---
title: "Book Review: The Imperfectionists — a novel by Tom Rachman"
description: "Longlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize, a New York Times bestseller, The Imperfectionists by Tom Rachman was certainly on my radar as a book that I missed reading in 2010. The first I heard of it..."
url: https://somisguided.com/2011/02/20/book-review-the-imperfectionists-a-novel-by-tom-rachman/
date: 2011-02-20
modified: 2011-02-20
author: "Monique"
categories: ["Book Reviews"]
type: post
lang: en
---

# Book Review: The Imperfectionists — a novel by Tom Rachman

[!(https://somisguided.com/wp-content/uploads/imperfectionists.jpg)](http://tomrachman.com/)

Longlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize, a New York Times bestseller, (http://tomrachman.com/) was certainly on my radar as a book that I missed reading in 2010. The first I heard of it was actually in a holiday round-up by the *Guardian*, then it appeared in other round-ups and the next thing I knew, Tom Rachman was doing a reading at my local bookstore, Ardea Book & Art.

So Tom, let’s see what you’ve got.

*The Imperfectionists* is a series of linked stories that together form a novel. The characters are various staff members of an English-language newspaper in Rome. Each character is imperfect in his or her own way, as is the newspaper they run.

The table of contents is pretty clever:

Quote:

“BUSH SLUMPS TO NEW LOW IN POLLS”

Paris Correspondent, Lloyd Burko

“WORLD’S OLDEST LIAR DIES AT 126”

Obituary Writer, Arthur Gopal

“EUROPEANS ARE LAZY, STUDY SAYS”

Business Reporter, Hardy Benjamin

…

Some of the stories were pretty brilliant. My favourites being the interspersed italicized stories of the paper’s original publisher, Cyrus Ott.

The novel, overall, was memorable, but I felt like Rachman’s writing was trying too hard to be clever. Its jolts of insight are many and often back to back, which at times is like reading a series of Jon Stewart intros.

(http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/02/books/review/Buckley-t.html) highlights most of the characters and provides a good sense of the novel. I found it enjoyable, and kind of like a newspaper in that some articles are more intriguing than others.

(http://www.randomhouse.ca/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9780385671033)

(Published by Anchor Canada)