When We Were Romans: A Novel

by Matthew Kneale

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.

Genres: Fiction, Family, Italy, Novels, British Literature, Adult Fiction, Young Adult

240 pages, Paperback

First published December 3, 2007

About the author

Matthew Kneale was born in London in 1960, read Modern History at Oxford University and on graduating in 1982, spent a year teaching English in Japan, where he began writing short stories.

Kneale is the son of writers Nigel Kneale and Judith Kerr, and the grandson of essayist and theatre critic Alfred Kerr.

Reviews

[Vit Babenco · Rating 5 out of 5]

The narrator is a young boy… And he sees everything in his own peculiar way…

That was when mum came in. She said “here’s your treat lesonfon” which is what she calls us sometimes, it is “children” in French, she told us once. It was our supper, usually we can’t eat it when we watch telly but she said “just this once” and it was hot dogs and oven chips which was a treat too, because mum says we can’t have oven chips because their too expensive, their a real waste of money.

Almost at once it becomes obvious that something is wrong… Something is out of order in their life… The mother seems to be mentally unstable… And on an impulse she decides to take her children on a trip to Rome…

The sun was almost gone down and everything was really orange, so I thought “I like this Rome actually.” We went over a bridge over a river which mum said is called the Tiber, it is in a big trentch in the ground…

Their tour starts as a set of mishaps and misadventures… The boy is full of curiosity… He includes into his narration astronomical and historical facts… But when displeased he is capable of turning nasty…

Then mum started again in her serious voice. She said “Lawrence this is a very difficult time for us” she said “we don’t have anywhere to live, we need peoples help, cant you see that?” so I said “yes mum.” She said “I want you to promise you’ll behave really well to everybody from now on, will you do that?”

The boy doesn’t understand that his mother is suffering from a persecutory delusion and he believes everything she says… And he tries to help her to hide from her imagined persecutor…

Mum pointed at it again and this time I notised that there were some tiny red spots, I didn’t see them before, so I said “what are they mum, are they juice from the strawberries?” but mum shook her head, she looked sort of sad now, she was holding the cake and she was looking at the floor. She said “smell it, Lawrence love, its poisson.”

However hard one would try one can’t hide from one’s own mania anywhere.

[Martine · Rating 4 out of 5]

A few years ago, Mark Haddon had a global hit on his hands with The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, a book written from the perspective of an autistic teenage boy. While I enjoyed The Curious Incident, I found it somewhat overrated, mostly because I didn't buy the teenage protagonist. Now Matthew Kneale (who wrote one of my favourite books of the last few years, English Passengers) has a shot at writing a book from a child's point of view, and as far as I'm concerned, he does a better job of it than Haddon.

When We Were Romans tells the story of Lawrence, a nine-year-old English boy whose father may or may not have committed heinous crimes against his family. When the story opens, Lawrence's mother, convinced that her ex-husband is stalking her, packs her two children into her little car and drives all the way to Rome, where she was happy before she got married. In Rome, Lawrence, his Mum, his little sister Jemima and his hamster stay with a succession of his mother's friends, and gradually a story emerges that is rather different from what it seems at first. It's a well-observed and well-told tale that seems mildly underwhelming at first but steadily works its way to a dramatic climax. The ending feels a little rushed, but it's still a reasonably powerful story that gets under your skin and stays with you for a bit.

When We Were Romans once again showcases Kneale's tremendous talent for inhabiting different characters. In English Passengers, he told his story from about twenty vastly different perspectives and largely got away with it. In When We Were Romans he sticks to one point of view, but it's a tricky one -- a child's. Kneale does a great job describing the journey through Lawrence's mind. His Lawrence is a creative and precocious child who is just a little too young to understand the world around him but nevertheless feels tremendously responsible and tries to look after his increasingly confused mother as best he can. Lawrence has many endearing traits, such as comparing everyone he meets to an animal and lapsing into little asides on outer space and Roman emperors. He's not too good to be true, though. Like all children, he has whims and tantrums. He nags, whines, envies his little sister and often feels unfairly treated, all in ways which ring very true to me. At times, Kneale goes a tad too far in his attempts to make Lawrence a credible child narrator (his erratic spelling and syntax are a bit much for my taste; I'm convinced a child as intelligent as Lawrence wouldn't spell one word in three different ways within one paragraph), but still, he comes up with a convincing child's point of view. More so than Haddon, whose Christopher was, in my opinion, far too self-conscious for his own good.

When We Were Romans isn't as ambitious and impressive as English Passengers, but it's more proof that Kneale really knows how to get into his characters' heads. Those who like good characterisation, the child's perspective and original family drama will love it.

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book messed with my mind.

I wonder if a book as disturbing as this one is so effective because it's well written - it was a tough read even though it rang scarily true. It's due out in Fall 08' and I'm very interested to see if it'll be critical success. The haunting aspects of this story crushed me. Our precocious child narrator is adorable, keen, clever and just wants mom to be happy. He's taken on a cross continental adventure with with Herman the hamster, his adorable toddler sister to Rome. Madness ensues.

[Ruth · Rating 3 out of 5]

Usually I’m put off by books written from the POV of a child. The kid so often comes across as either imbecilic, way too cute, or precocious beyond his years. This time the writer almost pulls it off. Not flawlessly, but pretty darn well.

The kid in question is Lawrence, is nine years old when his mother suddenly packs up the car and takes off for Rome where she’d been living when she met her husband, the kids’ father. Now she and the kids are fleeing the husband, whom she assures the kids is hunting them down to no good end and turning everyone against them.

Gradually we learn what the real problem is, and witness its devastating affect on the children.

3.5 stars

[Jakub · Rating 2 out of 5]

This just did not work for me... When going for such a risky perspective, one must decide if it adds anything to the narrative. And it this case, although the narration itself is believable and amusing at times, but the story itself was either too predictable for me or just there was something missing. In other words: the child perspective would have been great for me if the story had more emotional weight.

[jo · Rating 3 out of 5]

i've read three books in a row now that are narrated by young kids (the curious incident of the dog in the night-time and the all true adventures of a part-time indian, besides this one). i think i'm ready to take a break. childhood is terribly difficult, and these specific kids have it particularly hard. young lawrence of When We Were Romans, alone among these three, has a deeply dysfunctional family life, and for this reason alone he's the one who broke my heart the most. in fact, unlike in the other two books, there isn't any room for laughter in this one, or at least there wasn't for me (i'm not very good at picking up humor unless it's clearly signaled).

at first i was a bit bothered by the formal resemblances between this book and Incident (boy talking in the first person with funny language -- here the funniness of the language is in the misspellings, but both books clearly indicate they were physically written but their narrators -- interspersed with little bits of erudition on the part of said boy), but i must grant kneale a greater cohesiveness, because lawrence's erudition (he's an avid consumer of astronomy and especially gruesome stories of roman emperors) play in counterpoint with his misadventures and add whole and complex levels of violence, rage, terror, and desperation to them. lawrence's stories tell the story lawrence cannot tell about himself.

i love the way lawrence's mother is treated by the book. her increasing mental disorganization is presented with respect and kindness, and it doesn't feel at any point condemned by the author. true, lawrence is having it extremely tough, but his mother clearly loves him and his sister and means the best for them. in fact, in spite of the psychological torture she unwittingly puts them through, she is gentle towards her children and uncommonly respectful of their desires (if not of their needs).

i don't know about mothers and kids. children are born to imperfect parents who had imperfect parents and were kids themselves. one doesn't become a better person just in virtue of having a kid, yet the burden of expectation that is put on mothers' shoulders is tremendous. fathers get away with a ton more. i would like to declare a moratorium on mothers. so kids will get screwed up by deficient parents. oldest story in the world. i extend a forgiving hand to beleaguered mothers.

[Agnieszka Kalus · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dość szybko domyśliłam się o co chodzi, lecz nie odebrało mi to przyjemności czytania. Na pewno lektura stała się bardziej emocjonująca.

[Heidi · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm torn on this book. I thought the story was wonderful and the characters were very real, but the writing style was a constant annoyance.

As the book opens, 9-year-old Lawrence is about to take flight with his mother and 3-year-old sister Jemima to escape the children's estranged father, who appears to be stalking them. They drive from England to Rome and then struggle to create a new life for themselves. The story is narrated by Lawrence, who I found to be a very believable little boy. He's clearly the man of the house, determined to help his mother even when he doesn't understand her decisions. But he's also no angel, picking fights with his sister and stubbornly arguing with people who are trying to help the little family. The story unfolds for us through Lawrence's eyes, and we start realising things as he gives us clues.

But the writing style drove me crazy. I couldn't figure out what I was meant to be reading. It seemed to be a stream of consciousness from Lawrence's perspective, but it was filled with spelling and grammar errors, the kind of cute little errors that an adult author would think a 9-year-old might make. Why would a kid misspell words in his stream of consciousness? So maybe Lawrence was writing this all down, keeping a journal of sorts. But no, he carefully catalogued all his possessions he brought with him on their trip and he didn't say anything about bringing a notepad and a writing device. And if he was going to copy word-for-word a note that someone had written to him, wouldn't he spell their names right? Because they presumably would have spelled their own names correctly in the note? And why would a kid refer to a woman as "Marther," then as "Martha," and then go back to calling her "Marther" again all in the same paragraph? Maybe these are memoirs he wrote after the event, sort of a 300-page What I Did On My Summer Vacation. Because that totally sounds like something a 9-year-old boy would do. It might sound like I'm nitpicking here, but every single word of the writing grated on me.

In the end, I loved Lawrence and his sister Jemima. I badly wanted to see them escape the dreadful situation they were in. And I would happily read another book by this author as long as he promised he wouldn't try to be gimmicky again.

[Scot · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nine year old Lawrence and his little sister Jemima go on a road trip from England to Rome with their mom who lived their years ago, as they flee what seems to be impending danger from a belligerent estranged father who was last seen in Scotland. The story is told by young Lawrence, who feels a strong sense of responsibility for his mother and sister, and also for his pet hamster Hermann, who joins them on the journey. Lawrence is fascinated by astronomy and by the political machinations of anicent Roman emperors and popes--his reflections on these topics are interspersed with the travel narrative and what adventures follow, and help establish tone and mood.

Lawrence needs to make sense of his mother's behavior, however it might fluctuate, and he quite realistically juggles his sibling rivalry with Jemima with his desire to protect her. These are the novel's strengths. I accepted the narrative voice, but I was irritated by the inconsistent spelling errors that started cropping up as the story continued. Okay already, I get that this is supposed to be a nine year old's voice, but the writing errors would vary erratically. Sometimes he seemed to get difficult words or phrases just fine and then err with a simple word he had been getting correct for several pages. It just didn't ring true, and I think the imposed spelling errors were more of a hindrance than an asset to the overall flow of the tale: they were ultimately unnecessary, a bit too precocious, and a hindrance. I did admire the way Lawrence explained things like black holes or the excesses of Nero. Kneale has chosen a resonant and compelling theme, a child working through inexplicable and unpredictable behaviors of an adored parent, and approached it with admirable sensitivity.

[Rachael Buckley · Rating 1 out of 5]

I just couldn't. I wanted to like this book, and I wanted to like Lawrence. But as other reviewers have noted, the author's use of random misspellings becomes annoying quickly, and it doesn't ring true with what is otherwise an intelligent, precocious boy who reads a lot.

For me, the mother's issues came through almost immediately, and the rest of the story dragged as she got worse and worse. The ending was very abrupt, and I would have liked a middle that didn't feel so bogged down and a better transition to the climax and denouement.

I will say that Lawrence did break my heart as he tried so hard to carry the weight of the whole family--trying to keep his mother on an even keel while dealing with his own fears. But ultimately it wasn't enough to save this book.

[Tuck · Rating 4 out of 5]

matthew kneale that son of a bitch has done it again. he's gotten under my skin with his style and sensibility. this particualry story was very readable and creepy. told from the perspective of 9 year Lawrence, his mom is scared and insane, but his mom is the best in Larry's eyes. You may either really like matthew kneale, or cannot stand him, but you will not spit him out from a luke warm feeling.

[Kristen · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wanted to love this, but I just liked it. It's told from the little boys pov but you saw the reveal a million miles away. I understand the comparison's to The Curious Incident, but it missed it by a longshot.

[coffeedog · Rating 5 out of 5]

When We Were Romans, by Matthew Kneale. New York. Nan A. Talese/Doubleday, 2008, 240 pp.

For me, When We Were Romans was a pleasant introduction to the writing of prize-winning bestselling author Matthew Kneale (English Passengers). Now the hardest part is to convey my enthusiasm without giving away the storyline.

The vastness, power and mystery of outer space, as explained through a nine year-old’s appreciative awe, open this adventure, invoking a feeling of slight dizziness and of not being able to know all the answers. “The Great Attractor is pulling us... probably a black hole...we will be stuck there forever. We are all being pulled towards [it] but hardly anybody knows.” This innocent reference to a child’s fascination with outer space forshadows the persistent force of his mother’s increasingly bizarre behavior and the dark spiral of the story.

From start to finish, the voice of young Lawrence carries us through events which abruptly propel him, his mother, his pet hamster, and his little sister away from their London home to a vagabond existence in the homes of generous friends in Rome, finally finding a comfortable temporary space of their own. This brief tranquility is not to last, however, as old feelings of insecurity begin to grow again, stonger than ever.

I was fascinated by the voice of Lawrence which is intentionally indicated by frequent phonetic attempts and misspellings not uncommon for his age and imagination. When I was that age I remember “living inside my head” a lot and if written out, it would have looked a lot like Lawrence’s musings. Since Lawrence is often wise beyond his years and warily observant of everyones’ behavior, the “misspelling voice” helped keep in mind that he is just a young child after all, and thus his character stays intact throughout the crescendo of paranoia and sheer mayhem created by his mother’s perception of reality.

Through Lawrence’s descriptions, his mother’s and sister’s characters develop. As he meets new people, he privately ascribes to them animal traits of his own peculiar choosing, which is his unique expression of endearment and a means of understanding their behavior. He has to care about someone before assigning them an animal personality. It seems to be a way for him to casually acknowledge psychological traits by couching them in “animal” terms.

When the family reaches Rome and Lawrence is given some humorous history books, his comical retelling of the lives of several famous Caesars makes a fitting background for the family’s haphazard adventures in Rome and the growing psychological confusion swirling around his mother’s behavior.

Uncertainty, fear, and panic build, and a child’s mind is pulled inexorably toward his mother’s delusions.

To say much more will ruin the plot. For all its underlying seriousness, When We Were Romans is a light and humorous story which builds from a flash of uncertainty to a keen panic and a very moving climax. It is an unexpectedly powerful human drama revealed through the mind of a curious, loving child.

Note: Advance Reading Copy, courtesy of Nan A. Talese/Doubleday New York.

My reviews are also posted here: my link text

[Nicole]

"The salient feature of the novel is that it is told in the first-person voice of a nine-year-old boy, Lawrence, complete with grammatical and spelling errors. The gimmick was more annoying than anything else. I have no problem with telling the story through the filter of childhood, and using a stream-of-consciousness type voice along with the misunderstandings and mistakes common to children, but Lawrence's spelling seemed to contribute little to that filter and was, instead, highly distracting. Within a single paragraph a woman's name was spelled ""Hilary,"" ""Hillary,"" and ""Hilery""--even a nine-year-old shouldn't be that indecisive, and it almost makes it seem as though Kneale can't remember exactly which misspelt variants Lawrence was supposed to be using (I doubt this was actually the case, but the conceit failed for this reader). (Sidebar: helpful hint to American readers--Kneale, and thus Lawrence, are non-rhotic speakers of English. This means whenever Lawrence spells something with ""er"" at the end, it means an ""uh"" sound, e.g., ""Persher"" is ""Persia."")[return][return]Hannah, Lawrence's mother, decides to run away with her children to Rome, where she lived as a young woman and met their father, the man she is now trying to escape. The family moves from flat to flat as they wear out their welcome with Hannah's old friends until finally they find a place of their own. Through Lawrence's eyes we can see that things are not quite what they seem, though he is largely oblivious to the fact, and his mother is paranoid rather than pursued. For a time he begins to have doubts about his mother's fears, but she manages to convince him once again that her ex-husband is trying to kill the three of them. Lawrence then suggests what could be a permanent solution to their problem.[return][return]By the time the family makes the drive back from Rome to Edinburgh, Lawrence has been completely won over by his mother's cause, which makes the family's inevitable departure from fantasyland much more difficult. In fact, it is this ending to the story that caused the most problems for me. The entire novel is narrated by Lawrence in such a way that it must have been ""written"" by him after the events are over--there is no indication that it's a diary or that he's not looking back from after the fact. But nowhere does he show that he's grown at all, or learned anything, or even reflected for more than thirty seconds on any of the events or anything he's done. At the very end he undergoes a bit of a ""transformation,"" only not, because he's pretty much unchanged.[return][return]I'm not sure if this is supposed to just be a reflection of the fact that he's still a small boy and not ready for the emotional toll of everything that's happened to him. But that makes him an unusually un-precocious child narrator. Maybe this is supposed to make the tale more poignant, but I just found myself wondering what the point of slogging through Lawrence's annoying thoughts and orthography was if even he wasn't going to learn from his own story.[return][return](more at http://lifeinbooks.wordpress.com/2008... )"

[Lizzie · Rating 4 out of 5]

It is so refreshing when you read something and it makes you go "Oh that's what it's like to actually like something instead of just tolerate it since you're already reading it!" This is a good book, hooray. Thanks to Meg for giving me a copy after I read a really good review of it in Salon. On New Year's Day my kitten peed on the dust jacket but the book was fine, and it turns out the inside cover is even prettier. Good job cover art.

I know there's a lot of these books, grownup books with child narrators, it's a thing. I haven't read a lot of them though, and I wonder if I'd like them as much as I liked this, because Lawrence sits perfectly on the gap between literary and childlike -- he's not preternaturally gifted or anything, he just happens to tell us exactly the right things. And being inside his head is exactly like it should be: he expresses his thoughts in quotations a lot as they come to him, so we can follow his acute ups and downs and the differences between what he thinks and what he says. And it's cute how he says "actually" all the time. The only thing I'm not into is the use of elementary errors in the spelling and capitalization and punctuation etc. I don't need to think Lawrence is writing the book -- and it's never otherwise indicated that he is, which is good because I hate that device; "I just had to tell you my story!" -- and the narration would have exactly the same impact if it looked correct on the page. (The childlike grammar is a different thing, that totally works because it is careful and artful and natural to read. He's telling the book.)

I really like the story, and the family dynamic between Lawrence and his baby sister, and Lawrence and his mother, and Lawrence and his hamster, and how he is their rudder. His mother's breakdowns are simple and well-drawn, and so is his love for her. The Roman setting is perfect, but also because you appreciate what this is going to be like for Lawrence to remember when he's older. Once the ending was near, I realized what was going to happen but in that good way where you're full of dread, not just "oh I see what you did there." Really liked it, really glad to read it.

[Lisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

The adventure of the road trip gives way to the unease and fear of being on the run in this beautiful, harrowing story of a British boy’s journey to Italy and back.
The story is old from the point of view of 9-year-old Lawrence — a tricky prospect but one that the author finesses seemingly without effort.
The boy, his 3-year-old sister Jemima and his hamster, Hermann, have been whisked to Rome by the children’s mother, who is convinced that their father is stalking them and trying to kill them. Their mother still has friends in Italy from when she taught there years before, and the family bounces from apartment to apartment and drama to drama.
As they run out of money and Lawrence’s mother slides in and out of depression and paranoia — at one point shutting off the water line into the apartment because she is convinced that her former husband has put poison into it — Lawrence is confused and torn between his desire to help his mother and his fears as he realizes something more is going on.
Kneale’s prose could easily have gone off the rails, sentimentalizing or patronizing the young boy at the heart of this story. But the voice he gives Lawrence is pitch-perfect: artless, guileless, hungry for knowledge and wanting to please. He has just enough knowledge to think he knows what’s going on, without having a clue until near the end. But as adults, we readers can see what’s happening, and we ache in advance for the boy who will find out only too soon.

[Monie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Narrated in the voice of nine-year-old Lawrence, the story begins when his mother, Hanna, becomes convinced that their estranged father is stalking them. Hanna packs up the car and the family sets off on a trip from their home in London to Rome.

Once in Rome, the city where Hanna lived as a young woman, the family bounces from friend to friend quickly overstaying their welcome in each place. Then just when it seems that they’ve found a place to call their own the unthinkable has happened and trouble begins again.

Initially it was hard to get past the misspelled words and grammatical errors from the story being told by Lawrence but I kept reading and the storyline dragged along until midway through. Just at the point when I was about to throw in the towel and move on the book picked up the pace and the story came alive. Then it came to a screeching halt again with the ending. Saying anymore would be letting out a spoiler so I’ll just say that the ending left me asking too many questions for this to be a satisfying read.

[Smokinjbc · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved the viewpoint of Lawrence in this book, an interesting and real child- from his assigning animal characters to the strangers he meets (the ones that "deserve" an animal, that is), to his fascination wtih the galaxy and Popes, to his struggle to retain what he knows is truth in a situation where what is real becomes increasingly fuzzy. I agree that the mis-spellings were not consistent, but it did not distract me from the story. The ending was a bit confusing (although even more so I'm sure for Lawrence)- I couldn't figure out where they were going for quite a while. Overall, a good read with several laugh out moments. I did almost despair for the damage done to him, but there is a hopeful ending at least.

[Iva · Rating 4 out of 5]

A nine year old narrator charmingly misspells words and has one of the most original voices since The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time by Mark Haddon. The road trip to Rome from London is a strange trip indeed as Lawrence's mother uproots him and his precocious three year old sister and pet hamster Hermann. She has friends from her earlier life there and sees moving to Rome as a way to get away from a husband she is convinced is a danger to her family. The novel has heartbreak and poignancy and Kneale has given us a fresh child's perception of adult behavior and motivations. A lovely, memorable book.

[Adam · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lawrence, who is about 7 years old, his younger sister, and his hamster are driven to Rome by his mother. She is divorced, but fears that family's safety is being threatened by her ex-husband. Her attempts to re-establish old friendships in Rome, and her paranoia, are brilliantly described in Lawrence's words.

Kneale presents a series of events through the eyes of an innocent, but perceptive child, and in his words, complete with his peculiarities of spelling and naive grammar.

This book is both dark and humorous, and a great short read.

[Suzanne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Disappointing. While Kneale nails the voice of his young narrator, his inconsistant inclusion of spelling errors in the text is jarring and detracts from the flow of the novel. Most of us do no think in spelled-out words, so this really irked me.

SPOILER FOLLOWS

I could spot early on that this novel was not what it was pretending to be and would take a large turn near the end. I was right, and the book seemed trite because of it.

If the narration hadnˋt been so true to the voice of a child, I would have only awarded two stars.

[Robert · Rating 2 out of 5]

- Read "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time" instead.

- Just didn't care much about the characters

- It's interesting to see the logical conclusion coming, but I may have gotten annoyed waiting for it.

[Kaija · Rating 2 out of 5]

It reminds me of "The Curious Incident of the Dog During the Night". The novel is narrated through the mind of a young boy.

I enjoyed the psychology of it, but it was really obvious what was going to happen.

[John Hanson · Rating 1 out of 5]

Tedious read

Based on the online reviews, I decided to try this book. Unfortunately, it started slow, and never lived up to the reviews. Character development was lacking, and plot was predictable.

[Andrea Dunlop · Rating 5 out of 5]

My absolute favorite in the child-narrator tradition. Both heart-breaking and completely delightful.

[Jenny · Rating 2 out of 5]

This rarely ever happens, but I guessed the twist almost immediately, and after that there wasn't much left.

[Karolina Sosnowska · Rating 4 out of 5]

https://tanayahczyta.wordpress.com/20...

[Matthew · Rating 4 out of 5]

Henry James’ most famous ghost story The Turn of the Screw was chilling, not because of the ghosts but because we suspect that the unreliable narrator is concealing a darker story about two children finding themselves under the control of a mentally unstable adult.

When We Were Romans is not a ghost story, but the basic premise had much in common with the James novella. This time the story is not told from the point of view of the unstable adult, but from that of one of the children under her care. His innocence and his childish concerns distract us from finding the story too horrifying or sad, but the reader will be constantly given hints that everything is not how Laurence imagines it.

Laurence is the nine-year old boy who serves as our narrator. His account is intelligent enough for his age, but riddled with spelling and grammatical errors. Since some of the correctly spelled words are in front of him, I a little mystified by some of the words he does not get right. Some of it may be down to carelessness, as he sometimes uses the correct spelling, and sometimes does not. This is not slipshod writing on Matthew Kneale’s part. Laurence sometimes spells the word both correctly and incorrectly in the same paragraph.

Our narrator has an even younger sister, Jemima, and a hamster, Hermann, of whom he is fiercely protective. The reader will be more intrigued by Laurence’s parents, about whom there is a mystery.

These parents are separated. Laurence’s mother Hannah behaves as if the children’s father is a dangerous person who is threatening the family. This leads her to take the family on a trip to Rome, a place she once visited. Hannah has plenty of contacts there, and many good memories.

What is it that Hannah fears her ex-husband will do? As the plot unfolds, the reader will become increasingly sceptical that he is the problem. Hannah is prone to fits of depression during which Laurence must play the adult and persuade her to get out of bed and continue with their journey.

As time goes on, Hannah moves from house to house, flirting with the men and antagonising the women, spending all the money she has (and some which we suspect belongs to someone else). Her behaviour becomes increasingly paranoid and dangerous, but Laurence naturally takes his mother’s side and fails to understand what is happening.

Along the way, Laurence devours books about history and science. He is fascinated by the Horrible Histories series, and describes the awful behaviour of old Roman Emperors. We might see parallels to his position. Just as Rome found itself helplessly under the control of a series of mentally unstable Emperors, so Laurence and Jemima are at the mercy of a mother who is seriously ill.

Admittedly, there is no suggestion that Hannah would directly harm or kill her children in the way that the Roman Emperors did their subjects. Nonetheless, her behaviour is causing serious problems for Laurence, and warping his understanding of reality.

The science books that Laurence reads are about subjects such as black holes. Again we can see the connection to Laurence’s world, where he and Jemima are being sucked into a great hole – the hole of his mother’s depression and spiral into mental illness.

It is said that much of the best children’s literature is about how a child makes sense of the complexities of the adult world, over which the child has so little control. We can certainly see that here. All that Laurence wants is to read his books, play with his toys, take his exams, and tend to Hermann, but he is instead dragged across Europe and back, and expected to support his mother during her episodes.

I would also reverse it, and suggest that When We Were Romans gives us some idea of the problems that adults have navigating around the world of the child. How do you talk to a child about your problems? What do you reveal, and what do you conceal? How do you appease an angry child on a car ride when there are few opportunities to entertain him?

Perhaps you can buy him a gift, but he is a child. He will choose the most expensive item if he senses your guilt, even when it is not the best gift, and you are struggling to keep going as your money runs out. Then his sister will want a gift too. Later, Laurence will decide the expensive toy is not as good as he hoped, so he will break it in order to return to the shop and get something else. When his mother has her own problems, the demands of her children will only add to her worries.

When We Were Romans is not Kneale’s best work, but it is certainly an intriguing read, as we wait to find out more about what is really happening, something that is not wholly shown to us until late in the book. Despite the disturbing subject matter, the book is not depressing or horrifying. Since Laurence is narrating he will surely survive to the end of whatever crisis is happening, but Kneale ensures that we feel concern for his plight, even if Laurence himself is unable to grasp the danger of his situation.

[Monica Caldicott]

Finish this cliché: "when in Rome …"
" … do as the Romans do."

What does that mean?

 Read along with 9-year-old Lawrence - and his adorable misspellings - as he high-tails it from London to Rome. Lawrence's mother is convinced that her ex-husband is stalking them, and so she takes her son and his (to be honest: bratty) little sister Jemima to the scene of so many happier times when she was young and lived in Rome. Hannah's old friends welcome her and her children, offering couches, extra bedrooms and advice about the high price of everything.

 Life in Rome starts to look up when Hannah finally gets a job, the small family gets the loan of a nice apartment and Lawrence keeps reading about Roman emperors and popes. He even dreams of amassing an army of toy soldiers.

 But living the Roman life gets dangerous when Hannah spots a yellow car outside of their apartment. Doesn't it look just like Dad's car? And could those red spots on the cake be poison?

 Somewhat similar to reading The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time.
 

[Huu Vu · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ợ, review trễ quá quên hết rồi -_-
Túm lại là một cuốn sách khác viết từ góc nhìn của một đứa trẻ khá thú vị. Bản thân mình cảm thấy những phản ứng của nv chính cậu bé Lawrence đều rất hợp lý và chân thật với một đứa 9 tuổi, phần nào cảm nhận được cả xu hướng tâm lý tương tự với người mẹ của cậu. Cơ mà cái trò đánh vần sai của cậu đưa vào hẳn lời văn nhiều mệt quá, chả thấy mang lại tác dụng gì mấy.

Nhiều người so sánh cuốn này với Curious Incident, và quả thực cả 2 cuốn có nhiều cái giống nhau. Nhưng trong khi cả hai cuốn đều có cái kết khá thực tế và thiếu cao trào, Christopher ít ra đạt được một cái gì đó, và hành trình của cậu không hoàn toàn vô nghĩa. Còn cuộc "phiêu lưu" ở Rome của mẹ con Lawrence tuy cũng có diễn biến và kịch tính nhưng đến cuối cùng thấy trớt quớt quá, có phần thiếu tính kết nối với những gì xảy ra sau đó và phần nào làm câu chuyện bớt đi tính nhân văn. Thế nên chỉ 4 sao thôi.