On the cover of this book, a quote from Pat Conroy links this book to both To Kill a Mockingbird and The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, which I found intriguing. I would not have linked Scout from To Kill a Mockingbird at all - she is much more adult than Lawrence seems to be. And Lawrence is just a kid in an abnormal situation, while much of what happens to Christopher Boone is because of his own disabilities. However, I did appreciate the quote because it made me think a bit more about Lawrence,the narrator in When We Were Romans.

This is an odd little book. That is neither bad or good, it just wasn't quite what I expected.

I learned about it because of the Book Brahmin on Shelf-Awareness. Many of the books suggested in this column have been great additions to my reading shelf. The story is told by a nine year old boy who can't spell and who believes his mother in all things. Most nine year olds would agree with him - moms are to be believed.

I seem to be in a period of reading books that contain moms who are angry, crazy, absent or anything other than normal. I know this is serendipity, but it made dealing with Lawrence's mother hard for me. She really wasn't competent and I worried so about the consequences of her actions.

I did not fall into this novel, but I am not sorry I read it. Kneale has a good ear and his language seems right for a nine year old. I recommend this book to readers of literary fiction, to people interested in the voice of child narrators and to those are willing to deal with dysfunctional families.