Welcome to the chaotic world of the newsroom, circa mid-1900’s, as reporters capture the world in all its form and color onto pages of printed black and white, for an English language, international newspaper set in Rome. These newspeople, while famed to be wildly aggressive and competitively ambitious, of course also have frailties and vulnerabilities that come with being human. In the vignettes that are strung throughout this work, each of the characters — some reporters, some editors, some business folk — has a back story that is as poignant as the news they work together to bring to the outside world. The question is, how long will their fledgling paper be able to survive?
This sometimes disturbing, often endearing novel reads almost like a compilation of short stories, as the vignettes almost seem to stand on their own. On the other hand, they clearly tie together, with characters often making cameo appearances in each others’ stories. The writing style is beautifully unfeigned and gritty. The characters are, as the title implies, imperfect, and their lives are as well. Each of their stories is surprising and unpredictable – truly refreshing! But we come to know them, develop an affection for them, and empathize with them – we can relate to them because they are so human and so real. By the end, we have a feeling of almost having ourselves sat with them at the broken desks of the newsroom and inhaled, alongside them, the smoky odor of its stained carpet.
I respect the way the author has allowed problems to be left unresolved in many of these vignettes. For example, there is a 40-something year-old woman who finds truly imperfect love. We see very clearly that her situation is not the healthiest one. The lover she has chosen is pretty much a jerk, actually. and our hearts break a little for her. When a friend tries to help her see how she is being taken advantage of, and she reacts by breaking off the friendship, we lament this as a willful blindness. But I believe the author’s point here is, do we really know what is best for someone else? Who are we to judge?
There are many cringeworthy moments in this novel – as there are in life. And that is the point. And that is what I love about this book.
Come read, cringe, revel, and just live with these characters. They will enrich you as genuine people (not fake ones) do.
kindread spirits 