The Restraint of Beasts by Magnus Mills is fucking hilarious, in a very dour, scottish way. I'll be honest; it's dark enough I had to put it down for a couple of days. Not dark in a painful way, but dark in a repetitious, unending slog kind of way. But, once you push past that? It's pretty funny.
It's about Scots day laborers and their travails. But what I first thought was going to be a fairly standard workman's humor type quickly transformed into this dark, dour, funny, THING. I cannot stress this enough: the humor is DARK, almost Kafka-esque. To be honest, I had to remind myself it was a comedy before I could pick it up again. But, with that in mind, the workers' travails and endless evenings in the local pub become funny. As does the ever growing pile of bodies.
At any rate, it took me a while to get into, but once I did, I loved this book. I'm going to lend it to my dad, actually. I think he might get a kick out of it. However, warning, I think it's a pretty British brand of humor. Uncertain if it'd translate well to someone who doesn't think Cold Comfort Farm is hilarious, so yeah. Bear that in mind.
P.S. Plus, was shortlisted for the Booker Prize. Worth considering.
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