Three to See the King: A Novel [Hardcover]

Magnus Mills (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 7, 2001

A novel rich in comic menace from the author of The Restraint of Beasts

In a setting Samuel Beckett might have found homey lives a man in a house made of tin. He is content. The tin house is well constructed and located miles from the tin houses of his nearest neighbors. Though he seems to have escaped society, however, society finds him.

One day, a woman arrives and moves in. Soon a neighbor comes to visit, and then another. Soon, moving figures silhouette the horizon. People dismantling their tin houses and setting off to find a master builder with a revolutionary message. The gravitational pull cannot be resisted.

Nor can this novel. Part mystery, part parable, Three to See the King stalks the reader’s imagination and grows inexorably and irresistibly in the telling.

Editorial Reviews

From 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.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

With a landscape right out of Samuel Beckett, Mills' latest offering is another tour de force of the strange. As in his previous novels, the narrator is unnamed and readers are dropped into the story with little stage setting or background. Our hero lives in a house made of tin in a red dessert on a high plain. A woman arrives and moves in; distant neighbors interact then relocate; and there's a pilgrimage of sorts to meet Michael Hawkins, a mysterious figure in the distance. Questions of who, why, and where are never asked or answered, nor does the story need this information to proceed. Readers may feel frustrated as they wonder who these people are, why they're there, and where their food and water come from, but such concerns merely reflect our need to impose logic on the absurd. Less happens in this book than one might think possible without diminishing the impact of what may be a parable of our times or a glimpse into an alternate universe. Danise Hoover
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 176 pages
• Publisher: Picador; 1st edition (December 7, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312283555
• ISBN-13: 978-0312283551
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.9 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,255,846 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An odd but interesting short novel, February 15, 2002

By 

Debbie Lee Wesselmann (the Lehigh Valley, PA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (2008 HOLIDAY TEAM)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Three to See the King: A Novel (Hardcover)

I advise you not try to make too much sense of this short novel by Booker Prize-nominated Magnus Mills. Go along for the ride and take what you can from it. The unnamed narrator lives in a house made of tin on a wind-howling plain far from civilization. A woman he barely remembers (but who seems to know a lot about him) arrives at his doorstep and moves in. Her presence draws the attention of the narrator's three neighbors, each of whom lives miles away in their own solitary tin houses. These three - Steve Treacle, Philip Sibling, and Simon Painter - begin to form bonds among themselves, although the narrator cautiously remains outside their circle until they bring word of another man living "further out", Michael Hawkins, who is reported to have all the answers. Jealous, resentful, and curious, the narrator eventually succombs to the urge to visit Michael to see what all the fuss is about.

Other reviewers have likened this book to a re-telling of the Adam and Eve story, but I don't see it. If anything, Mills has fashioned his plot closer to the story of Jesus and His betrayal. Even then, you won't find a close fit. At times, you'll been convinced this is a fable, but then Mills will introduce something so mundane, such as the narrator angering Mary Petrie by tracking sand into the house, that you'll allow yourself to believe that it is a more realistic story. Filled with absurd details, supernatural accomplishments, a dissection of ordinary male/female relationships, and a messianic figure surrounded by common pettiness, this novel defies easy description. Precisely because of this, I enjoyed reading it - I never knew where it was headed. Its oddity has charm, and the clear, thoughtful prose drives this book forward from first sentence to last. On its own or as a parable, this book will hold your interest.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Welcome Gift, December 31, 2003

By 

Mark Braithwaite (England) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Three to See the King: A Novel (Paperback)

This is the first Magnus Mills book I've read, I freely confess to be ignorant of him and his past acclaim, until I read the jacket of "Three to See The King" on Christmas day as I opened it. So I started reading without any preconceptions or expectations.

We are dropped into a landscape that is alien enough from our own to be 'somewhere else' entirely. Our protaganist and main characters are built up in pages, with beguiling swiftness, rather than chapters. With such clarity!

Take what you will from the narrative and subsequent psycho-analysis, set that all aside for the time being. This story grips you and doesnt let go until you turn the final page.The relationships in the tale are insightful and well written, both between the narrator and Mary Petrie, and his neighbours on the plain. The Messiah symbolism seems quite obvious when we start to find out more about Michael Hawkins, but some quirks really make you reflect on your initial conclusions. Thats precisely why you should read Three to See The King.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Mills Strikes Again, February 21, 2002

By 

Chris MB "CMB" (Washington DC) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Three to See the King: A Novel (Hardcover)

Three To See The King is Mills' third novel and its also his strangest. While his first two novels have a definite setting and time period, Three To See The King does not. Instead the story revolves around a man living alone on a windswept plain in a house of tin. Alone until Mary Petrie arrives, that is. Through his introduction Mills explores male/female relationships and we see our unnamed narrator change his ways. As his friends begin picking up (literally, their tin houses and all) and moving away, the narrator begins to realize that he might be missing something. Indeed when he investigates the spot where his former neighbors have chosen to live, he finds them clustered together in a large community of tin houses. All following one man on his quest to accomplish the impossible.

This is a story that operates on a few different levels. Like his previous works, Mills plops a character in the middle of the setting without any explanation. But his first two novels were grounded in reality - realistic settings, action and characters (for the most part).

I agree with previous reviewers. When you pick this one up, suspend all perception of reality. Take it at face value and interpret from what you're given. It could be a fable, could be a religious metaphor, could be a comment on our dreams of a utopia that can never exist. Or it could just be a story about a guy who lives in a tin house in the middle of a windswept plain.