Customer Reviews

The Scheme for Full Employment: A Novel

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Mills has created a masterpiece in The Scheme For Full Employment. 'The Scheme' unfolds quickly in this short story and an amusing twist lies beneath the day to day drudgery of the characters' work. When you start to find out more you find yourself wondering how many similar 'Schemes' might exist in our society today...

I read it in an afternoon and became totally engrossed from the first page on. The author's attention to detail is fantastic although find yourself reaching the end and realizing that you know more or less nothing about the characters other than their names and their role in The Scheme... all part of the genius

This is a fantastic, bite-size read and the sort of book that you can pluck out and talk to people about to guarantee a laugh. It even looks good on the shelf!

Well worth buying along with anything else by Mills

So many reviews here are complaining that Mills wasn't up to snuff in relation to his other books. Well, this is the first book of his I've read, and man!, now I want to read the rest.

This is an excellent light comedic satire on work, welfare, social schemes, and the tendency of humans to "give an inch, take a mile." Sure, it's light and frothy but there's also a lot going on behind the scenes here, that is worthy of a bit more reader introspection. Highly recommended.

If this is Mills' slightest work, then his other novels must be truly over the top.

All throughout the country, men are driving UniVans (filled with, you guessed it, UniVan parts) to and from warehouses and getting paid for their time in what is known as The Scheme for Full Employment (or just "the Scheme"). A cute self perpetuating welfare system, the Scheme has been working fine for three decades (except for UniVans constantly clogging city traffic). But now, told through the perspective of a five-year Schemer (who I don't believe is ever named), the Scheme is falling apart. One Schemer, George, is trafficking decorated cakes (can anyone say "drugs"?). Some workers are pushing for early swerves (getting off early). In response, other workers start campaigning as "flat-dayers" (8 hours work for 8 hours pay). The two groups clash antagonisticly but nonviolently, only to be crushed (and the Scheme too) once and for all by, yes again you guessed it -- a woman.

I had some trouble deciding whether to give THE SCHEME FOR FULL EMPLOYMENT two stars or three, but finally decided on three because the book was delightfully easy to read and without unneccesary verbiage. This little novel has a singular purpose and is also devoid of subplots, home scenes, and anything else beyond the scope of the Scheme. Our narrator's belief in the Scheme allows for a deadpan sort of humor that isn't terribly funny, but does coax a few smiles. The narrator never joins either the early-swervers or the flat-dayers, but gets sucked up by the self corruption just the same. And the portrayal of the supervisors and their behavior is good enough to earn the third star all by itself.

While not great literature or even a good mystery, THE SCHEME FOR FULL EMPLOYMENT is a lightly entertaining, tongue-in-cheek poke at the welfare system.

Mills's first two novels (The Restraint of Beasts, All Quiet on the Orient Express) are two of my favorite books of all time, so it is with a great deal of disappointment that I must report his latest to be rather thin gruel. The story here concerns itself with the titular scheme, in which men drive Univans from depot to depot on an intricately synchronized schedule. Of course since the whole enterprise is a welfare program, all they are delivering is spare parts for the Univans (which never need them). The scheme gets thrown into a tizzy when the "swervers" (slackers who like to leave work early) come into conflict with the "flat-dayers" (who believe in working the full eight hours). The scheme, the unrest, and the outcome are all related by a five-year veteran who remains neutral in the whole affair. I kept waiting for there to be more to the whole thing, for something to be reveled, but it all unspools in a steady predictable manner. The whole book follows the scheme, there's no home life scenes or non-work scenes. There's a little bit of Mills's deadpan humor and sly satire, but not nearly enough-and since he foreshadows the downfall of the system right off the bat, it's easy to spot the spanner in the works well before the end. As an allegory of welfare systems it's not that compelling and as a novel it's not that great.

Flagrant and subtle absurdities alike are bountiful in The Scheme, which itself is cleverly crafted as to make it seem simple, almost natural. An everyday observer would delight in the minute intricacies, which is included by Mills as it's an accurate portrayal of the world we live in- full of contradictive and illogical systems to live by. Hence, The Scheme could be seen as a `system' satire or a `lifestyle' lampoon.

I've always held to word `scheme' in negative connotation as a derogatory synonym for `plan.' Clearly, the Scheme which Mills has set up cannot be perpetual, much like Russia behind the Iron Curtain. Here's the breakdown: UniVans deliver UniVan parts to UniVan depots around the city which are staffed by UniVan employees who work steady 8-hour days. The hitch is in the fact that some workers struggle to fill these 8-hour days and consider it perfectly alright to skip out an hour early if they have the spare time. At the same time, there are other employees who abide by the 8-hour working day for 8-hours of pay. This schism is the gist of the peak of plot tension when the protagonist rides the razor's edge between these two camps.

Magnus Mills' style isn't for everyone, the same way dark chocolate isn't for everyone.

I think he's one of the best current British novelists. His dead-pan/ anti-hero style is fabulous.
"The Scheme for Full Employment" is a great program that guarantees full employment. Eight hours work for eight hours' pay. Those who are part of the program can expect grand times for a job well done.

Once more, Magnus Mills demonstrates his insight into the psyche of the ordinary working man.

The novel takes social engineering to an ultimate level of success in providing full employment, routine and boring though it may be. Men are employed to drive univans from warehouse to warehouse, transporting replacement parts for--univans. At the warehouses, others are employed in loading and unloading the vans, maintaining them as well as in supervising the lot of workers.

The novel is narrated by an unnamed driver who suffers occasional frustration with a partner who disrupts schedules to deliver cakes for extra income. Along the way, the whole scheme begins to unravel as some workers (known as early-swervers) seek to work less than a full day and come into conflict with those designated flat-dayers. The sudden appearance of a woman supervisor appears to be another wrench in the system, but her presence is never fully developed.

Trouble escalates as a strike brings everything to a shuddering halt and a rumor circulates that a group of "enthusiasts" have approached management and offered to drive the vans on an unpaid, voluntary basis.

Unfortunately, this book lacks the verve of "The Restraint of Beasts" and--despite its short length--I had to force myself to finish it. The black humor which made "The Restraint of Beasts" a joy to read is lacking in this novel. And, rather than coming to a conclusion, it just fizzles out.

I just love Magnus Mills. I read his first (and best) book The Restraint of Beasts a few weeks ago and have hungrilly read the others since. This one The Scheme.. is a clever mickey-take on our public sectors (civil service and councils) which of course are paid for by taxes from the productive private sector. Politicians in our real world are always trying to cut back/down-size the public sector as many facets of it are just money pits. I work in the private sector and for a while our attitudes mirrored those in The Scheme and we nearly went under. We changed, lost people, became efficient and survived and competed in the private market. What Mills shows us here is how, with the lack of private competition, these people just can't change. They'll strike if the beurocrats downsize, strike if they're asked to work a full day etc. This is why Thatcher in the eighties was privatizing left, right and centre-work and produce or go under. Give us value for money for our taxes. Oh yes, the politicians know about the attitudes behind The Scheme. This is a very clever book. My only gripe was it just wasn't as entertaining as his first two books. It's all very well being clever but I really would like more fun, hence just the three stars this time. I didn't like the comment by the narrator about the two different sides- The Full- Dayers (those that want to work a full day) and The Early Swervers (those that want to slope off early) saying they were bickering and hence blaming both of them instead of just The Early Swervers- It's a bit like blaming two boys for fighting when one had been picking on the other. But I did like how after the strike, certain people obviously realised The Scheme wasn't needed. I know we've had redundancies at my work when certain people have been off sick a long time and have not been missed at all, you just think 'what are they for? Why do we need them? Yes, a very clever book but light on the entertainment side.

I do like the blurb on the inside jacket: "the contemporary master of the working-class dystopian fable". My ideal author. But, fourth time at bat, without the tension often provided in his previous fictional settings by their comparative isolation, this urban vision of Mills fails to excite. It reads well, but carries no edge. His other novels thrived on conjuring menace behind simple, repetitive tasks and apparently simple, workaday mates.

Here you get the mates and the repetition, but not the menace. That leaves you with an allegory about capitalism but not the edge of his other fiction, which mixes tranquility with threat.
Also, the lack of a strong female character undercuts the energy often pent up and prowling in Mills' other matey protagonists. Without much of an outlet for the narrator's ambition outside the job, the story lacks mystery. Even his out-of-town jaunts, while they too find (as in other novels) a rather enigmatic assemblage, here seem more suburban than his rural bucolic/haunted landscapes entered by constructors and repairers.

Stick with his other books, and hope that this is only a delayed "sophomore slump." After the perfect endings of his other three novels, we can cut him a little slack--like his all too human characters ludicrously but touchingly reflecting ourselves.

I was hesitant to pick this up after reading other people's reviews, but I went ahead anyway. It's actually not that bad of a book unless you're expecting something revolutionary or mind boggling. It was a fun, quick read that presented some interesting ideas. My only minor gripe would be that it ended rather abruptly and without much ado, compared to the rest of the book. I'd recommend it though.