Hold still while I brain you with this brick of metaphor!
Written: Sep 03 '07 (Updated Sep 03 '07)
|
Product Rating:
|
|
|
Pros: Deft touches, simple style, enjoyable characters. A brisk read.
Cons: The bludgeoning with metaphor you will receive might leave you comatose and drooling.
The Bottom Line: An enjoyable read, albeit a bit heavy-handed. Mills rookies might want to start elsewhere or risk being turned off.
|
|
|
| SpookyMonkey's Full Review: Magnus Mills - Tres Van a Ver Al Rey |
The full title of this book is "Three to See the King". The title listed is in Spanish but the book is not in Spanish. No one knows why that is; no one has dared to question it thus far. Mills may or may not have eaten burritos during the creation of the book. No chalupas were harmed in the making of this review.
The next few minutes were a blur of helping hands and guiding voices. In an utterly helpless state I was manoeuvred [sic] downwards until eventually I stood swaying on solid ground.
"There, there," said Simon, putting his arm around my shoulder.
"Thanks," I mumbled. "I thought I was going to be there for the night."
"You're all right now, though, aren't you?"
"Oh yes, never better."
My weak attempt to make light of the event didn't appear to register with my rescuers. Instead, they all stood round enquiring how I felt and if I'd like to lie down for awhile. It occurred to me that because of this incident I was now indebted to the three of them, and my sactualy feeling was one not of relief, but of irritation. To tell them would have been churlish, however, so after I'd recovered sufficiently I invited them into my house.
Satire is the tool used by those with revolutionary thoughts but no desire to get stabbed. In much the same way that comedians will make a point by peppering religious diatribes with fart jokes and crude imagery, satirists write allegorical tales to depict the fates of those following dangerous paths.
It sucks. You suck. Magnus Mills sucks.
This review isn't off to a good start, is it? Magnus Mills does not suck, at least for the most part. Three to See the King (Or Tres Van a Ver Al Rey, for those of you who don't speak English) is a satirical novel based upon multiple topics. When Mills is on his A-Game, we get brilliance like the Restraint of Beasts, which has earned him the Booker award and universal praise. His prose is very simple, sentences short and concise and he employs as much dialogue as he can. Most of his character development is done through this - there is next to no internal perspectives of characters. Characters interact and readers discover their personalities from their speech patterns and responses.
Boooooooorrrrring.
To some people, yes. Mills is the master of subtle gestures. I often find myself forty pages into a novel and feel that I've learned absolutely nothing about my subject at hand only to discover that I've learned enough to have an opinion of how they'd react. His comedy is low key and subtle in a Steven Wright fashion. You won't laugh out loud, no snot bubbles from the nostrils, but you'll smirk a little at a situation and perhaps not know why.
Why don't people just write what they say rather than churn out filth-flarn-filth that no one wants to read?
Allegory and satire are poetic and can be appreciated on multiple levels. It's more difficult than it looks and when done right, is highly enjoyable to read.
Mills shares with us the tale of the anonymous protagonist who lives in a tin house, alone and in the middle of nowhere. He wants for nothing, has privacy but not isolation, has free time but not boredom. We are not told exactly how he gets here, save the fact that he was on a mission and found the tin house on the way. Then a woman shows up. Predicable results ensue. We learn about the duality of relationships, resistance to change, self-discovery, the delicate nature of leaders and leadership and several hefty metaphorical concepts.
How hefty are we talking here?
Imagine you're playing a game of dodgeball. Now imagine that you're the last person on your team and you're surrounded tenfold. Each ball has the word 'metaphor' branded on it. Each ball carrier has an uncanny resemblance to Peyton Manning, size and stature. Now pretend you're transformed into the proverbial fat kid and have every Peyton-Manning-bot wail upon you mercilessly with their dodgeballs. Every time the ball leaves their hand, a new one appears. Do that for the duration of the novel.
That's pretty hefty.
Yes, and it gets mildly annoying. The reading is brisk - Mills is the antithesis of flowery speech. But as a reader, you feel like you're drowning in allegory and referential prose when it could be simply stated. Yes, this has enough religious undertones and overtones to start its own cult. Some readers may feel like Jesus is looking through your window, watching you read this, counting the number of seconds until you feel ancestral guilt.
Jesus? That guy who mows my lawn?
Perhaps that's why the title is in Spanish.
Gimme the bottom line, Monkey. Jesus or no Jesus, should I read this?
At 165 pages (and very little superficial difficulty), the average reader could get through this in a day. Two or three hours, tops. Whether the average reader can handle the lack of explosions and kaboomy plot devices is a different story. Some people find Mills' style obnoxious and hard to read, others find it enjoyable and light. Mills is smart and there is definite insight for those looking for it, but time must be spent to take the book on multiple levels.
I think I'll go read the Scheme for Full Employment instead.
That would be my advice too. If it was on epinions, I would have reviewed it instead. The Restraint of Beasts would be a good second choice.
Didn't you send a message to the proper authorities to have it added?
Yes, but I did it after a few beers and I may or may not have 'requested' a few other things to the database, like pictures of the Golden Girls in bikinis and a bonobo in a clown suit.
Ouch.
Uh huh. But in the meantime, those of you who appreciate Thomas Pynchon's style and any deadpan humorists, give Mills a chance. Three to See the King is a decent place to start, but if they have the other titles suggested in this article, start there instead.
Bookstore?
Yeah, that place that sells coffee.
Writer's Note - Peyton Manning's likeness appears courtesy of Peyton Manning. Not that I asked him, but I think he'd be okay with it. He hugs kids in his commercials.
Recommended:
Yes
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
SpookyMonkey
|
|
Location: Gulf Shores, AL
Reviews written: 138
Trusted by: 84 members
About Me:
Spookymonkey - Occam's Gillette Mach 3 Turbo.
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.