I’ve read Tom Rachman’s The Imperfectionists twice — once in hardcover, and once on the Kindle. (A particularly astute recommendation brought the book to my attention.) While thinking about the book, I decided to search for information on the author, and came across a review in the New York Times. It surprised me, a bit, to see that the reviewer, a professional author and reviewer, had also read the book twice. Rachman’s first novel is worth reading a second time, both for serious authors and for small-town bloggers.
Many of the books that I read these days are straightforward, often inartful, works of non-fiction: histories, politics, topics in science, etc. That’s a reading list common to many, with too little fiction in the diet.
The Imperfectionists breaks that poor habit, and in a powerful way: it’s a fine story of life at an English-language newspaper in Rome. The story proceeds as each chapter describes a member of the paper’s staff, characters carefully presented in all their eccentricities. The novel presents them subtlely, as credibly eccentric, with an insight and tenderness that makes descriptions of them memorable.
Publisher, editor-in-chief, reporter, copy editor, financial officer — one-and-all are intriguing, often sad, characters. The novel first chapter begins with has-been reporter Lloyd Burko, facing professional, personal, and financial decline. Burko manages all three with a mixture of waning ability and waxing desperation. (He puts one of his adult children, from one of many marriages, into a terrible predicament just to get a story and paycheck. The episode comes near the beginning of the book, and the account of Burko’s conniving is an enticement to read on, reluctant to put the book down.)
I’ll write no more about the story, except to say how very enjoyable — clever and touching by turns — The Imperfectionists was.
(I’ve a new book I’m now reading about — of all things — French cooking. I’ve tried to learn a bit of cooking, and someone recommended Edouard de Pomiane’s book to me, as it’s easy for anyone to understand. We’ll see.)