The Imperfectionists is a novel about the quirky, maddening, endearing people who write and read an international newspaper based in Rome: from the obituary reporter who will do anything to avoid work, to the young freelancer who is manipulated by an egocentric war correspondent, to the dog-obsessed publisher who seems less interested in his struggling newspaper than in his magnificent basset hound, Schopenhauer.
Or so says the ad copy from the novels website, but it is so much more than that. The Imperfectionists details the last days of the aforementioned international, English language newspaper. Like most newspapers theses day it is struggling with declining readership and revenue in the digital age. What is so engaging about Rachman’s novel is that, not only does it encapsulate a soon to be bygone way of viewing the world and the people swept in the current of changing times and technology, but it does so in such an original and masterly way for a debut novelist.
Each chapter is basically a short story centering on one of the people who work for or are affiliated in some way with the newspaper. Even though the chapters are complete and self contained in and of themselves, taken together they form a tableau the tells the story of newspaper, it’s personality and internal politics. In between each chapter is a brief one or two page interlude detailing the history of the newspaper through the years.
What is brilliant about The Imperfectionists is the literary slight of hand Rachman uses to accomplish this feat, it all done through nuance, suggestion, and each character’s natural actions within the confines of their personal narrative. Except for the historical interludes, there is no overt exposition. Characters mentioned in passing, or shown as secondary characters in early chapters, become the main characters in later chapters and vice-versa giving the book a non-intrusive continuity that acts as a narrative thread between stories.
Taken on their own the chapters/stories themselves are marvels of characterization and short story writing. They are both funny and tragic, but also human in the most authentic way. There a couple of minor instances where things get a bit over the top, but that is a small quibble and is more than balanced out by the believability of the main characters and the interesting and ingenious ways the stories are told. The characters have surprising depth and stories go in unpredictable, but always believable, directions. In each chapter, the main character is irrevocably changed by the end along with the reader’s perception of them, which is what all great fiction should do.
If literature is meant to give insight and personal context to the time it is written in, The Imperfectionists is an instant classic. It is one of the best books I’ve read this year.
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