Readers' Review: "The Imperfectionists" by Tom Rachman
http://thedianerehmshow.org/shows/2011-01-19/readers-review-imperfectionists-tom-rachman
Struggling newspaper operations, journalists having to reinvent themselves, the story is familiar, but in this case, it really is a story - a best selling one at that. For our January Reader’s Review we discuss a novel by Tom Rachman. It’s called “The Imperfectionists”. The book follows the lives of a group of reporters, editors, and executives who work for a failing English language newspaper in Rome. Join us to discuss the novel, “The Imperfectionists”,
Guests
David Ignatius
columnist, The Washington Post; co-moderator of "PostGlobal" on washingtonpost.com.
Deirdre Donahue
book critic for "USA Today"
Lisa Page
president of the PEN/Faulkner Foundation and creative writing teacher at George Washington University.
Comments
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Loved this book-am an independant bookseller & love passing this on to lovers of literary fiction!
My father was a newspaper reporter and editor. I have wonderful memories of other reporters and editors joining my father in our living room and discussing the stories and issues they were covering. They rarely received a byline on their stories. In the 1980s I worked as a librarian at a major newspaper and was appalled by the egos and ambitions of the reporters and editors. They would frequently hide files from each other to keep a competitor from filing a complete story. Everyone was consumed with having his byline on the front page. That was 25 years ago. I would appreciate the comments of your panel on the commitment to service of today's journalists.
As a former newspaper writer and editor I found it a wonderful book and this a wonderful discussion! You sound like, well, a bunch of journalists sitting around the newsroom over- analyzing something of limited importance, which we all loved to do, and which I still miss.
The book captures every newsroom I've worked in, from the Passaic News to the Miami Herald. And the style -- short stories linked together -- mimicks the somewhat disjointed pace of the newsroom.
A question: Are newsrooms still like this? I've been out of them for 20 year.
hello Dian
After spending 30 years in north america, I now live in southeast Spain, where I listen to your show with great pleasure. Once ones steps out of the country and stops reading the local press and start reading the European press a new extended view of America emerges.
I have not read the book but will. My comments are based on some of the comments of your guests reviewing this book.
The feeling I get looking at America from here and reading the local view on American, a questions starts to appear: is America going through a dumbing stage?. It would seem to me that America wants its information in the "fast food" format. Easy, fast, meets their likes, murders their dislikes; all in no thinking required sauce.
I believe if the American public does not start to demand quality, quantified, verified information it will, like the Roman empire be defeated by new populace based economies.
Regards
Emile Michel
Two efforts from Alabama
to provide quality journalism
online:
http://locustfork.net/
http://weldbham.com/secondfront/
I hope the sites can survive.
Both I find insightful and
thought provoking.
Did anyone else find it frustrating to listen to Deirdre Donahue try to speak one complete sentence? Her mouth couldn't keep up with her thoughts, which must have been coming from multiple directions simultaneously. I found her terribly distracting.
I had to disagree, on who said it at the time, but I thought a common thread in the book, besides obviously, the paper, was Kathleen. I actually couldn't wait for her to become editor, full circle, if you will. I also wished you talked about that uncomfortable scene in the hotel room with the chief controller and the 'guy' she had fired....Very odd. He was famous for surprising endings....It was enjoyable, however I do confess I had to reread the first several chapters to catch on to his thread...
Thanks again for another round table.
I did enjoy reading THE IMPERFECTIONISTS and getting tangled up in the intersections, however the quick demise of the paper was disturbing. I fluctuate from being frustrated to being impressed by Rachman's tale. His characters rarely demonstrated much collective-purpose and leadership. Their creative drive and stamina seemed to come from their personal emotional pursuits, and although they worked on what one could argue is one of the most collaborative professions, they appear too individualistic and demoralized in their isolation. If there is no higher purpose or power, we settle for imperfect.
To see this institution collapse so easily was a profound statement. Perhaps Rachman makes a case for recognizing the danger of narcissism. The ending of the paper was the ending to their connection to each other - a warning to us all.
I have not read the book but will soon. My reason for commenting is to warn listeners of the unbearable speech habits of Deirdre Donohue. Sounding more like a middle school girl than a thoughtful adult, she is incapable of completing a thought. You need not go beyond her first comments to get the picture. Topic changes in mid-sentence, numerous Mallspeak affronts. Though fascinated by the topic, I had to click the radio off on two different occasions. She was so distracting I feared for the other drivers on I-95. Please, Diane, resist any temptation to invite her again unless the topic is the decline of the American language. She'd be like, I don't know. And I'll be like, oh-oh-oh my God.