All Quiet on the Orient Express

Product Information

Mills manages to conjure that atmosphere in which although very little of significance happens there is real tension throughout.

urn:lcp:allquietonorient00mill_1:epub:cc9eea79-1e7e-4922-9427-f7bced932a2e Extramarc OhioLINK Library Catalog Foldoutcount 0 Identifier allquietonorient00mill_1 Identifier-ark ark:/13960/t9c57kr99 Invoice 1213 Isbn 9781559704953 The language in this book is simple, as is the narrative style. There are no long words, imaginative metaphors or made up verbs here. Everything is pitched towards the average reader. Having said that, the style is original in that there are no clichés employed. This is a slightly different world from that which we normally occupy and although it is described in normal words, they combine to produce something quite unique and extraordinary. Magnus Mills has a style all of his own. There's no poetry here. The dialogue does not employ colloquial words to make us think of people in a particular region. The style is rather neutral; deadpan even. Very subtle and understated. Yes.

Need Help?

He gave me a funny look when I said this, but I wasn't bothered really because I thought his questioning was a bit too familiar. After all, I was only a temporary visitor passing though the area, who The entire book, in fact, is story. There is very little reflection. Mills somehow constructs a complex sequence of events that only his narrative voice can form into a plot. One way in which he achieves this is through the subtle weirdness of his narrator's world view.(...) You cannot ask more of a book than for it to make the familiar seem fresh, strange and scary. In a modest, sneaky way, Mills pulls this off better than any other writer at work today." - William Sutcliffe, Independent on Sunday He seemed content with this answer, and moved aside. Then he followed me into the shop and slipped behind the counter.

The arrival of Magnus Mills on the British literary scene is extraordinarily refreshing. He represents a genuinely avant garde voice who has breathed new life into the genre (if it can be called a genre) by flouting all expectations of what a novel can be about... Mills is genuinely unique, but if he is to be placed anywhere in the jigsaw of literary history, he will have to slot between Albert Camus and Enid Blyton. [He is] oneof the handful of British writers to work in a unique fictional universe. For this, Mills is to be treasured and revered. You cannot ask more of a book than for it to make the familiar seem fresh, strange and scary. In a modest, sneaky way, Mills pulls this off better than any other writer at work today. -- The Independent on Sunday, 19 September 1999 The projected journey to the East, which never takes place, because of the narrator's susceptibility to manipulation, stands for all the goals and aspirations which are delayed and lost in the compromises of the workaday world. (...) Mills's novel never approaches the contortions and excesses of Kafka's, nor, unfortunately, is it as funny as The Restraint of Beasts. It is wryly amusing and offbeat, reminiscent of a fable or a children's story in its simplicity." - Sam Gilpin, Times Literary Supplement occupied hardly any room at all. Nevertheless, it had taken me some time just to find a reasonable space for myself, where I wouldn't be encroached upon. The previous evening a mass exodus had taken place following At this time I happened to be working with the gate half open and half closed, so that I could get at both sides easily. The man now came round the end of the gate and stood beside me, observing. `Well,' he said at length. `You seem to be very handyAll Quiet on the Orient Express begins with its nameless narrator camping in the Lake District as the summer season comes to an end. I looked up and saw him standing on a terrace at the side of the house, at the top of some concrete steps. The work soon reaches beyond the campground, and the erstwhile vacationer becomes a fixture in the community. He assumes the milk run of a man named Deakin, who disappears under unfortunate circumstances; he is enmeshed in pub politics as an on-again, Mills's style has been called "deceptively" simple. [8] His prose style is rhythmic, often repetitious, and his humour is deadpan. He favours short sentences, little description and a lot of dialogue. Mills has cited Primo Levi as a key influence. [9] Themes [ edit ]

World News Network: Book Review: Three Novels by Magnus Mills, Published: 20 September 2009, Uploaded: 19 June 2011.

Refine Search Results

being outside in the sunshine was quite pleasant, I began to find all the fiddly corners and underneath bits rather tedious. I was just working along one of the diagonals when I heard a clinking noise coming along behind Oh, right,' said Mr Parker. `Well, when you're ready come up to the house and I'll sort you out some paint and suchlike.' Still, the narrator finds a place there: Parker always has something for him to do, his daughter Gail has homework she needs help with, and eventually he's even accepted on one pub's dart team.

Of course, it doesn't happen. His protestations grow weaker and weaker with each of Mr. Parker's polite requests, until finally he doesn't even bother to resist. After a short time, a pattern is established: ''I suddenly realizedMills is expert at capturing the rhythms of the everyday, noncommunicative speech we engage in. Though stronger in many regards than The Restraint of Beasts, All Quiet on the Orient Express nevertheless suffers a little from its similarity to that first novel." - Brian Evenson, Review of Contemporary Fiction