Perfection in "Imperfectionists"

I may be one of the worst English/journalism double majors in the history of academia. My mantra until about a year ago was, “Yes, I study literature and writing, but I hate to read.” So what changed? Somewhere in London, my high school mentality of “if you make me do it I will hate it” disappeared. I discovered the classic texts of my Romantic literature, Shakespeare and American literature classes stuck around for the past few centuries for a reason. Amazingly, when I sat down to tackle the works of Austen, Shelly, Keats, Twain and Shakespeare it didn’t hurt, no tears were shed and I actually enjoyed reading. To be fair, breaking a twenty-year-long abhorrence does not happen overnight, but my mentality was definitely altered. The summer after my return from abroad I read more books by my own accord than I had since I took on the entire Harry Potter series in one month.

I find myself drawn to authors I can relate to: specifically contemporary Jewish authors and journalists turned authors. My favorite is Mitch Albom, as evident from my stained and worn copy of “The Five People You Meet in Heaven.” He is both a Jew and a journalist, so how can I help but love him? I am drawn to his style; it is easy to read, conversational, yet complex and emotional. I always walk away from his books with a mind full of bubbling question and new perspectives. Even though his background is in sports writing, Albom tackles difficult topics such as death and faith. He tackles them in a way that is not preachy but beautiful and always open for interpretation by the reader.

One of my new favorite books and writers comes from another journalist, and I encourage any journalist, anyone who has worked in a news room or even just read a newspaper to pick up a copy. The author is Tom Rachman and his novel is “The Imperfectionists.” I must confess I am about 100 pages shy of finishing the book, because I suffer from the common affliction of college students involving a guilty feeling associated with reading material other than the thousands of pages already assigned for classes. From what I have read so far, all I can say is this book is amazing! One of the best books, if not the best books I have read in a long time. What makes it so special? Not only does he recreate the landscape of the journalism industry for the past forty years spot on, but he takes the deadline crazy, in-your-face news business and makes is personal. The structure of the book is unique in that each chapter tells the story of one member of the staff of an English newspaper based in Rome. In between each chapter are a few pages telling the story of how the newspaper came to be.

There are moments in this book so real and heartwarming they I have to stop mid page to appreciate the genius of the writing. It is so easy for writers of any genre to fall into the trap of following clichés, I am not exempt from this. Stories have been told for centuries, so finding ones that have not been told before is rare. But Rachman brings a level of creativity to his novel that I did not expect, given his journalism background. I don’t think anyone who read this book would be disappointed, but I think it would be even more difficult for a journalist not to appreciate and relate to it.