The Imperfectionists is a book about an English language newspaper in Rome. Told as a collection of short stories about the employees interwoven with the origin of the newspaper itself, it was a really well done book that was entertaining and highly enjoyable.
This book was put on my radar after I read A Visit from the Goon Squad, and I can completely understand where that recommendation comes from. This one is 100% more my style. Instead of skipping around in time and in character, we only skip through different characters, all of whom overlap, as those in Goon Squad did. I really liked Rachman’s writing. Each chapter starts out with a headline from whichever character you are about to read about, a headline that is usually written as a direct result of the story, which was a genius idea.
My biggest complaint about Goon Squad was that just as I was getting invested in the characters, Jennifer Egan switched things up on me. That is still a complaint here, but at least with this book’s storytelling you end up with some closure for each of them. And the overlap between characters still produces people who are recognizable as those you’ve already read about, rather than identifying them as some random person in the past lives of whoever you’re currently visiting.
Strangely, the part I didn’t like was the story of how the paper was founded, and the politics between the originating journalists. I say strangely, because I expected that I would like something that’s more like a typical novel, as it started at the beginning and ended in present time. But instead I was always eager to get back to the current staff of the paper, and didn’t care much about those who had already taken part in it.
The end was a bit depressing, but I suppose I should have seen that coming. I wish he had mixed up the stories a little bit though because the last two were probably my least favorite. But I’m glad at least that we got closure.
All in all, this was an excellent book, and one I would definitely read again. 4.
Strangely, the part I didn’t like was the story of how the paper was founded, and the politics between the originating journalists. I say strangely, because I expected that I would like something that’s more like a typical novel, as it started at the beginning and ended in present time. But instead I was always eager to get back to the current staff of the paper, and didn’t care much about those who had already taken part in it.
The end was a bit depressing, but I suppose I should have seen that coming. I wish he had mixed up the stories a little bit though because the last two were probably my least favorite. But I’m glad at least that we got closure.
All in all, this was an excellent book, and one I would definitely read again. 4.
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