When We Were Romans: A Novel | Matthew Kneale

When We Were Romans: A Novel | Matthew Kneale | Conversation with a precocious child

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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 20 reviews view larger image
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Nine-year-old Lawrence is the man in his family. He carefully watches over his willful little sister, Jemima, and his mother, Hannah. When Hannah becomes convinced that their estranged father is stalking them, the family flees London and heads for Rome, where Hannah lived happily as a young woman. For Lawrence, fascinated by stories of popes and emperors, Rome is an adventure. Though they are short of money, and move from home to home, staying with his mother?s old friends, little by little their new life seems to be taking shape. But the trouble that brought them to Italy will not quite leave them in peace.

Narrated in Lawrence?s perfectly rendered voice, When We Were Romans powerfully evokes the emotions and confusions of childhood?the triumphs, the jealousies, the fears, and the love. Even as everything he understands is turned upside down, Lawrence remains determined to keep his family together, viewing the world from a perspective that is at once endearingly innocent and preternaturally wise.

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A thought provoking read

WHEN WE WERE ROMANS by Matthew Kneale
Nan A. Talese, Publisher
ISBN: 978-0-385-52625-8

I had not been reading a whole lot lately and decided that I would ease my way back into my 20 plus ARC pile. I chose this book out of the pile mainly because it was only 224 pages long and I figured I could blow through it fairly fast. What follows are my thoughts on this book. Please read the entire review before deciding on this book.

I was hoping for something reasonably light. What I found was a well written book with lots of characters that I did not like. All of them had issues and not a tremendous amount of redeeming qualities. The early reviews likened this book to "To Kill A Mockingbird" and I spent most of the book wondering why. I truly fought my way through the book. The entire book was about the frustrations that the 9 year old protagonist was feeling. It starts out with his mother, his sister, and himself fleeing their cottage in England because of an abusive father that was stalking the family. They run away to Rome to stay with the mother "Hannah's" friends from years before. The troubles just seemed to get from bad to worse. Slowly throughout the book certain truths started to become more and more apparent to the reader. Even though the story was sad and frustrating I found myself wanting to read more and more. I wanted to have something good start to happen. I wanted the truth to finally come out. Finally when I was done I could feel satisfied. The ending was the best that could have come out of a very bad situation. During the book I got the sense of being a voyeur watching a train wreck taking place. It was painful yet I just could not look away.
After I was done reading the book I started to really think about the character of the boy Lawrence that Matthew Kneale created. I don't think I have ever seen a better job of creating the voice of a nine year old child hopelessly trying to hold his family together. Torn between his needs as a child and his desire to care for his mother was so perfect that I was unaware of anything but his view of his world. Then in the end the difficulty of overcoming the situation that he was placed in was perfectly portrayed.
If this book is not put on the classic shelf I expect that a hole will exist there than can never quite be filled. If you are looking for a light beach read this is not the book for you. If you want a book that makes you feel and explore the relationships of life this is for you. Highly Recommended

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Conversation with a precocious child

I enjoyed this, in the way that I would enjoy talking to a precocious child. You have to keep in mind that the narrator is a nine-year old boy and sees the world from that vantage point. The book is written in as stream of consciousness (there were times I found myself gasping for breath just trying to keep up) and a lot of the spelling is phonetic (a little disconcerting, but easy to figure out if you pronounce the words). But, it works. The author succeeds in making the reader really get into Lawrence's life and the adjustments he has to make when his mother moves his little family to Rome.

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Authentic glimpse of a child's mind

The spelling errors were distracting, although they might have been less so for a British reader. Yes, Lawrence is nine, and he can't be expected to be perfect, but this was extreme and seemed unnecessary. I never did figure out what "Chintsier's" real name was. Other than that, I thought it was an authentic glimpse of the mind of a child in a pretty unmanageable situation. I noticed that one reviewer thought his digressions into astronomy and the lives of emperors and popes were unrelated to the story. I don't agree. His interest in astronomy had to do with the potential of being drawn inevitably to destruction by the attraction of a black hole, and his historical references were insane popes and emperors. Notice any connection with his real life?

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Moving tale of how mental illness affects one family

When We Were Romans is a relatively short but very moving novel. Lawrence is a 9 year old boy, and the narrator of the tale. When the story begins, Lawrence is living with his mother and younger sister in a cabin following his parents' divorce. He is uprooted abruptly when his mother decides to move the family to Rome, where she once lived. The children each are allowed one box full of toys, Lawrence brings along his pet mouse Herman and they set off in the family car for Rome.

Once in Rome, they rely on the kindness of the mother's friends for lodging. Eventually they move into a rented apartment, and Lawrence's mother finds a job. However, she gets restless again and the reason for the initial move to Rome is revealed.

This book is very sad because of the young narrator's naiveté - it becomes clear to the reader that Lawrence's mother is struggling with mental illness, but of course Lawrence is too young to realize this. Instead he is drawn into his mother's paranoia, and bravely tries to please her and defend his family from his mother's many perceived enemies.

There are a couple of things in this book that did not work for me. Because of the first person narrative, there are misspellings throughout the text. This seemed like a gimmick to me, because simple words were often misspelled whereas complex ones were not, and the misspellings did not appear consistently throughout the book. Also, there are a number of lengthy stories about Roman emperors, etc. that I found distracting - the side discussions of astronomy did much more to add to the story. However, these gripes are very minor.

Overall this is a well-written and very unique book. Fans of The Curious Incident of a Dog in the Nighttime will find much to appreciate here.

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4

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