One of most acclaimed books of the year, Tom Rachman's debut novel follows the topsy-turvy private lives of the reporters and editors of an English-language newspaper in Rome.
The Imperfectionists: A Novel
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Book Description
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Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com Review
Amazon Best Books of the Month, April 2010 Printing presses whirr, ashtrays smolder, and the endearing complexity of humanity plays out in Tom Rachman's debut novel, The Imperfectionists. Set against the backdrop of a fictional English-language newspaper based in Rome, it begins as a celebration of the beloved and endangered role of newspapers and the original 24/7 news cycle. Yet Rachman pushes beyond nostalgia by crafting an apologue that better resembles a modern-day Dubliners than a Mad Men
Tom Rachman on The Imperfectionists
--This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Tom Rachman on The Imperfectionists
I grew up in peaceful Vancouver with two psychologists for parents, a sister with whom I squabbled in the obligatory ways, and an adorably dim-witted spaniel whose leg waggled when I tickled his belly. Not the stuff of literature, it seemed to me.
During university, I had developed a passion for reading: essays by George Orwell, short stories by Isaac Bashevis Singer, novels by Tolstoy. By graduation, books had shoved aside all other contenders. A writer--perhaps I could become one of those.
There was a slight problem: my life to date.
By 22, I hadn't engaged in a bullfight. I'd not kept a mistress or been kept by one. I'd never been stabbed in a street brawl. I'd not been mistreated by my parents, or addicted to anything sordid. I'd never fought a duel to the death with anyone.
It was time to remedy this. Or parts of it, anyway. I would see the world, read, write, and pay my bills in the process. My plan was to join the press corps, to become a foreign correspondent, to emerge on the other side with handsome scars, mussed hair, and a novel.
Years passed. I worked as an editor at the Associated Press in New York, venturing briefly to South Asia to report on war (from a very safe distance; I was never brave). Next, I was dispatched to Rome, where I wrote about the Italian government, the Mafia, the Vatican, and other reliable sources of scandal.
Suddenly--too soon for my liking--I was turning thirty. My research, I realized, had become alarmingly similar to a career. To imagine a future in journalism, a trade that I had never loved, terrified me.
So, with a fluttery stomach, I handed in my resignation, exchanging a promising job for an improbable hope. I took my life savings and moved to Paris, where I knew not a soul and whose language I spoke only haltingly. Solitude was what I sought: a cozy apartment, a cup of tea, my laptop. I switched it on. One year later, I had a novel.
And it was terrible.
My plan – all those years in journalism--had been a blunder, it seemed. The writing I had aspired to do was beyond me. I lacked talent. And I was broke.
Dejected, I nursed myself with a little white wine, goat cheese and baguette, then took the subway to the International Herald Tribune on the outskirts of Paris to apply for a job. Weeks later, I was seated at the copy desk, composing headlines and photo captions, aching over my failure. I had bungled my twenties. I was abroad, lonely, stuck.
But after many dark months, I found myself imagining again. I strolled through Parisian streets, and characters strolled through my mind, sat themselves down, folded their arms before me, declaring, "So, do you have a story for me?"
I switched on my computer and tried once more.
This time, it was different. My previous attempt hadn't produced a book, but it had honed my technique. And I stopped fretting about whether I possessed the skill to become a writer, and focused instead on the hard work of writing. Before, I had winced at every flawed passage. Now, I toiled with my head down, rarely peeking at the words flowing across the screen.
I revised, I refined, I tweaked, I polished. Not until exhaustion--not until the novel that I had aspired to write was very nearly the one I had produced--did I allow myself to assess it.
To my amazement, a book emerged. I remain nearly incredulous that my plan, hatched over a decade ago, came together. At times, I walk to the bookshelf at my home in Italy, take down a copy of The Imperfectionists, double-check the name on the spine: Tom Rachman. Yes, I think that's me.
In the end, my travels included neither bullfights nor duels. And the book doesn't, either. Instead, it contains views over Paris, cocktails in Rome, street markets in Cairo; the ruckus of an old-style newsroom and the shuddering rise of technology; a foreign correspondent faking a news story, a media executive falling for the man she just fired. And did I mention a rather adorable if slobbery dog?
--This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. In his zinger of a debut, Rachman deftly applies his experience as foreign correspondent and editor to chart the goings-on at a scrappy English-language newspaper in Rome. Chapters read like exquisite short stories, turning out the intersecting lives of the men and women who produce the paper—and one woman who reads it religiously, if belatedly. In the opening chapter, aging, dissolute Paris correspondent Lloyd Burko pressures his estranged son to leak information from the French Foreign Ministry, and in the process unearths startling family fare that won't sell a single edition. Obit writer Arthur Gopal, whose overarching goal at the paper is indolence, encounters personal tragedy and, with it, unexpected career ambition. Late in the book, as the paper buckles, recently laid-off copyeditor Dave Belling seduces the CFO who fired him. Throughout, the founding publisher's progeny stagger under a heritage they don't understand. As the ragtag staff faces down the implications of the paper's tilt into oblivion, there are more than enough sublime moments, unexpected turns and sheer inky wretchedness to warrant putting this on the shelf next to other great newspaper novels. (Apr.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
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More About the Author
Tom Rachman was born in London and raised in Vancouver. A graduate of the University of Toronto and the Columbia School of Journalism, he has been a foreign correspondent for the Associated Press, stationed in Rome, and worked as an editor at the International Herald Tribune in Paris. He lives in London, where he is working on his second novel.
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
563 of 585 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review
(What's this?)
The Imperfectionists is flat-out one of the most enjoyable debut books I've read. This book has it all: writing that's so brilliant and astute that it's hard to believe this is Mr. Rachman's freshman effort, highly original and authentic characters, and a very timely theme: the demise of the printed newspaper.
The novel -- set in Rome -- is focused on the personal lives of various news reporters, executives, copy editors, and (in one case) a reader. Each chapter focuses on one individual and is a story all its own (think: Olive Kitteridge or In Other Rooms, Other Wonders); together, the whole is greater than the part of its sums and represents the trials, tribulations, and occasional rewards of those involved with an international English language newspaper.
All of these multi-faceted, interwoven stories sparkle in different ways. There is Lloyd, the down-on-his-luck Paris correspondent who is willing to play his own son for a byline. There's Arthur, the obituary writer and son of a famous journalist who sits on his laurels before his life is transformed by a heart-rendering tragedy. There's Abby -- aka Accounts Payable -- the financial officer who finds that one of her firings comes back to "bite" her in a most unexpected way. There's Herman, the overly hefty pussycat of a corrections editor with an 18,000-plus style guide he calls "The Bible"; woe is the unwitting writer who violates it! And Kathleen, the imperious and workaholic editor-in-chief who learns things about herself from a past lover that she would rather have not. And, in one of the most laugh-out-loud humorous of the stories, there's Winston, the naive Cairo stringer who is manipulated by his competitor Snyder, a middle-aged man with an over-the-top ego.
These and other "imperfect" characters come alive for the reader, often in unexpected ways. The situations portrayed are as real as life itself; it's obvious that Mr. Rachman cares about his characters and never sets them up as straw men to make a point or for comic relief. Between each chapter, the back-story of the newspaper is established, along with the everyday gripes of the employee -- a pitch-perfect backdrop for current events. The Imperfectionists is, in turn, poignant, strongly imagined, and endearing. I can't imagine it not being a winner.
The novel -- set in Rome -- is focused on the personal lives of various news reporters, executives, copy editors, and (in one case) a reader. Each chapter focuses on one individual and is a story all its own (think: Olive Kitteridge or In Other Rooms, Other Wonders); together, the whole is greater than the part of its sums and represents the trials, tribulations, and occasional rewards of those involved with an international English language newspaper.
All of these multi-faceted, interwoven stories sparkle in different ways. There is Lloyd, the down-on-his-luck Paris correspondent who is willing to play his own son for a byline. There's Arthur, the obituary writer and son of a famous journalist who sits on his laurels before his life is transformed by a heart-rendering tragedy. There's Abby -- aka Accounts Payable -- the financial officer who finds that one of her firings comes back to "bite" her in a most unexpected way. There's Herman, the overly hefty pussycat of a corrections editor with an 18,000-plus style guide he calls "The Bible"; woe is the unwitting writer who violates it! And Kathleen, the imperious and workaholic editor-in-chief who learns things about herself from a past lover that she would rather have not. And, in one of the most laugh-out-loud humorous of the stories, there's Winston, the naive Cairo stringer who is manipulated by his competitor Snyder, a middle-aged man with an over-the-top ego.
These and other "imperfect" characters come alive for the reader, often in unexpected ways. The situations portrayed are as real as life itself; it's obvious that Mr. Rachman cares about his characters and never sets them up as straw men to make a point or for comic relief. Between each chapter, the back-story of the newspaper is established, along with the everyday gripes of the employee -- a pitch-perfect backdrop for current events. The Imperfectionists is, in turn, poignant, strongly imagined, and endearing. I can't imagine it not being a winner.
246 of 268 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review
(What's this?)
"The Imperfetionist" by Tom Rachman is about an English newspaper in Rome and the people who keep it going. Each chapter focuses an a different person, usually an employee. Flashbacks tell how Mr. Ott started the press as a new business, how it developed thru the years, and how Ott's family took it over after his death.
I am really impressed with Mr. Rachman's writing. It has the feel of classic literature, but with a modern edge. His humor shines through in laugh-out-loud sections, but the more serious parts were also sincere.
In my opinion, the last half of the book was much better than the first half. I enjoyed the way the chapters read almost like short stories connected by the thread of the newspaper, and most of the characters were interesting and well-rounded. I just would have liked for the first section to have grabbed me the way the rest did.
I do look forward to reading more of Mr. Rachman's work in the future.
I am really impressed with Mr. Rachman's writing. It has the feel of classic literature, but with a modern edge. His humor shines through in laugh-out-loud sections, but the more serious parts were also sincere.
In my opinion, the last half of the book was much better than the first half. I enjoyed the way the chapters read almost like short stories connected by the thread of the newspaper, and most of the characters were interesting and well-rounded. I just would have liked for the first section to have grabbed me the way the rest did.
I do look forward to reading more of Mr. Rachman's work in the future.
117 of 130 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
"So the paper took its own route, trusting reporters and editors to veer from the media pack, with varying success."
March 17, 2010
By K. M.
VINE™ VOICE
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review
(What's this?)
There's the newspaper reader who compulsively reads every word of every Ott paper, but so slowly that she is more than a decade behind and "[s]he has been dreading tomorrow ever since it happened the first time." She is about to reach the April 24, 1994 edition. The world outside her home has churned on, of course, but she is in a self-imposed time warp and knows nothing of history beyond April 23, 1994.
There's the family man who adores spending time with his young daughter. He write obituaries for the paper, and one day he's asked by the editor-in-chief to take the train to Geneva, Switzerland and interview one Gerda Erzberger, an Austrian intellectual. She artlessly asks him, " 'Claw your way to the bottom, did you?' " He doesn't mind her dig because he doesn't aspire to anything other than what he currently has. But while he is in Gerda's house, everything changes....
Add select other characters:
-- the Paris correspondent who hasn't quite admitted he's past his prime
-- the paper's female chief financial officer who finds herself on a transatlantic flight seated next to a man she ordered fired
-- the wet-behind-the-ears fellow who competes for a stringer's job in Cairo
-- the copy editor who rashly tosses off an insult at the young man who has inherited the publisher's chair and awaits the email telling her she is through after nearly two decades
-- and that young publisher himself who avoids the paper as much as possible and desires only the company of his faithful little dog, Schopenhauer
Between these people's chapters that read more like short stories, even shorter italicized interludes trace the origins and development of this particular newspaper: a twelve-page, English language daily headquartered in Rome and staffed by ex-patriot Americans. Cyrus Ott, Atlanta-based businessman, founds the paper in 1954, having persuaded Betty and Leo Marsh to become, respectively, the news editor and editor-in-chief. However, Ott, arguably foreshadowing his grandson's (Schopenhauer's owner's) timidity, has doubts: " 'Perhaps I should not start this paper at all.' " He feels this way because he has a hidden, personal motive for proposing this venture. And perhaps, a paper founded on a guarded affair of the heart rather than a true zeal for reporting the news can only produce flawed lives for those who staff it and read it? Perhaps.
Author Tom Rachman has been a journalist and editor overseas, so a book about the lives of foreign stringers, devoted readers, and jaded newsroom employees is right up his alley. The Imperfectionists: A Novel covers people whose quirks, machinations, fates, and sorrows shape their lives as they doggedly put out at least one edition every day. The paper began modestly, managed a few prime years where it actually made a profit, and then went into decline with most print newspapers, choosing its own way, which meant, among other things, never having a website. But it is the unvarnished humanity of those who staffed (and subscribed to) it that stay with the reader. They aren't romantic figures or dashing heroes. They are people with fears, regrets, secrets, resentments, jealousies, and nearly unbearable hurts. Thanks to Rachman's abilities, the paper's dysfunctional, memorable bunch reminds us that most of us aren't hugely successful, beautiful, or happy, yet life still goes on at one level or another. This is a conglomeration of stories that gingerly coalesce to form a poignant picture of the imperfection that both plagues and yet sustains humanity -- all within the confines of a struggling newspaper in Rome. Rachman's novel is highly recommended.
+++
By the way, those captivated by THE IMPERFECTIONISTS might also appreciate the recently published The Room and the Chair, by Lorraine Adams, and The Broken Teaglass: A Novel, by Emily Arsenault. The former has a newsroom in common with Rachman's book. And the latter, although its stories are of lexicographers not newpeople, retains a similar melancholy "realism" regarding its characters.
There's the family man who adores spending time with his young daughter. He write obituaries for the paper, and one day he's asked by the editor-in-chief to take the train to Geneva, Switzerland and interview one Gerda Erzberger, an Austrian intellectual. She artlessly asks him, " 'Claw your way to the bottom, did you?' " He doesn't mind her dig because he doesn't aspire to anything other than what he currently has. But while he is in Gerda's house, everything changes....
Add select other characters:
-- the Paris correspondent who hasn't quite admitted he's past his prime
-- the paper's female chief financial officer who finds herself on a transatlantic flight seated next to a man she ordered fired
-- the wet-behind-the-ears fellow who competes for a stringer's job in Cairo
-- the copy editor who rashly tosses off an insult at the young man who has inherited the publisher's chair and awaits the email telling her she is through after nearly two decades
-- and that young publisher himself who avoids the paper as much as possible and desires only the company of his faithful little dog, Schopenhauer
Between these people's chapters that read more like short stories, even shorter italicized interludes trace the origins and development of this particular newspaper: a twelve-page, English language daily headquartered in Rome and staffed by ex-patriot Americans. Cyrus Ott, Atlanta-based businessman, founds the paper in 1954, having persuaded Betty and Leo Marsh to become, respectively, the news editor and editor-in-chief. However, Ott, arguably foreshadowing his grandson's (Schopenhauer's owner's) timidity, has doubts: " 'Perhaps I should not start this paper at all.' " He feels this way because he has a hidden, personal motive for proposing this venture. And perhaps, a paper founded on a guarded affair of the heart rather than a true zeal for reporting the news can only produce flawed lives for those who staff it and read it? Perhaps.
Author Tom Rachman has been a journalist and editor overseas, so a book about the lives of foreign stringers, devoted readers, and jaded newsroom employees is right up his alley. The Imperfectionists: A Novel covers people whose quirks, machinations, fates, and sorrows shape their lives as they doggedly put out at least one edition every day. The paper began modestly, managed a few prime years where it actually made a profit, and then went into decline with most print newspapers, choosing its own way, which meant, among other things, never having a website. But it is the unvarnished humanity of those who staffed (and subscribed to) it that stay with the reader. They aren't romantic figures or dashing heroes. They are people with fears, regrets, secrets, resentments, jealousies, and nearly unbearable hurts. Thanks to Rachman's abilities, the paper's dysfunctional, memorable bunch reminds us that most of us aren't hugely successful, beautiful, or happy, yet life still goes on at one level or another. This is a conglomeration of stories that gingerly coalesce to form a poignant picture of the imperfection that both plagues and yet sustains humanity -- all within the confines of a struggling newspaper in Rome. Rachman's novel is highly recommended.
+++
By the way, those captivated by THE IMPERFECTIONISTS might also appreciate the recently published The Room and the Chair, by Lorraine Adams, and The Broken Teaglass: A Novel, by Emily Arsenault. The former has a newsroom in common with Rachman's book. And the latter, although its stories are of lexicographers not newpeople, retains a similar melancholy "realism" regarding its characters.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars
Interesting Characters
I enjoyed all of the characters and thought the authors technique of telling the back story though the experience of the other characters was a great way to advance the story.
Published 9 days ago by Marion Dutra
4.0 out of 5 stars
Great Book... Sad Ending
This book is great. I read it quickly and it is a fun read. However, it does have a sad ending. I was left feeling down about it for a few days.
Published 9 days ago by Kathryn
4.0 out of 5 stars
two different books
About halfway through this book, the tone seemed to change dramatically. What had been carefully, more or less realistically observed gave way to satire, or so it seemed to me. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Alan Watts
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great book.
This was a pleasure to read. This book made me remember how much I like fiction, especially when written well.
Published 1 month ago by VinylJunkie
3.0 out of 5 stars
A Talented Writer, but a Novel that Failed to Grip Me
I decided to read The Imperfectionists after hearing critical acclaim about it being a quirky, sometimes humorous, emotional novel. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Laura
5.0 out of 5 stars
Varied characters
I belong to a book club and we've read some books lately with some messed up characters that have left me feeling sad about humanity. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Carol Marine
4.0 out of 5 stars
Great read
The author does a wonderful job fleshing out characters and placing them in interesting situations. The writing is fluid and enjoyable.
Published 1 month ago by Fred M. Jeffers
1.0 out of 5 stars
Why do people like this awful book?
There was not one chapter that left me feeling good about the human race or this book in particular. I only continued to read it because of my book club. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Dorothy K
2.0 out of 5 stars
Disappointing
I regret having bought this book. It is a series of character sketches and appears to be the preliminary planning for a novel which the author did not write.
Published 2 months ago by southern writer
2.0 out of 5 stars
book
i don't remember receiving this book, or even ordering it. i may have ordered it for someone else, as a gift or something.
Published 3 months ago by stephanie sarnoff
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