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"Unexpected deadly demands made in the name of friendship inspire the plot of this quirky mystery novel. The phrase "black comedy" was invented for just this kind of book. Irreverently inveighs against romantic love, cancer and the Paris suburbs. Washington Post "An iconoclastic chronicle of small-time crooks and desperate capers, with added Gallic and Italian flair. Wonderful fun." Guardian "An entertainingly cynical story. I read it in one sitting." Observer "This prizewinning novel is guaranteed to keep you up late at night, driven to discover the ending. Its exciting, funny and bizarrely even includes tips on cooking Italian food.." Coventry Evening Telegraph "Boisterous black comedy...funny and good-hearted, with much incident and expert enthusiasm for sex, food and drink." Literary Review"
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Antoine's life is good. During the day, he hangs pictures for the most fashionable art galleries in Paris. Evenings, he dedicates to the silky moves and subtle tactics of billiards, his true passion. But when Antoine is attacked by an art thief in a gallery his world begins to fall apart. His maverick investigation triggers two murders - he finds himself the prime suspect for one of them - as he uncovers a cesspool of art fraud. A game of billiards decides the outcome of this violently funny tale, laced with brilliant riffs about the world of modern art and the parasites that infest it. "You know, you can see parallels in the histories of crime and painting. At first, men painted as they kill, with bare hands. Raw art, you could say...Instinct before technique. Then came instruments, the stick, the brush. One fine day, painting with knives began. Look at the work of Jack the Ripper...And then the gun was invented. Painting with a gun brought something final and radical. And today, in the age of terrorism, they paint with bombs, in cities, in the metros. Anonymous graffiti that explode on street corners..."
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4 reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
New French Noir
3 Aug 2006
Format:Paperback
Framed, the third novel in translation from French crime and film writer Tonino Benacquista, fulfills the promise of his first novel, Holy Smoke, much more than the second novel, Someone Else. But Framed is very different from Holy Smoke (and from the Highsmith-y Someone Else). If you want the further adventures of the comic hero of Holy Smoke, in English, you'll have to go to a film from a couple of years ago, Love Bites. In Framed, Antoine keeps his day job, as an art handler in a contemporary art gallery, and his night passion, for billiards, completely separate--his friends in one world know nothing of the other world. Unlike the choice that a classic noir writer would surely have made, most of the novel focuses on the day world (dark though it indeed is) rather than the billiard hall. The choice is telling: Benacquista lets us know that he knows where his tale would traditionally be told, and indeed comes back to that world for his denoument; but he shifts the focus into a new realm for noir, fully and realistically rendered (if quite cynically portrayed). Framed is a short and fast novel, a fun read, and highly recommended.
2 of 3 people found the following review helpful
A fascinating tale of mystery and intrigue
15 July 2006
Format:Paperback
Tonino Benacquista's new mystery novel Framed is the riveting story of Antoine, a daytime picture hanger for some of Paris' most fashionable and renounced art galleries, and his pursuit of an art-thief who had attacked him in one of the more fashionable art galleries in the City of Lights. Brilliantly carrying readers through a fascinating tale of mystery and intrigue with an engaging and often humorous narrative of Antoine's amateur investigation, Framed follows his life as two people are found dead in the course of his investigation with one of the deceased having been a prime suspect! Introducing the reader to a world of art fraud and avarice, Framed is very strongly recommended as thoroughly entertaining, darkly humorous, deliberately iconoclastic, and simply brilliantly from beginning to end.
2 of 3 people found the following review helpful
satirical French Noir
5 July 2006
Format:Paperback
In Paris, Antoine Andrieux's passion is playing billiards; he loves the strategy needed to be victorious in the game and plays every evening at the top parlors. To afford his nightly habit, Antoine hangs paintings especially for special showings at the most exclusive galleries in the city. His patrons consider him an artist of sorts; so does his billiards rivals.
Currently he is working on a retrospective of the abstractionist Etienne Morand, who always used black except for his last known work, Attempt 30, which is golden yellow. The day after the opening, Antoine arrives at the gallery to make subtle corrections to the display only to find someone in attendance vandalizing a painting. Antoine tries to stop the intruder, but his adversary topples a sculpture destroying his hand and ultimately his sense of worth as he can no longer hang painting and emotionally worse play billiards. Vowing to find his enemy and take appropriate revenge, Antoine begins an investigation only to find the refine art world is outside his understanding even as he becomes FRAMED as the prime suspect in a homicide.
On the surface this translation of a French Noir uses typical throwaway gimmicks like phone tips, but those actually serve as satirical devices that enhance this dark amusing crime caper by comparing felonies (including murder) to artistry. Antoine is a terrific protagonist whose obsession with billiards becomes a compassionate fixation to avenge all that he lost by being a loyal employee. Through his works the obscure Morand comes to life leading even deeper into the delightful comedic comparison between art and crime. HOLY SMOKE, Tonino Benacquista artistically paints a humorous winner.
Harriet Klausner
Currently he is working on a retrospective of the abstractionist Etienne Morand, who always used black except for his last known work, Attempt 30, which is golden yellow. The day after the opening, Antoine arrives at the gallery to make subtle corrections to the display only to find someone in attendance vandalizing a painting. Antoine tries to stop the intruder, but his adversary topples a sculpture destroying his hand and ultimately his sense of worth as he can no longer hang painting and emotionally worse play billiards. Vowing to find his enemy and take appropriate revenge, Antoine begins an investigation only to find the refine art world is outside his understanding even as he becomes FRAMED as the prime suspect in a homicide.
On the surface this translation of a French Noir uses typical throwaway gimmicks like phone tips, but those actually serve as satirical devices that enhance this dark amusing crime caper by comparing felonies (including murder) to artistry. Antoine is a terrific protagonist whose obsession with billiards becomes a compassionate fixation to avenge all that he lost by being a loyal employee. Through his works the obscure Morand comes to life leading even deeper into the delightful comedic comparison between art and crime. HOLY SMOKE, Tonino Benacquista artistically paints a humorous winner.
Harriet Klausner
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