‘50 Novels’ Three to See the King: Afterthoughts
November 12, 2008 by Rob
Filed under 50 Novels in One Year, Afterthoughts
I first came across the author Magnus Mills when a lot of people (Rob’s Reader of the Week Mark Chambers included), started evangalising about his novel – The Restraint of Beasts. Although I’ve still to add that title to my collection, I had the opportunity to pick up Three to See the King, so I could at least get a taste of Mills as a writer. I’m glad I did because Three to See the King is a nice little story and one that will stay wholly memorable with me for years to come.
Three to See the King is a fable told in first-person perspective. It’s about a man (the narrator) who lives alone in a little tin house, on a barren, sand-covered desolate landscape. He has neighbours who also live in tin houses but each lives some miles apart, and they rarely see one another. The man’s life begins to change when a partially known woman Mary Petrie comes to live with him. His strict routine changes and he begins to settle into a life of cohabiting and companionship. At this time he also begins customising his tin house a little more, and interacting to a greater effort with his neighbours. Soon his neighbours begin evangelising about another neighbour, one that lives further out to the east – the enigmatic Michael Hawkins, a man who seems both charismatic and ambitious. As time passes the neighbours show a desire to move closer to Michael, and try to urge the unnamed narrator, and his lady-friend to do the same.
I really liked this story. It’s simple in its prose but deep in its meaning. I read this as one of my titles for this year’s 24 Read-a-Thon and found it really readable. As it’s a fable it’s a little strange in parts and from the start you question the story because in many ways it defies logic – Why on earth is the man living on his own in such a desolate place? How did he get there? How does he sustain himself? The fact is none of these questions matter. What does matter are the moralistic lessons that the story teaches you; lessons that aren’t fully learned until the end, but it’s well worth sticking with the story, although you shouldn’t find that too difficult a job.
I Like how Mills writes. He writes simply; to the point, with no sense of pretentious narrative. His description of setting and character is well handled, and reading Three to See the King is akin to listening to a traditional story-teller narrating a traditional story. I’m sure Mills’ award-winning Restraint of Beasts will usually be perceived as the better novel but this novel, on its own merit, is an accomplished title and should not be missed.
Rating: 
Favourite Quote: “In the morning I overslept. When finally I awoke the first thing I heard was Simon clumping around on the roof. Mary Petrie had risen before me and stood tending the stove.
‘How come you’re up so early?” I asked.
‘I thought I’d make the pair of you some coffee.’
‘Thanks,’ I said. ‘What’s he doing up there?’
‘He’s seeing if there’s anywhere to put a flagpole.’
‘I don’t want a flagpole!’
‘He seems to think you do.’
‘Well, I don’t!’
I got up and went outside just as Simon came clambering down.
Favourite Scene: The narrator’s closest neighbour Simon Painter decides to move his house and the narrator, mad at his neighbours increasing infatuation with Michael Hawkins, decides not to help Simon move but rather to take over a basket of provisions every day for Simon and the two neighbours that are helping him move. It’s a scene I realy like; not least because it’s compassionate and neighbourly.
What this novel has taught me about writing: Don’t just write to entertain. Be moralistic, put in a few ‘life lessons’ and give the reader something more to take away with them.
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Rob, a self-confessed bibliophile, is without any hope of rehabilitation. He gets unnaturally excited over anything book-shaped, and if book sniffing were a crime then he would have been locked up years ago (which wouldn't bother him in the slightest provided his cell were lined with books)
