The Imperfectionists

This is a story about the history of a newspaper that tells you little about a newspaper. It will leave you wondering many things about the newspaper business, but you'll be shaking your head about many more things than that before you reach the end. What we are given is a glimpse at the people who worked at this particular international daily paper. These employees: a. tried to run the paper profitably; b. never spent a minute thinking about whether a paper needed to make a profit to provide their employment; c. cared about the quality of the work they provided; d. didn't; e. let Rachman tell this story by providing him material (if only in his mind). In a series of disjointed/interlocking chapters (I know those are contradictions - but both are accurate), we are treated to decades of experiences of those who played parts in the life of the newspaper. Rachman's writing ability is demonstrated early and often. However, as with any group of stories, not all were equally interesting. Obviously, since I still gave the book the full range of stars, this doesn't materially detract from the whole.

I finished reading this book a few weeks ago, but haven't been able to come up with the words to fully describe how fantastic it is. "Fantastic" is even an inadequate descriptor - the book is so well-written and wonderful, so wry and tragic and hopeful and amusing and sad. Each chapter is from the point of view of one particular character - of which there are 11 - and the author never goes back to that character's view again. You wouldn't expect that structure to work, but it does - you become fully engaged in the character's story, and feel you've learned all you need to know about them by the time the chapter ends. The central (and 12th) character is an English-language newspaper in Rome, Italy. The other (human) characters are planets to its sun (in that they revolve around it, not that it overshadows them) - all of them are in some way connected to the paper, from the aging correspondent to the wanna-be correspondent, from the strong-willed managing editor to the weak-willed copy editor, from the obituary writer to the long-time reader. They are all flawed, and so compelling in their strangeness and the fact that they are really just like the rest of us - looking for love, looking to belong, looking for a place in the world. I hope potential readers will not dismiss this book because it's set around a newspaper. It includes commentary on the state of journalism today, and the commentary adds to the story, even for readers with little or no experience with what goes into putting together a newspaper. Highly recommended.

"The Imperfectionists" may be the first truly original novel I've read this year. It's a series of linked short stories about people who work at (or are otherwise associated with) a Rome-based English-language newspaper that's obviously modeled on the International Herald Tribune. In between the "official" stories are short sections about the newspaper's founders. Each of the character studies somehow manages to be simultaneously funny, tender, and slightly cruel. The protagonists' experiences range from the mildly depressing to the utterly tragic. Nobody gets what they think they want. And of course, their careers -- like their newspaper -- are all doomed. But it's all written with a kind of Gallic life-goes-on insouciance that makes it not only palatable but actually enjoyable to read. Think of it as a brilliant obit for the newspaper business.

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 staffe

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.