The Forensic Records Society

This title was previously available on NetGalley and is now archived.
Buy on Amazon Buy on BN.com Buy on Bookshop.org
*This page contains affiliate links, so we may earn a small commission when you make a purchase through links on our site at no additional cost to you.
Send NetGalley books directly to your Kindle or Kindle app

1
To read on a Kindle or Kindle app, please add kindle@netgalley.com as an approved email address to receive files in your Amazon account. Click here for step-by-step instructions.
2
Also find your Kindle email address within your Amazon account, and enter it here.
Pub Date 05 Apr 2018 | Archive Date 25 Apr 2018

Talking about this book? Use #ForensicRecordsSociety #NetGalley. More hashtag tips!


Description

'The Forensic Records Society is like Animal Farm but with blokes for pigs, and much better songs' Guardian

Two men with a passion for vinyl create a society for the appreciation of records. Their aim is simple: to elevate the art of listening by doing so in forensic detail. The society enjoys moderate success in the back room of their local pub, The Half Moon, with other enthusiasts drawn to the initial promise of the weekly gathering.

However, as the club gains popularity, its founder’s uncompromising dogma results in a schism within the movement and soon a counter group forms. Then the arrival of a young woman called Alice further fractures the unity of the vulnerable society. As rifts are forged and gulfs widen, Magnus Mills examines the surreal nature of ordinary lives. The master of the comic deadpan returns for his ninth novel, a spectacularly disingenuous exploration of power, fanaticism and really, really good records.

'The Forensic Records Society is like Animal Farm but with blokes for pigs, and much better songs' Guardian

Two men with a passion for vinyl create a society for the appreciation of records. Their aim...


Advance Praise

'Magnus Mills is Britain’s most original writer, so forget everything you’ve been told about fiction – he has never even heard of the rules that apply to everyone else' The Times

'For nearly twenty years Mills has been entertaining and occasionally perplexing readers with his enigmatic tales of thwarted expeditions, projects and schemes … Tremendously funny. Mills is one of Britain’s best comic writers, and this is an excellent introduction to his scrupulously amusing world ... You will love this book. Buy one on Saturday to go with that Toto single' Spectator

'Magnus Mills is unique. There is simply no equivalent of his brand of domestic absurdism … The most British of anarchists' Independent


'Magnus Mills is Britain’s most original writer, so forget everything you’ve been told about fiction – he has never even heard of the rules that apply to everyone else' The Times

'For nearly twenty...


Available Editions

EDITION Paperback
ISBN 9781408878408
PRICE £8.99 (GBP)

Average rating from 7 members


Featured Reviews

I’ve long been an admirer of Magnus Mills’ deadpan humour and this latest example doesn’t disappoint. Bells will ring in the heads of anyone who has ever been a member of a special interest (hobby) society, especially the type of club with almost exclusively male membership and a blokey pub atmosphere like this Forensic Records Society. What starts as a group of like-minded enthusiasts, aspiring to a kind of purity in their listening to vinyl records, descends into squabbles over what is or isn’t the right way to do things, into jealousies and exclusions, and conspiracy theories. The introduction of the evangelical Phillip and his success in attracting female devotees is a stroke of genius, leading to an unexpected and slightly creepy conclusion. Some witty and entertaining juxtaposition of record titles throughout kept me entertained. Highly recommended for fans of quirky noir fiction.

Was this review helpful?

I absolutely loved this book. Having read others by Magnus Mills, I was very excited to get going on this one. I wasn't disappointed. The authors usual deadpan humour, ability to tell a fast paced story with believable characters enabled me to read it in two sittings. Brilliant.

Was this review helpful?

Such is the beautiful allegorical simplicity of Magnus Mills' writing that there is something comforting and vaguely unsettling about his books at the same time. They are comforting in that Mills has a way of creating worlds - or observing how we create worlds - that operate to a clear set of rules, traditions and behaviours where we think we feel safe and unthreatened. There's a sense of belonging to something meaningful, where we can control the conditions and remain immune from the uncertainties of change. What is unsettling about those situations, whether it be in the workplace, the simple life in the countryside, the satisfaction of traditional craft done well, is that no-one is immune to change. Rather than enjoying simple pleasures, the characters in Mills' novels seem to spend more time trying to combating the incursion of foreign ways of thinking and behaving through complex rules and regulations that end up boxing themselves into a living nightmare.

There is clearly an allegorical side to Mills' writing then, but it never feels forced. It just seems to rise naturally out of a recognition of human behaviour and in particular the nature of the British male. In The Forensic Records Society, for example, it all starts with a simple and harmless male obsession for listening to music. OK, it's not that simple, because even in that description there is detail that can't just be skimmed over in such general and vague terms. James and the narrator (who I would call 'Magnus' only for the fact that his characters usually have more everyman names like Chris, Mike, Dave, Barry and Keith) enjoy listening to records; specifically 7" vinyl singles which they listen to forensically, making no judgements, comments or observations, but taking pride in being discerning lovers of music. They decide one day however to extend their little 'club' and form a 'Forensic Records Society', meeting up every Monday night at 9:00pm in the backroom of their local pub, the Half Moon, where they can share their obsession with other serious like-minded individuals. People like Chris, Mike, Dave, Barry and Keith.

Inevitably, it all gets a bit out of hand. Now, you would think that it surely couldn't get that complicated, but unless the rules are clearly laid out (written in pencil on paper evidently), who knows what liberties might be taken. Before you know it, someone will quote a memorable line out of a song - not necessarily a judgement, comment or observation - someone else will bring in an LP record instead of a single, some of the musical tastes might raise a few eyebrows ...and that's just the thin edge of the wedge. Next thing you know records are getting put into the wrong sleeves, girls start complicating matters with their different (wrong) take on music, and suddenly, you have breakaway groups and rival societies. Who knows where it will all end...?

So, as you might guess - or know already if you've read any of Magnus Mills' wonderful books - that's about as exciting as things get. What is wonderful about The Forensic Records Society - and Mills' other books - is the deadpan manner in which he describes these minor upsets of momentous importance. But in a way, there is something significant in such matters. There is a mixture of regret for the passing of tradition, while at the same time a recognition of how ridiculous such little obsessions can appear to outsiders and non-believers. While it might be good and seemingly harmless to listen 'forensically' listen to songs, in this obsessiveness you can detect a little bit of superiority, a conservatism in their unwillingness to change, a belief in the old ways being best, a wariness of newness and innovation. If something is good, why change it?

All this takes place wholly within the little world of the Forensic Records Society. There's scarcely any real depth of personality or character development and hardly any sense of events taking place in the wider world. Without having to make it explicit however you are of course invited to apply those behaviours to larger real-world situations. It isn't always possible to map an exact parallel as Mills has a delightful turn for the surreal, but there are certainly very recognisable characteristics on display here; a very English sense of reserve, slightly disapproving without wishing to be confrontational, being a stickler for rules and putting ones faith in long-standing traditions, with a mistrust and prickly wariness of outsiders coming in and spoiling things that tends to instill a sense of superiority and inflexibility that is unsuited to the reality of a changing world.

As amusing as these observations are, there is something inevitably a little bit Kafkaesque about the deadpan comic absurdity that really does touch on some deep-rooted behaviours and attitudes in a slightly sinister way. The Forensic Records Society might just listen to records and nothing more - what could be more simple and harmless than that? - but mixed in with it all are vague sentiments of guilt, melancholy and fear. If I can point to one little incident that captures a sense of what Mills is capable of, it's the little fact that no-one can account for where the time goes in the two hours between 9 and 11 on a Monday night. Reading Magnus Mills is a little bit like that. Not only do you not see the time passing - and truly, once you've started a Mills book the time flies past - and you don't EVER want to leave that comforting world where everything makes sense until suddenly and rather worryingly it doesn't. Any further comments, observations and judgements are superfluous. Read forensically.

Was this review helpful?

Readers who liked this book also liked: