Customer Reviews

The Roman

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

If you enjoy well researched historical novels, I would recommend this one to you. The fly on the wall is fictional character, Minutus, a friend of Nero's. What I enjoyed was getting to meet Nero, Seneca, St. Paul, and St. Peter and what it was like to see the Druids and the early Christians. Before I read this book I only knew 4 things about ancient Rome: that Nero fiddled while Rome burned, that the early Christians were thrown to the lions, that Nero's mother killed her husband so that Nero could become emperor, and that Nero had his male lover's genitals removed and then married him. This book put all those things in context for me. At times the reading was a bit slow and difficult to follow, but on the whole I found it an enjoyable and educational experience. Not as good as I remember "the Egyptian" being, but nevertheless very worthwhile.

Minutus, son of Marcus ("Hero" of the Secret Kingdom) tells us about his life in the Rome of Nero, the Burning of the city and the killing of the Christians. Meanwhile he himself pursues his own business, love-affairs and political intrigues. I've read this book a few times now and it grows with each reading. It is very cleverly constructed, the details of roman life are breathtaking and Minutus himself offers a new side of his character each time you pick up this book. Very worthwhile reading.

What is Mika Waltari up to in THE ROMAN? There is a very dry Finnish sense of humor at play here, exploiting the ironies of a narrator who is an utter moral vaccum, unable to perceive the truth of anything going on around him. Put such a cipher in the poisonous milieu of Poppaea, Agrippina, Tigellinus, et. al, and watch out! When our "hero" is charged by Nero with devising "entertainments" involving the torture and slaughter of Christians scapegoated for the great fire, his chief worry is that the jaded audience will grow bored. I suspect a lot of THE ROMAN is really about Waltari's take on the Nazis and perhaps Stalinist Russia, with all their bureaucratic double-talk covering the unspeakable ugliness of mass murder. One reviewer complains that THE ROMAN goes the route of QUO VADIS, with a pro-Christian slant, but I think the book is far more subtle, complex, and ambiguous than that. Beware of abridged editions (like the US paperback that was published in the 1960s). THE ROMAN is preceded by a novel about the narrator's father and his encounter with the early Christians, THE SECRET OF THE KINGDOM (which I have not read).

A gripping story. The narrative is so powerful, I could not sleep for two days after reading the book. The book is cruel without being macabre

MIKA TAKES US TO A JOURNEY THROUGHT THE ANCIENT ROME IN THE FANTASTIC ADVENTURES OF MINUTO LAUSO MANILIANO A GREAT ANTI-HERO: GREEDY, STUPI AND LOVELY.

Up to page 200, there is still some suspense on whether this will be a book about a "Roman of the Romans" or simply yet another Quo Vadis remake. Unfortunately, it is the latter:
The author resources to the trite narrative trick of presenting the early Christians first as eccentric, and ending up being seduced by them.

The narrative is for the most part fluid, but the character development flat and unconvincing.
There seems to be an intention of parading as many historical characters of the period in question as possible through personal acquaintance with the protagonist, but that, instead of adding historical interest, strains the plot verisimilitude.