Rating: 
Summary: If you like dark humor . . .
Review: A funny, funny book. Dark, but hilarious. Other reviewers are right that if you've ever had a hopelessly crappy job, you'll laugh with recognition at many of the brilliant details. Personally, I laughed out loud at the narrator's description of his two co-workers' insistence on endlessly playing their old, and therefore stretched and uneven, heavy metal tapes. It reminded me of a surreal summer I spent working in a warehouse with a couple of death rockers. But there's more than that. Without meaning to over-intellecutalize a straightforward comic novel, it mines the same comic vein as Kafka -- or, if you prefer, the movie "After Hours". The book captures perfectly the sensation of finding yourself in an increasingly hellish scenario without quite understanding how you got there or how you get yourself out. I can understand how a few readers were put off by the book. If your sense of humor doesn't have a morbid streak -- e.g., if you're put off by Martin Amis or by the amputation scene in Monty Python's "The Holy Grail" -- give this a pass. Otherwise, it's a lot of fun to read.
Rating:
Summary: Funny & Sinister
Review: A group of three low-class fence layers get themselves into a dark situation. Things go from bad to worse, and keep going that way.I was by turns amused, shocked, and frightened by this story. Not frightened in a 'boo! Aagh!' kind of way. More like a Twilight Zone. There is contrast in this story that I sincerely loved. On one hand, Mills gives us low-wage workers of the basest sort. Their lives are endless repetition of the mundane. But then Mills begins to dish out some truly bizarre circumstances, things that can't ever happen ... can they? Surely they shouldn't. Beneath the mundane was a core of something sinister. I can't say I understand what the morale is, or if there was one. But the book was entertaing, and certainly thought provoking.
Rating:
Summary: Funny & Sinister
Review: A group of three low-class fence layers get themselves into a dark situation. Things go from bad to worse, and keep going that way. I was by turns amused, shocked, and frightened by this story. Not frightened in a 'boo! Aagh!' kind of way. More like a Twilight Zone. There is contrast in this story that I sincerely loved. On one hand, Mills gives us low-wage workers of the basest sort. Their lives are endless repetition of the mundane. But then Mills begins to dish out some truly bizarre circumstances, things that can't ever happen ... can they? Surely they shouldn't. Beneath the mundane was a core of something sinister. I can't say I understand what the morale is, or if there was one. But the book was entertaing, and certainly thought provoking.
Rating: 
Summary: A breathtaking treat.
Review: An amazing flight of fancy. On one hand, it's a meeting ground for Beckett's minimalism and Orwell's eye for working details. On the other hand, it's a droll and deadpan bit of eccentricity, like an Ealing comedy gone Kafkaesque. And Thomas Pynchon likes it!
Rating:
Summary: Entertaining and odd.
Review: At its heart, this is simple study of a working relationship between a foreman and his two very likeable, if shambolic subordinates. Carried by a simple, linear plot line with no twists and turns, the atmosphere builds up quickly and returns like a familiar smell each time you pick up the book and start to read agin. Do not buy this if you want a beginning, a middle, and an end. There is no ending. At all. I like this technique as it leaves the reader to consider the likely outcome. But then, many people seem to prefer closure of the plot themes, and if you are among that number, this final chapter will drive you crazy. Like many novels of this type the accolades on the cover claim great comedy and laughs within. I can't say I laughed out loud, but there are several examples of amusing dialogue between the main protagonists and the more peripheral characters. This is the first of Mills' books I have read, and will be interested to read more. However, I don't think I want to read two of his in close succession.
Rating:
Summary: Entertaining and odd.
Review: At its heart, this is simple study of a working relationship between a foreman and his two very likeable, if shambolic subordinates. Carried by a simple, linear plot line with no twists and turns, the atmosphere builds up quickly and returns like a familiar smell each time you pick up the book and start to read agin. Do not buy this if you want a beginning, a middle, and an end. There is no ending. At all. I like this technique as it leaves the reader to consider the likely outcome. But then, many people seem to prefer closure of the plot themes, and if you are among that number, this final chapter will drive you crazy. Like many novels of this type the accolades on the cover claim great comedy and laughs within. I can't say I laughed out loud, but there are several examples of amusing dialogue between the main protagonists and the more peripheral characters. This is the first of Mills' books I have read, and will be interested to read more. However, I don't think I want to read two of his in close succession.
Rating:
Summary: A standout for the characters and humor
Review: I absolutely loved this well-written glimpse into the life of 3 fence builders and their adventures in Scotland and England.I was laughing throughout this book, but readers should be forewarned that the humor isn't for everyone (it is a very dry humor, even a black humor) and the plot, such as it is, tends to ramble, meander and go in anything but a straightforward direction. Still, I couldn't put it down, riveted by the lives of these three men, the various crises that came up and their way of bumbling through each day as best they could. It was obvious that the author know about the life described here.
Rating: 
Summary: Left empty by the ending
Review: I loved All Quiet on the Orient Express by Mills but I must say I was disappointed by Restraint of Beasts. The characters were good but the ending was abrupt and without closure. I was even wondering whether the last pages were missing (unfortunately, no). It is a quick read so I don't feel it was a waste. Take from it what you can and then pick up All Quiet on the Orient Express.
Rating: 
Summary: How to write a Prize-Winning Novel
Review: I wish I'd thought of doing it! Take two classic yet under-appreciated novels, extract the most compelling aspects of each, sandwich them together, and voilá, a brand-new novel from a brand-new talent, bound to attract the attentions of the literary establishment, and if you happen to be a bus driver, the broader media too, guaranteeing a best seller. The Restraint of Beasts shares with Flann O'Brien's brilliant "The Third Policeman", early death, followed by a consequent surreal, repetitive circularity of events and lack of final resolution. Paul Auster's "The Music of Chance" features two men forced into building an apparently endless wall for a pair of eccentric millionaires, who excercise complete control over them. Sound familiar? Though the book is worth a read, and contains some amusing moments, O'Brien's and Auster's are much more rewarding.
Rating: 
Summary: Patronising garbage
Review: Let me nail my colours to the mast here and say immediately that I did not merely dislike this book -I utterly hated it.The praise with which the book was garlanded in England seems to me to arise from the fact that its author is from out of the usual literary loop-not a University educated litterateur but a bus driver-and that it treats of a group still not widely represented in mainstream literary fiction namely the white blue collar crowd.It does so in a manner that seems to me patronising and dismissive;please note I write as one who worked construction ,road repair and other assorted tasks,including,as with the characters in this novel,fence laying.The characterisation of such people struck me as grossly offensive and had minority racial and/or sexual groups been so depicted there would have been an uproar-and rightly so.
Leaving aside such considerations, the crassness and obviousness of the symbolism is itself good enough reason to snort with derision at the contents of this book.
Basic premise ; Tam and Ritchie,fence layers and gross caricatures of blue collar life(beer,cigarettes,blue denim)work for a small Scottish firm and are despatched with their English foreman to work in England.The change is from a family concern to one run on scientific principles of manangement with the resultant debasement of the work force.They are shown gradually losing their humanity and individualism being compelled to wear uniform and eventually being virtually incarcerated in a work camp after the daily grind.En route they accidently kill a client -Mr Mills seems to regard the deadpan description of such events as inherently hilarious.
Let me demur from this position please.
I do not disagree with the underlying theme that work debases more people than it elevates but many people have said this more crisply -Studs Terkel for one -but the heavy handed allegory and crude symbolism just struck me as jejeune and obvious and I simply object to the crude depiction of people who are at the bottom of the economic pecking order.
The characters are not individuals but symbols and might just as well have the word "victim "stamped on their foreheads.The Booker Prize nomination it gathered shows the naive and patronising nature of the literary establishment
The book does a grave diservice to people working hard in menial jobs for little reward
I am able to tolerate incompetence and slipshod writing if the book wears its heart in the right place or entertains , but not the contempt shown for its subjects in this tawdry and puny spirited tale
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