The Imperfectionists (2010) (edit title/settings)

Ridiculously Simplified Synopsis edit see section history

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Summary edit see section history

Characters edit see section history

• Lloyd Burko: Paris Correspondent at an international English-language newspaper.
• Arthur Gopal: Obituary Writer at an international English-language newspaper.
• Hardy Benjamin: Business Reporter at an international English-language newspaper.
• Herman Cohen: Corrections Editor at an international English-language newspaper.
• Kathleen Solson: Editor-in-Chief at an international English-language newspaper.
• Winston Cheung: Cairo Stringer at an international English-language newspaper.
• Ruby Zaga: Copy Editor at an international English-language newspaper.
• Craig Menzies: News Editor at an international English-language newspaper.
• Abbey Pinnola: Chief Financial Officer at an international English-language newspaper.
• Oliver Ott: Publisher at an international English-language newspaper.
• Annika: Girlfriend of Craig Menzies; photographer.
• Dario: Oldest son of avid reader Ornella de Monterecchi
• Boyd Ott: Son of the founder of the paper. Was publisher for a while.
• Marta: Ornella de Monterecchi's housekeeper.
• Jimmy: Add a description of this character.
• Snyder: Competed for job in Cairo with Winston
• Schopenhauer: Oliver Ott's dog
• Leo
• Clint Oakley: boss of Arthur Gopal
• Ornella de Monterecchi: Avid reader of the paper.
• Rory: Hardy's freeloading boyfriend
• Betty: helped found company with Mr. Ott
• Dave Belling: Copy editor at the international English-language newspaper.
• Milton
• Berlusconi
• Massi
• Nigel
• Vaughn
• Didier
• Eileen
• Miriam
• Kurt
• Saddam
• Jerome: Lloyd's son
• Cyrus Ott: Founder of the international English-language newspaper.
• Mr. Deveen
• Henry
• Erzberger
• Charles
• Gerda
• Rube
• Rance

Quotes edit see section history

• “The paper is hardly at the cutting edge of technology – it doesn't even have a website. And circulation isn't increasing. The balance sheet is a catastrophe, losses mount annually.”

• “Dude, let's commit some journalism.”

  Snyder

• “The Internet is to news what car horns are to music.”

• “He arrives at work, flops into his rolling chair, and remains still. This persists until inertia and continued employment cease to be mutually tenable, at which point he wriggles off his overcoat, flicks on the computer, and checks the latest news reports.”

• “If history has taught us anything, Arthur muses, it is that men with mustaches must never achieve positions of power.”

• “. literally: This word should be deleted. All too often, actions described as "literally" did not happen at all. As in, "He literally jumped out of his skin." No, he did not. Though if he literally had, I'd suggest raising the element and proposing the piece for page one. Inserting "literally" willy-nilly reinforces the notion that breathless nitwits lurk within this newsroom. Eliminate on sight - the usage, not the nitwits. The nitwits are to be captured and placed in the cages I have set up in the subbasement. See also: Excessive Dashes; Exclamation Points; and Nitwits.”

• “She can't help it: she's of the newspapering temperament, and he's no longer front page. When, she wonders, do people have time to contemplate anything? But she has no time to answer that.”

• Popular Highlights from Kindle Customers

• ‘No man steps in the same river twice, for it is not the same river and he is not the same man.’ That’s quite right. We enjoy this illusion of continuity, and we call it memory. Which explains, perhaps, why our worst fear isn’t the end of life but the end of memories.”

  Highlighted by 773 Kindle customers

• “What I really fear is time. That’s the devil: whipping us on 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.

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• You can’t dread what you can’t experience. The only death we experience is that of other people. That’s as bad as it gets.

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• “Here is a fact: nothing in all civilization has been as productive as ludicrous ambition. Whatever its ills, nothing has created more. Cathedrals, sonatas, encyclopedias: love of God was not behind them, nor love of life. But the love of man to be worshipped by man.”

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• “But my point, you see, is that death is misunderstood. The loss of one’s life is not the greatest loss. It is no loss at all. To others, perhaps, but not to oneself. From one’s own perspective, experience simply halts. From one’s own perspective, there is no loss.

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• You know, there’s that silly saying ‘We’re born alone and we die alone’—it’s nonsense. We’re surrounded at birth and surrounded at death. It is in between that we’re alone.”

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• If history has taught us anything, Arthur muses, it is that men with mustaches must never achieve positions of power.

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• “I say that ambition is absurd, and yet I remain in its thrall. It’s like being a slave all your life, then learning one day that you never had a master, and returning to work all the same.

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• The personality is constantly dying and it feels like continuity. Meanwhile, we panic about death, which we cannot ever experience. Yet it is this illogical fear that motivates our lives. We gore each other and mutilate ourselves for victory and fame, as if these might swindle mortality and extend us somehow. Then, as death bears down, we agonize over how little we have achieved.

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• “Nothing epitomizes the futility of human striving quite like aspartame,”

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Setting & Locations edit see section history

• Rome, Italy
• Atlanta
• New York
• Washington
• Paris
• Europe
• Cairo
• Iraq
• London
• Iran
• United States
• Mexico
• Geneva
• Gaza

First Sentence edit see section history

Table of Contents edit see section history

Series & Lists edit see section history

Authors & Contributors edit see section history

1. Tom Rachman (Author)

First Edition edit see section history

Awards edit see section history

• Amazon Best of the Month (April 2010, #2)
• Publishers Weekly's Best Books of the Year (2010: Fiction)

Classification edit see section history

• Library of Congress: PR9199.4.R323 I57
• Dewey: 813.6

Notes for Parents edit see section history

Adult fiction.

Subjects edit see section history

• Books › Literature & Fiction › Literary
• Books › Literature & Fiction › Contemporary

Links to Supplemental Material edit see section history

• Tom Rachman: Tom Rachman's official website.

More Books Like This edit see section history