So, the last book club read When We Were Romans by Kneale. I was conflicted by this book. It was written from the perspective of a 12 year old boy complete with misspelled words. That part I didn't find as believable as I wanted to. He was dealing with complex issues and sometimes the perspective worked and sometimes it didn't. The story was interesting. The mom is afraid for her life and her childrens' lives because their father is stalking them. She overshares with the son about this and he has to shoulder a lot of fear and responsibility. They decide to pack up all they can and steal away in the night to head from England to Rome, where the mom lived for years and has friends and remembers being happy. Things unfold, the son starts to rebel a little as his role is displaced by other people as support for his mom. And then she starts to see things that make her believe the father has found them in Rome. At first the son doesn't believe her but then he completely enters that scenario and the way the story unfolds is quite dramatic and messed up. Now... I never believed a main premise in the story, so there was no suspense for me until one of the final scenes which was pretty intense. Overall I liked it, except, as I said, the perspective didn't follow through, and I wish I had been fooled for a least a little while regarding that main premise I was talking about. That phrase, "when in Rome do as the Romans do..." was that kid's whole life until the reveal. At the end you hope he finds a path that isn't solely the opposite of that.
No comments:
Post a Comment