When We Were Romans: A Novel | Matthew Kneale

When We Were Romans: A Novel | Matthew Kneale | Sympathetic Characters, Terrific Perspective

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When We Were Roman...

	When We Were Romans: A Novel Matthew Kneale Nan A. Talese, 2008 - 240 pages average customer review:based on 22 reviews view larger image
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Great voice, well-written

A fascinating look at a dysfunctional family. Alternately funny and heartbreaking as Lawrence attempts to help make things right again for his family, this story puts a unique spin on the effects of parental mental illness on children and manages to be an entertaining read in the process.

Sympathetic Characters, Terrific Perspective

In When We Were Romans, precocious young Lawrence tells of the time he and his mother and little sister fled from the UK and his stalker-father, and lived for a time with friends in Rome.

Lawrence's stream-of-conscious(ish) narration is marked by a child's struggle with spelling, an interest in cosmology and Roman rulers, and a quirk of attributing animal labels to the people he meets. It's an original voice, not so much unreliable as naïve, and although it grows overdone and tedious, it's a terrific immersion into a child's perspective, specifically a child in the midst of family dysfunction.

NOTE: There's a suspense aspect to the novel, with a twist that's well-earned, and the best part of the book was having it dawn on me and then be confirmed through a gradual accumulation of clues. Thus I strongly recommend against reading reviews (and potential spoilers) before reading the book. Instead, jump in and enjoy!

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Poignant and Powerful

For anyone who grew up in a home broken by divorce, Matthew Kneale's WHEN WE WERE ROMANS will strike a cord. Narrated by nine-year-old Lawrence, the book captures perfectly the confusion, mixed loyalties, and anxieties felt by children whose world has been upended by divorce. Kneale has constructed a powerful story here, one that not only reminds us what it was like to be young, but also how the actions of adults can have life-long consequences for our children.

After a difficult break-up, Lawrence's mother decides to leave their home in England and move to Rome, where she lived happily as a young woman. Along with his little sister Jemima and his beloved hamster Hermann, Lawrence reshapes his life, keeping himself entertained with stories of famous Popes and Emperors while trying to cope with the reality of a new people, a new country, and an unfamiliar language, only to find in the end that, once again, nothing in his life was what it seemed.

Kneale does an astounding job of capturing not only the speech, but the logic and thought processes of a child. Throughout the book Lawrence applies his limited little-boy experiences and knowledge of the world to each changing circumstance, sometimes with funny results, sometimes with tragic. In each case, however, we see behind the curtain of his thoughts and how they affect and inform his actions.

Matthew Kneale has written a book that makes you laugh and cry in equal measure, taking you into a world where the adults around you hold all the keys and have all the power. That Lawrence nevertheless survives his experiences is a testament to the resilience of all children. It's a lesson we all should learn.

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Interesting Read.

This book is an interesting read that delves into the topsy turvy world that young Lawrence, his sister Jemima and their mother live in. The story is told by Lawrence a nine year old boy who has been forced by circumstances to shoulder way too much responsibilities for such a young child. Shortly after meeting the family, they are on the run from a father who is portrayed as an ominous figure who means to do his family ill. The family ends up in Rome, living on the mercy of friends, charity of strangers and some good old fashion luck. Through it all Lawrence is our guide, fascinated by Roman leaders of days past, astronomy and trying to navigate the world around him.

Very early on I realized that Lawrence is not as reliable a narrator as he would have us believe. His naivety clouds his ability to realize the true enormity of his situation. But this is not his fault as he is only a child and has a child's propensity to believe adults that he has come to love and trust. I believe that most people will realize certain facts very early on and know what is really going on. But I will not go into those details cause I hate when people spoil a book for those who have not read it.

I thought it was an a good enough read. Some of the draw backs of this book is that it is told in a child's voice, complete with misspellings. For awhile that literary device worked but then it just got a tad annoying and overdone. The book also dragged in parts and as much as it was a short book at 224 pages, I think it should have been shorter as parts of it just felt unnecessary. One of the best things about this book was its ability to convey the powerlessness of childhood, the petty jealousies of youth, sibling rivalry and the many feelings and emotions that being a child evokes.

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3 stars

When his somewhat dim mother, Hannah, becomes convinced their father is stalking the family, Laurence finds himself moving with her and his little sister, Jemina to Rome, a place that once provided happiness for his mum and does so now for the entire family. Then, there father arrives and things radically change, but not in the way expected.

*** If grammar, spelling, and punctuation matter to you, this book may drive you insane. Told in a child's voice, all three leave much to be desired. Filtered through Laurence's young perceptions, the entire situation only makes sense at the end of the tale, and even then, not completely. However, the author is to be commended for perfectly capturing how his narrator might have perceived the events. It is also noteworthy that the text is replete with casually related history which is interesting enough to make up for some of the linguistic flaws. ***

Amanda Killgore

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reviews: 1, 2, 3, page 4, 5

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