Three to See the King
'Pythonesque ... Quirky, deadpan and quietly unhinged'
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- $16.99
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- $16.99
Publisher Description
'Mills's comedy shares its anthropological glee with The League of Gentlemen...This shouldn't be a speedy page-turner, but it is; light reading with real depth' Guardian
'Pythonesque ... Quirky, deadpan and quietly unhinged' Scotsman
Living on a windy plain in a house made entirely from tin, a recluse's quiet life is transformed by the severely critical Mary Petrie who arrives unannounced with a trunk of her belongings in tow.
As a procession of new houseguests begins, our narrator is put under pressure as his previously-isolated existence is turned on its head and he is forced to choose between a solitary life and joining the mass exodus of his neighbours...
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
For his third novel, former London bus driver Mills (The Restraint of Beasts) delivers a remarkable fable packed with amusing biblical allusions and eccentric characters. It begins in a house of tin "in the middle of a vast and deserted plain," where the unnamed narrator lives alone. Three of his friends Simon Painter, Philip Sibling and Steve Treacle also live on the plain, also in houses of tin. The narrator's primary activities consist of sweeping away the sand that accumulates at his doorstep and listening to the incessant wind, until the severely critical Mary Petrie arrives unannounced one day with a trunk of her belongings in tow and starts pushing his buttons. From Simon, the narrator learns of a new, mysterious "neighbor," Michael Hawkins, in whom Simon and the others become increasingly interested. They even dismantle Simon's house and move it closer to Michael's, to the narrator's annoyance. He then learns that the strangers he has been seeing in the area are helping Michael to dig a giant canyon that will hold an entire city of tin houses. This hits a nerve, as the narrator's unrealized dream of living in a canyon has always been "quite a sensitive matter" for him. Urged on by Mary, he goes to investigate and discovers that a cultlike atmosphere has formed around Michael and his colossal project. But when Michael tells his followers that plans have changed and they won't actually be living in houses of tin, all hell breaks loose and it is up to the narrator to save the day. Mills, who has been a finalist for England's Booker Prize, flaunts his influences (Beckett, Sartre) to delightful effect in this weird, poignant story.
