I picked this particular book because I had read about it several times and I love to read books about writers and/or lovers of books. I started with it because I happened to know where my second-hand copy of it was located on the bookshelf. It ended up being a perfect beginning to this exercise for a couple of reasons: first, it was modern and therefore an easy read; second, it was only a couple of hundred pages and I got through it fast, which has encouraged me that I will actually be able to do this within my timeline; third, it was really different from things I normally read but I still really loved it; and finally, it was gorgeously well written. I'm a little ashamed to admit that I haven't really read that much in the last couple of years that qualifies as well written. There are moments in The Imperfectionists where the prose is so lovely, or the turns of phrase so elegantly crafted that I actually had to close my eyes and savor them for a moment. I love words, and I really love words expertly strung together, and Tom Rachman certainly is good at words. For example:
"What is the value in remonstrating with such a feckless triumvirate?" (77)
So good, right? That sentence was so lovely and memorable to me that I was able to pick it out of the book right now without any effort!
The Imperfectionists is a series of intertwining narratives from different characters who are affected by, and for the most part work at, an English-language newspaper based out of Rome. Each chapter effortlessly drops into the mind and life of a clearly defined and distinct character. I am typically not a fan of books that switch narrators, as I think it detracts from reader immersion and can make novels drag when you're stuck in a plot line less interesting than others. However, The Imperfectionists could be considered a study in how multiple narrators can enhance and really, even make a novel into something extraordinary. This book could easily have fallen into a mere series of intertwining short stories, but Rachman uses the multiple narrators to weave a complete tale that illustrates the many facets of a life in journalism; the book is a love letter to the newspaper business, but still unromantic about it's realities. The sad-sack forcibly retired Lloyd Burko, and the terrified newbie Winston Cheung, illustrate both ends of a journalist's career. Never feeling like his achievements are enough, Corrections Editor Herman Cohen still finds himself inexplicably happy, and serves as a foil to bitter and lonely Ruby Zaga, who uses her job as a security blanket that she both loathes and loves. Reporter Hardy Benjamin finds herself knowingly taken advantage of and mocked in order to have a semblance of a relationship, whereas Editor Kathleen seeks out an affair with an old ex she disdains as a means to punish an unfaithful spouse even though her marriage still functions much as it ever did. Each chapter stands alone, but they perfectly blend to offer a snapshot of life at the paper. It's a beautifully crafted book, and a loving character study of less than reputable people.
In the back of the book, there is an interesting interview between the author and writer Malcolm Gladwell (whose book The Tipping Point is also on my list!). This quote <----- is taken from that interview. I did a paper once on almost this very subject; how reading can enhance our ability to empathize and relate to one another. He goes on to add:
"What I wonder is whether any of this sympathy for fictional characters translates into greater sympathy for people in life." (277)
In my opinion, reading anything helps makes us better people. In books we can live a thousand lives, experience a thousand perspectives, which hopefully helps us "replace our snap judgements about people with the actual empirical evidence about themselves that they offer us"(Malcolm Gladwell says it so nicely). The Imperfectionists takes us through eleven different ideas about what it means to be a journalist, and it allowed me a chance to rethink my notions of writers, and to explore some mores I might not have otherwise been comfortable with. Good books always have a way of correlating to your life, to something going on with you, and this one was no exception for me. I often struggle with being a stay-at-home mom, with sacrificing a career, something that I typically equate with success, to nurture and raise my kids. I found myself contemplating, or maybe re-evaluating, my definition of a successful life with this book. All the characters have what I would consider a successful life, a job writing or working for a paper and living abroad, but very few of them are happy. And the ones who are, are generally happy because of family or close relationships. Living life through all these heads made me think that maybe being successful means living a life full of love, regardless of what you do for a living. So yeah, that was encouraging.
I have the quote on the left up on my Pinterest "Book Nerd" board, and I though it was applicable to this discussion. There were a few moments in this book that resonated with me, thoughts I believed were particular to me. This one:
"She is a wonderful nerd, and he hopes this won't change. He'd be distressed if she were cool- it'd be as if his flesh and blood had grown up to be purple." (31)
I often think similar things about my own children. I want them to be happy, always happy, but never cool. Then there is this:
"He and Jimmy are not, as Herman has always believed, gradations of the same man-he the middling version, and Jimmy the superlative one." (94)
I think it's awfully easy to think of yourself as the "middling version" of the person you're meant to be. How often do we wish we were living up to our potential, wish we were living the bigger, grander version of the life we had?
"All this has been the most extraordinary surprise; he had expected an unhappy life, yet ended up with the opposite. It's barely credible." (94)
This is my favorite quote from the book. I think it's so beautiful, and so very sad. Herman is chugging along his whole life thinking he is unhappy, when the very opposite is true. How much time did he waste wishing for happiness when he already had it? How many of my blessings am I missing wishing for others?
"Technology was not merely luring readers; it was changing them." (245)
This is something I worry about- how my life is changed by technology, how different my children will be because of it. I worry that they will become so inundated by technology that they will forget how to communicate with one another. I worry that they will lose the tactile joy of a paper and ink book. I worry that we will all forget what it means to empathize and connect and seek in the ease of getting what we want on the internet.
"What I really fear is time. That's the devil: whipping us one when we'd rather loll, so the present sprints by, impossible to grasp, and all is suddenly past, a past that won't hold still, that slides into these inauthentic tales. My past-it doesn't feel real in the slightest. The person who inhabited it is not me. It's as if the present me is constantly dissolving. [ ] The personality is constantly dying and it feels like continuity." (37)
Okay, so this one is not something I've ever really thought before, but I thought it was terribly interesting and clever, and it made me think. And one last quote:
"Here is a fact: nothing in all civilization has been as productive as ludicrous ambition." (38)
Gorgeous! It was such a gorgeous book, and despite finishing it at 1:15 in the morning, I lied awake for a long time with my brain buzzing with all these new ideas and thoughts. That's the mark of a great book, one that keeps your brain going long after you should be asleep. And while I do think it's a bit pretentious to include discussion questions in the back of your book, I did have little diatribes to myself about each and every one of them, which in turn, inspired this mammoth post about The Imperfectionists, which may or may not have gotten away from me a bit. Clearly, I miss going to school. I can't believe I even cited my quotes! But hey, once an English major, always an English major.
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| Harper Lee- another on my list! |
Well, if you've stuck with me through this whole post, kudos and I hope it inspires you to go get a copy of The Imperfectionists for yourself. I'm so glad I read it, and so glad I'm on my way through 30 Books Before 30. I'm not certain every book will get it's own paper-sized review like this one did, since it might actually take as long as reading the books themselves, but we'll see how inspired I am. This book really filled me up, and it's so wonderful to read something like that again. I've been toiling in vampire books for far too long! Hopefully most of the books on my list will serve to remind me why I studied literature in the first place.
Next up: Tess of the D'Ubervilles (cause I know where that one is too).
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