Comments on: When We Were Romans, by Matthew Kneale

By: Jena

Jena — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 17:13:58 +0000

I’m a quarter of the way (or more) through it. I knew right away that this was a nine-year-old’s voice/spelling/grammar, but what I’m having a hard time with is the “and then… and then… and then…” style. This is how 9-year-olds tell stories, I know, but there’s also a reason that adult writers don’t, and I find it less than charming. I think I know what’s coming in the plot, so I think I’ll be calling it quits. Too bad–I had been looking forward to this one.

By: Meghan

Meghan — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 01:53:45 +0000

Thanks for linking to me!

I think Lawrence got the punctuation wrong just as much as everything else. It read exactly like some of my brother’s youthful essays, so it never really bothered me. It helped me sink in way more than a book which was written correctly would have.

Care – not sure if you’ll come back to see this comment, but underneath the dust jacket this book has a gorgeous drawing of Rome! It’s one of the nicest covers I’ve ever seen.

By: Eva

Eva — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 14:07:48 +0000

I agree with Christine: once I adjusted to Lawrence’s writing, it worked. For the first few pages, though, I was incredible annoyed!

By: Care

Care — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 11:47:49 +0000

I don’t know why but the title of this book does nothing to inspire me, and then I see the wonderful cover.

By: Christine

Christine — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 11:16:48 +0000

The spelling, grammar etc. actually really worked for me — once I figured out what was going on it didn’t irk at all. I thought it was quite authentic, actually — you see, I have lots of things sitting around that I wrote at about that age, and that’s exactly the way I wrote: some big words right, some short words wrong, and with general grammatical inconsistency.

Case in point: when I was eight, my friend Kelly taught me to correctly spell antidisestablishmentarianism … but I was still writing “liberry” and messing up homonyms.