The Imperfectionists

Written by Tom Rachman

Narrated by Christopher Evan Welch

Set against the gorgeous backdrop of Rome, Tom Rachman's wry, vibrant debut follows the topsy-turvy private lives of the reporters, editors, and executives of an international English-language newspaper as they struggle to keep it-and themselves-afloat. Many changes have ensued since an enigmatic millionaire founded the paper 50 years ago, and now the staff's personal dramas seem more important than the headlines. Kathleen, the imperious editor in chief, is smarting from a betrayal in her open marriage. Arthur, the lazy obituary writer, is transformed by a personal tragedy. Abby, the embattled financial officer, discovers that her job cuts and her love life are intertwined in a most unexpected way. And in the shadows is the isolated young publisher who pays more attention to his prized basset hound, Schopenhauer, than to the fate of his family's quirky newspaper. As the era of print news gives way to the Internet age and this imperfect crew stumbles toward an uncertain future, the paper's rich history is revealed, including the surprising truth about its founder's intentions. Spirited, moving, and highly original, The Imperfectionists will establish Tom Rachman as one of our most perceptive, assured literary talents.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Recorded Books, Inc.
• Release date: Jul 30, 2010
• ISBN: 9781449836535

Reviews for The Imperfectionists

[sraelling · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

not spectacular or fabulous. Unhappy people becoming more unhappy because of their job, mostly.

[carlym_35 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I loved this book until the very end when one unnecessarily awful thing happens--something that seemed totally out of place with the rest of the book and not something that added anything to the plot. I still gave the book 3 1/2 stars because I did enjoy most of it and thought that most of it was well written, but that event at the end ruined my enjoyment of the book, not only because it was something cruel, but also because it was jarring and because it seemed like the author got to the end and couldn't think of a good way to wrap things up.

[read4to4live · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

I downloaded the first chapter as a free sample & thought it was really good. And once I bought the book and continued to read, for a few chapters I continued to think it was pretty good. But by the time I reached the end, I just couldn't stand it anymore. The turning point for me was the humiliation of Accounts Payable. Although her story was well-written, in character, believable, and led to an ironic twist that drove the novel's conclusion, I just thought it was misanthropic and gross; and as thus it had the effect of focusing me on everything about the book that was degrading or depressing. I can handle suffering and injustice in my fiction reading, but I need to be left with some hope for humanity. As I write this review, it's been over a year since I read the book, and thinking about it still leaves me feeling bitter.My motivation for finally writing this review came from reading a book I disliked even more, A Visit from the Goon Squad. I guess I wanted to put down my thoughts about both so I could get them out of my head and move on. At least I finished The Imperfectionists: Goon Squad lost me in Chapter 3, at the humiliation of the underage girls. Ugh. The humiliation of the female characters, along with a similar narrative structure, brought my mind back to The Imperfectionists, which I have to say, in comparison with Goon Squad, isn't looking so bad. The Imperfectionists is better written, with more believable characters, and a more cohesive story. I won't say it wasn't worth reading, just that I'm sorry I haven't forgotten it.

[jack2410 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Like it enough to finish it. I remember vaguely a scene at the end involving a flight back to the US.

"Set against the gorgeous backdrop of Rome, Tom Rachman’s wry, vibrant debut follows the topsy-turvy private lives of the reporters, editors, and executives of an international English language newspaper as they struggle to keep it—and themselves—afloat.

Fifty years and many changes have ensued since the paper was founded by an enigmatic millionaire, and now, amid the stained carpeting and dingy office furniture, the staff’s personal dramas seem far more important than the daily headlines. Kathleen, the imperious editor in chief, is smarting from a betrayal in her open marriage; Arthur, the lazy obituary writer, is transformed by a personal tragedy; Abby, the embattled financial officer, discovers that her job cuts and her love life are intertwined in a most unexpected way. Out in the field, a veteran Paris freelancer goes to desperate lengths for his next byline, while the new Cairo stringer is mercilessly manipulated by an outrageous war correspondent with an outsize ego. And in the shadows is the isolated young publisher who pays more attention to his prized basset hound, Schopenhauer, than to the fate of his family’s quirky newspaper.

As the era of print news gives way to the Internet age and this imperfect crew stumbles toward an uncertain future, the paper’s rich history is revealed, including the surprising truth about its founder’s intentions."

[maureencean · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I saw this here somewhere and there was a link to the NYT book review. It was so glowing, I purchsed it right away on eBay. It was a decent book. It wasn't all that. But I suppose that the NYT is a newspaper after all, and this book is about a newspaper, so perhaps it was more meaningful to their reviewer. The writing was fine, but some of things just seemed incomplete, and the individual stories a touch too out there. Most folks, in my experience, lead pretty average lives. Worth the read though for sure.

[elastic.ella · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

A collection of overlapping vignettes focused on a failing newspaper.Each chapter is from a different character’s point of view, and inserted between chapters is the italicized history of the paper. The book reads much more like a collection of stories than a novel. Though the characters appear rather different at first glance, they’re all alienated, cliches, and a bit dysfunctional. All the women characters are irredeemable with some form of neurosis, self-esteem issues, and/or a need for men. The prose itself wasn’t that great, and worsens as the novel continues. There are some amusing moments and lovely scenery, but the chapter titles/headlines tended to oversell the chapters.The book is focused on people struggling with themselves, rather than the paper struggling to exist in an internet age. The brief bits of the paper’s history were rather dull.Nibble: “This wins a ringing endorsement and a fast-dying chuckle- they don’t like to laugh at each other’s jokes.”I would recommend this to someone as a quick and light read.

[booksinthebelfrey · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I found this book to be something of a letdown, having been led by effusive reviews to anticipate a higher level of accomplishment than I might ordinarily expect from a debut novel. In my opinion the writing is leaden, the characters one-dimensional and charmless, and despite the cursory mention of street names and landmarks the city of Rome and other far-flung locales never really come alive as a backdrop for the dreary plot. Mr. Rachman's fragmented approach, in which we are introduced to each protagonist in a separate section and at a point late in his or her personal narrative, obscures the relationships and connections that supposedly bind together the various staff members of a soon-to-be defunct international newspaper. The episodes of the rather Gothic tale of the newspaper's founding that are appended to each section only heighten this effect. It's hard to say what exactly Mr. Rachman was aiming for in this novel, but I hope for the sake of his former co-workers at the International Herald Tribune that he was not attempting a roman a clef.

[imperfectcj · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The Imperfectionists is the biography of a newspaper, from its birth to its death, told through interwoven stories of the lives of those people who shaped the paper and whose lives the paper shaped. There's a "how did we get here?" theme that runs through each of the stories, reflecting the disorientation I (and I think a lot of people) feel when I step back and realize the cumulative effect of each small decision of my life. There's also a sense of being at the mercy of forces beyond our control. In this book, the force often seems to be other people.

The stories fit together well, the characters were well-drawn and distinct. Most (maybe all?) of the stories deal with the difference between our public selves and our private selves, and the difference between how people view us and how it actually feels to be in our skin.

My two favorite stories were the one about Arthur Gopal and the one about Abbey Pinnola. I think that any of the stories could stand alone, but these two--and most especially the Abbey story--really stand on their own and read like short stories. They were also both very poignant and powerful examples of the depth of Self under the surface of what others perceive.

Reading this book was like eating a well-prepared raw foods meal: it was pleasant to consume and left me feeling satisfied but not logy and with the sense that I'd really nourished myself.

[evaberry · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Well written and sharply observed, providing a fascinating look into the world of journalism (as it was pre-internet, at least). But all in all a pretty depressing view of the world, people and their motives.

[asawyer_21 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The Imperfectionists is a very cleverly created novel made up from a series of stories about individuals and their experiences working in a newsroom for a Rome-based newspaper. The environment of the newsroom is very vividly captured with the observational style of a news article, and I found the characters and the vignettes about them to be creative, quirky, but realistic, sometimes sad/mean, and yet oddly humorous. The way the individual stories are interwoven gives continuity and builds a secondary story around the demise of newspapers. A unique and enjoyable book, though I wouldn't give it that extra star for great literature.

[gary237 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The Imperfectionists by Tom Rachman is the story of an English language newspaper in Rome. Its existence is the result of a love affair between a successful international businessman, Cyrus Ott, and woman he hires with her husband to run the paper. Both Eileen and her husband had established good reputations in Europe in the newspaper business, and Cyrus and Eileen had met in that context in the past. The small circulation, imperfect newspaper employs a number of reporters, editors, stringers, and copy staff, locals and expatriates from around the world. All of the characters are devoted to the paper, some more than others. Their personal and professional imperfections are revealed in chapters that read like newspaper feature stories. A common theme is that, in spite of all their flaws, the newspaper and the characters are survivors. The paper survives decreasing circulation because of Cyrus Ott's continuing financial commitment, the result of his love for Eileen. It even survives after the love affair ends. The various characters survive even though they are surprised by personal losses and destruction of their illusions, the result of their newspaper work. My favorite character is Oliver Ott, the 30 year old grandson of the founder of the paper. He is a reclusive and ineffectual man supported by the Ott family in Atlanta. He is sent to Rome to oversee the operations of the newspaper because it is thought that the news organization can run itself. His incompetence should have no effect. What I liked about Oliver is that though tragedy strikes him, the least perfect of all the characters survives in a heroic fashion. As you read the novel, all of the characters' stories fade like columns of print in old newspapers stored on a shelf in a closet. This is an interesting book even though the character development is somewhat barren and formulaic like newspaper articles. I was always aware of the writer sitting at his word processor cranking out daily copy.

[steve02476 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Mixed feelings about the novel. It was well-written and held my interest all the way through, and was very funny in places. All the main characters had major problems, reasonable given the title. But I kept feeling that the author had a real streak of cruelty; every time I started feeling sympathetic to a character they were either shown as being worse than you realized, or something awful happened to them. I felt like the author was being heartless to his own creations.

Listened to the audiobook, the reading was ok but nothing special.

[ladyars · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

What a depressing little book. All characters are very unlikeable and things usually do not end well for them. And yet, I strangely enjoyed it.

[stephkaye-923485 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A collection of sharp and insightful, at times flinch-inducing, character sketches. I felt like I knew many of these people a page into their chapters. A quick but memorable read. The only reason I don't give it five stars is the abrupt, mysterious ending (damned post-modernists).

[carriewuj · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Great look at the newspaper industry - especially in the early 2000s as it battles the rise of technology. This is a small newspaper in Rome - started on the whim of Cyrus Ott an American billionaire who wants to make amends with a former lover - essentially this is his gift to her. She and her husband make it a viable enterprise and the story follows the paper through about 50 years. Most of the action takes place in roughly present-day and follows a handful or so of the paper’s employees, working in various capacities- each gets his/her own chapter and headline so the stories are independent but interwoven. There is their big story but also their personal lives: Arthur Gopal who writes the obits and is at the bottom of the pecking order - suffers personal tragedy that makes him a better writer and he rises through the ranks. Herman Cohen the picky publisher whose mentor turns out to be a flop and frees him to be his own self. Kathleen Solson, the editor in chief who walks the line between bitchy boss and exacting professional and a few others from copy editors to foreign stringers and three generations of the hapless Otts.

[steve_walker-348810 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Interesting idea. The story of a international newspaper in Rome and
the folks who publish it. Great writing but I found myself really
not caring for any of the characters. Also, the novel was set in Rome, however you did not get any sense of the 'eternal city'. Just a story
of ex-pats and their problems.

[aldusmanutius · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The journalism crowd may find this one pretty interesting.

[nancyjean19 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

All journalists and journalism students should read this! Deeply empathetic, sometimes funny, mostly sad in a realistic kind of way, always detailed and clever. Highly recommended!

[stephanie_m-868484 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Reading this book, I realized I had read it before. Probably right after publication. For some reason, I hadn't added it to me gr list, and now I've nearly reread it all...... and I didn't enjoy it enough the first time, to reread it all again.
So, three stars, for the first time. About the same for this time.

[amillion-863749 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The Imperfectionists is a very cleverly created novel made up from a series of stories about individuals and their experiences working in a newsroom for a Rome-based newspaper. The environment of the newsroom is very vividly captured with the observational style of a news article, and I found the characters and the vignettes about them to be creative, quirky, but realistic, sometimes sad/mean, and yet oddly humorous. The way the individual stories are interwoven gives continuity and builds a secondary story around the demise of newspapers. A unique and enjoyable book, though I wouldn't give it that extra star for great literature.

[drapple_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I didn’t realize until I was significantly into the book that I had read it before. It is so good that I kept reading even though I remembered parts very well. This is beautifully written, a bit funny, a bit tragic, and wholly true.

[jonfaith · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A touch uneven, thankfully the weaker pieces are back-loaded. Thoughts gather and scatter from Fleet Street. Nods abound to Waugh and Michael Frayn. It is a worthy screed. Notice is given for the present peril. I've bought this for several people I care about.

[jamiebh-1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

While well written I'm not entirely sure what the hell this book really set out to accomplish. It was meh.

[thedivineoomba · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is an odd book for me - each chapter is a short story on one of the employees (and one reader) of a semi-major international newspaper published in Rome. Each chapter was well written, the characters fully realized. And the story was warm, full of humanity. Unfortunately, in almost all of these stories, the protagonist ended up worst off than he began, from Hardy, who ends up dating a deadbeat, to the obituary writer, whose daughter died. It seems like every chapter has an affair in it, or was driven to an affair. I'm not sure if the message was suppose to be "those in the news business are sad, lonely people".I enjoyed reading the book, and learning a bit about the news, however, at times, it was the same thing over and over.

[alliebadger · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This was an interesting balance of a book. On the positive side, the characters had interesting similarities to analyze. Everyone worked together but barely knew each other, and the ways they viewed each other and the insecurities they had in themselves were fascinating to compare. The writing was also beautiful. On the negative side, each of the chapters acted as vignettes that offered a brief glimpse into the life of one character - and once it got interesting, it ended. I also had a difficult time liking most of the characters and wanted to go back and hear more about others instead. I like the way the book was framed, but it was an uneven experience overall.

[nirmala3chandrasiri · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The Imperfectionists was an intriguing read to me, mostly because of the way it is presented. In each chapter of Tom Rachman’s novel, we get introduced to eleven characters; all connected to an unnamed international newspaper headquartered in Rome. In the chapters that read like short stories we have a Paris correspondent who is willing to cook-up a story for the front page to get paid, an obituary writer who becomes transformed after a personal tragedy, a business reporter who seems to have got a bad deal in life, a corrections editor who is a grammar nazi, an editor-in-chief who is attempting to reconnect with an ex-lover to get back at her cheating husband, a Cairo stringer who gets railroaded by an expert freeloader, a copy editor whose life seems glamorous to her relatives, a news editor who is afraid of being alone, a loyal reader who is determined to read all the articles the newspaper has ever published, a chief financial officer who hates her office nickname; “accounts payable”, and finally an indifferent publisher whose only friend is his dog."… What truth? The paper is hardly at the cutting edge of technology – it doesn’t even have a website. And circulation isn’t increasing. The balance sheet is a catastrophe, losses mount annually, the readership is aging and dying off."Tom Rachman reminds us with mediums such as television and internet, newspaper publishing has turned into a cutthroat industry. Competition is fierce and real, making it impossible for traditional newspapers to shy away from modern technology.Having worked at the International Herald Tribune as an editor, Tom Rachman is not new to the life at newspapers. So a touch of reality is there in his depictions of the newsroom, may it be editorial meetings or afternoon rush to meet deadlines. Most of his newsroom characters have dysfunctional relationships, probably because of the toll their work have on them, but none of them are unlikable, and Tom Rachman’s sassy writing style makes this novel a fun read.

[mrs_mcgreevy · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Years ago, a very rich American decided, for reasons of his own, to start an English-language newspaper in Rome. Rachman's novel is a series of inter-connected vignettes about some of the individuals affiliated with this now-declining paper. Some nice humor and some well-drawn characters made this bittersweet tale a really nice read.

[mhanover10 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Wasn't sure what I was going to think about this book since each chapter is about someone different that is either working at the newspaper or associated with the newspaper some how. They are each their own little short story yet the book felt like one cohesive story. The author did a nice job of tying them all together. I don't normally like reading short stories because I usually like to know more of the story and more of the characters. A lot of times I feel let down with only a tease. But this book was very enjoyable. It is also a pretty quick read since I read it in a day and I'm a slow reader. I went to college for journalism and I worked in the Des Moines Register news room during college so this book made sense to me and drew me to it because I had a history in journalism. But still, if you really don't know newspapers and the media, it's still a nice read.

[evelynbernard · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This excellent book covers the life of an English language newspaper based in Italy from its inception in the 1950's to the present. Between chapters, there are several pages about the paper itself and its inevitable rush to decline in this age of 'instant news'. Each chapter takes us into the personal life of one person associated with the paper. They weave together beautifully, but would stand up rather well as separate short stories. Some have described this book as 'humour' - perhaps, but it would definitely be of the dark or bittersweet variety. While a large theme of the book seems to deal with disappointment, it is not depressing.Some of my favourite bits include entries in the paper's style guide such as this one on the use of the word "literally":literally: this word should be deleted. All too often, actions described as "literally" did not happen at all. As in, "He literally jumped out of his skin." No, he did not. [...] Inserting "literally" willy-nilly reinforces the notion that breathless nitwits lurk within this newsroom. Eliminate on sight - the usage, not the nitwits. The nitwits are to be captured and placed in the cages I have set up in the subbasement. See also: Excessive Dashes; Exclamation points; and Nitwits. This is a book that would stand up to re-reading and I intend to do just that.

[theyodamom · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Very interesting view of the lives of a newspaper's staff in Rome. We get and first person, inside views of their day to day struggles with trying to keep the paper printing and yet have a functioning a sort of life. Fantastic character's !