When a bag stuffed full of money drops out of
the sky Damian and Anthony find themselves rich. Very rich indeed. Suddenly
the brothers can buy anything they want – except the one thing they really need…
Written by Frank Cottrell Boyce, a former
screenwriter, Millions is his first novel. Through the view of Damian,
it tells the story of how he and his brother, Anthony, stumble across a bag full
of money after a train robbery went wrong. Suddenly, millions of options are
open to the boys: what do they do with it? Shall they give it away? Where will
they hide it? What if someone finds out? Millions deals with humans’
instinctive need for money and also explores how it affects us, whether for good
or bad. Damian, the younger of the two brothers, insists throughout the book to
give the money to a charity or the poor. This is influenced by his obsession
with
saints and their backgrounds. Throughout the story Damian encounters
apparitions of different saints in different situations giving him advice and
other pieces of information.
I can see how the “saints obsession” affects the
plot, making Damian conscientious and wanting to give the money to the poor, but
I still think it’s a bit odd. As the plot develops, Damian and Anthony find it
increasingly difficult to keep the money a secret and it soon becomes a heavy
burden that they have to bear. Having said that, it seems this book shares a
similar topic with The Lord of the Rings, in that it features an object,
the One Ring and the money, that has to be carried and hidden from someone by
two people, Frodo and Sam, Damian and Anthony, and it has the ability to change
people’s personalities and make them behave in strange ways.
I have to say, even though Damian has a strange
and perhaps unhealthy obsession with saints, I did enjoy this book, and a
lot of people must share my view as it has now been made into a film. For a
first novel, Frank Boyce has done extremely well.
