonderful movie here
Review: The tone and cast of characters of Mills' novel have the perfect pitch for a Waking Ned Divine kind of movie. Mills' novel is so funny and so deceptively facile. My friends who have also read and love the novel can't get over how easy Mills makes it look. But no one else is doing what he is doing. His latest novel All Is Quiet On the Orient Express is just as good.
Rating:
Summary: Simply hysterical
Review: The writing is completely simple and understated, and the plot is minimal, but this book was absolutely hysterical. It's an easy, really fun read.
Rating:
Summary: Simply hysterical
Review: The writing is completely simple and understated, and the plot is minimal, but this book was absolutely hysterical. It's an easy, really fun read.
Rating:
Summary: Lame Duck Booker Prize finalist
Review: There is not much to say about this book except don't believe the hype. It is a dull read with one dimensional characters, bad dialogue and a hackneyed job of plot construction. As to comments that this book is Kafkaeque due to its "dark" noirish overtones. Wrong. Kafka's works inspired fear and dread about society's compassionless bureaucracy and inhuman conspiracy to sacrifice certain members. The Restraint of Beats inspires nothing, except a desire to read real writers like Kafka.
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