Framed (review)

The small Welsh town of Manod may be a gray, wet place that has been growing steadily smaller as residents leave for economic opportunity elsewhere, but Dylan Hughes loves it. Life there gets even better when a convoy of trucks hits town from London: it turns out that they're carrying paintings from the National Gallery, storing them in the old underground slate quarry to keep them safe from the flooding occurring in London. Since the curator mistakes Dylan's loving employment of Italian artists' names for artistic fervor (it's actually his passion for the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles), Dylan gets special attention and viewing privileges. As word leaks out and painting viewings become more locally common, there's a ripple effect of artistic changes within the town (inspired by a still life, one young man creates dramatic shop-window displays; Dylan's mother, intrigued by a Renoir, turns the walk to school into a "psychedelic boa constrictor" with a plethora of colorful umbrellas). Dylan, his crime-mad little sister, Minnie, and his father's assistant (Nice Tom, formerly known as Daft Tom) are secretly working on a different kind of change: a theft of one of the paintings in the hope that the subsequent financial gain will bring the family garage business out of the red and thus allow Dylan's father to return home. Author of the fabulous Millions (BCCB 7/04), Boyce also has extensive experience as a screenwriter, and this novel's wry, quirky sweetness suggests movies such as the old Ealing comedies or more recent indie British films of rueful comedic character, from Local Hero to Billy Elliot. Like those, this operates as a literary photo-mosaic, with a multitude of small, individualistic images combining to make the overall picture; the cast of characters is matter-of-factly colorful, with their own dramas and challenges that sometimes bounce off of other people's stories and sometimes remain their own personal stories. The book minimizes pathos by making Dylan credibly unaware of the storms within his family (his father isn't just working outside of Manod, he's left the family, probably after committing insurance fraud), and there's sufficient acerbity in various viewpoints to ensure the sweetness doesn't become saccharine. This could connect with readers on any number of points, but certainly Anglophiles (well, Britophiles) and fans of eccentric comedy will want to spend some time at the Hugheses' Snowdonia Oasis.