Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #312604 in Books
• Published on: 2007-06-01
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 296 pages

The Times
'Substantial and engaging.'

Guardian
'Full of restraint and artistic integrity, this is a poignant,
haunting and lovely novel.'

Literary Review
'The heartbreak and the triumph of When we were Romans is that
little Lawrence is the real thing.'

Customer Reviews

When We Were Good
In Matthew Kneale's new novel, we are in the hands of Lawrence, a nine-year-old boy who at the beginning of the novel is living with his mother Hannah and younger sister Jemima. Father is in the background, muttered about darkly, feared and avoided and - so far as we can tell - the perpetrator of some unspeakable outrage. So much are the family in terror of him that they leave Britain and decamp for a time to Rome, where Hannah lived for a time in happier days. When not recounting their adventures in Rome with old friends, Lawrence occupies himself with stories about Roman emperors from his Horrible Histories book, or imparting information about every boy's favourite topic (after dinosaurs): outer space.

Lawrence's story is told with childlike energy and simplicity, not to mention an authentically lax grammar and spelling ("I had seen mum when she got worreid but I never saw her like this, this was worse. She just lay in bed looking up at the cieling with her eyes"). The book is even set in a slightly blocky, crude typeface. These are tools to be used sparingly, and fortunately Kneale never lets his creative use of language get in the way of the story. Even so, at first I thought we had another identikit child narrator, an affectless voice like Christopher Boone from The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time or Roddy Doyle's Paddy Clarke.

"We were coming back from the supermarket, we went to a further away one where we never went before so it would be all right, and it was an adventure mum said, we must be really quick, we must be like birds diving down and getting some food and flying away with it in their mouths."

And then I began to find myself thinking about the characters when I wasn't reading the book, and I realised that in its candid way, Lawrence's narrative had wormed its way rather deeper than I thought. And as I read on, and began to work out the truth of the story, his asides began to take on a deeper resonance. The Roman emperors, like the celestial bodies in the Milky Way and beyond, depicted how so much of our lives - and children's lives in particular - are dictated by forces outside our control.

"Sientists have known for ages that something terrible will happen to the sun. This is sad but there is nothing scientists can do, they can't stop it with any invention, even something really clever from the future, because the sun is too big you see, it will just happen anyway. ... But then scientists discovered a really good thing which is called gravitational lensing. ... Perhaps the scientists will see another planet with their gravitational lensing, it will be lovely and green, it will be beautiful. Then everybody will be all right after all. They will build a huge space craft and escape there before the sun goes out."

The story also reminds us that there was one thing even the richest and most powerful Roman emperor could not protect himself against. And the central revelation, while not entirely surprising, is plausible and gives the book a greater richness and depth. It makes you root for Lawrence and his family in a quite emotional way, and want everything to be OK for them, which is a simple achievement that many longer and denser books would struggle to manage.

'Actually' - this was fab!
I loved this book. The voice of Lawrence is written very well... I loved the spelling mistakes, the way he says 'actually' in almost every sentence and that he gives animal characters to everyone he meets, what a great idea! I might start doing this myself! I also loved the stories about the Roman Emperors and Space, black holes etc than ran alongside the main plot.

It made me laugh alot but underlying everything is the readers tragic realisation that Hannah, his mother is becoming more and more unwell. Rome is colourfully described and each character well drawn (thanks to Lawrence's animal characters!). I haven't read any other Matthew Kneale books but I certainly will now...

Excellent writing from the perspective of a child
In an excellent portrayal of childhood emotions and thinking, Matthew Kneale narrates this novel in the first person of Lawrence, a sensible 9 year old. Lawrence has responsibilities too great for his years, trying to cope with the whims of his mentally ill mother, especially when she whisks him and his little sister away to live in Rome.

At first the writing style jarred on me due to the frequent mispelled words, but this becomes less annoying as you get accustomed. Kneale does an excellent job of establishing a child's voice, particularly in the rhythm and phrasing of his narration. I found Lawrence's behaviour and emotions throughout the book very believable for a child - this is a real portrayal of childhood, unlike some 'child narrated' novels where the central character thinks and feels more like an ignorant adult rather than a genuine child would. The interaction of Lawrence and his younger sister will strike a chord for any eldest child.

The plot is slow moving for much of the book, then picks up pace suddenly at the end. The finale is surprising, and the final chapter seems rushed, which is a shame. Maybe it's due to Lawrence's limited perspective, but there were certain things that weren't explained and I found Lawrence's behaviour in the last chapter out of character, even given the circumstances he was in.

Despite the problems I had with the ending, 'When We Were Romans' is a well written and compelling novel. It brought to life the difficulties for a child of living with a mentally ill parent, in a moving, believable and not at all soppy way.