Sunday, September 07, 2008

When We Were Romans by Mathew Kneale

Despite the many good reviews available, I can't get into When We Were Romans--not because the voice of child-narrator lacks grammar mastery, but because of the "and then. . . and then. . . and then. . ." style of story-telling (including vastly unimportant details and strange comparisons of people to animals). This may be authentic to a kid's story-telling ability, but it makes for tedious reading when it lasts more than a few pages. I can't believe that the book will offer anything that is really worth the effort of forcing myself to go on. (I'm about 1/3 of the way through.)

Many thanks to Doubleday for letting me try this book out.

5 comments:

Ali said...

I'm getting a kick out of how different our taste in books is--I loved When We Were Romans, as well as Guernica. Hope the next book you crack open is the perfect book for you!

Sarah said...

Hey Jena, thanks for stopping by my blog. I hope that quilting is in your future! It is so fun and not as hard as some people make it sound. I love it!

Ana S. said...

Sorry that this one is turning out to be such a disappointment...hopefully you'll enjoy your next read more.

Anonymous said...

Good to see we agree that this book is quite 'meh'; sometimes when I see all these raving reviews I wonder if I'm having a fit of the crazy and everyone else is right.

Cheryl Vanatti said...

Exactly how I felt! I may try it again at some point, but it was so tedious, I never forged a connection,