Hotmail Tech Support Number

  • Subscribe to our RSS feed.
  • Twitter
  • StumbleUpon
  • Reddit
  • Facebook
  • Digg

Thursday, 22 December 2011

SPL Shelf Life [adult]

Posted on 10:23 by Unknown
The Imperfectionists by Tom Rachman
@SPL: FIC Rachm

For my money, 2011 has been the year of the debut novel. Without so intending, I've reviewed more than a few of them in this space, from Matthew Norman's smutty, snarky Domestic Violets, to paranormal romance sensation Deborah Harkness' A Discovery of Witches, to the vintage appeal and gentle romance of Erin McKean's The Secret Lives of Dresses, just to name a couple. I'm not sure why I've been drawn to so many of them this year; maybe it's that the authors pour so much of themselves into these novels? Whatever it is, thank goodness publishing houses have discovered them too, and decided to put the time and resources into marketing these newcomers.

Perhaps the best-written debut novel I read this year is Vancouver author Tom Rachman's The Imperfectionists. A compact saga detailing the rise and slow decay of an English-language newspaper based in Rome, it packs a lot of humanity in under 300 pages.

The novel is broken into two parallel narratives. One narrative focuses a chapter at a time on the lives of the various staff working at the paper. This is where Rachman's prose really shines – each chapter is really a character study of the personal and work life of the chapter's subject. Incredible empathy is brought to each character, even those who don't come off at all well in earlier chapters belonging to other characters. All these chapters are set at the end of George W Bush's war in Iraq, as the paper struggles to make ends meet in a fraught economic environment, battling it out in print-only format as the general news media's physical presence slowly fades to bits and evanescent silver LCD screens. Rachman slips seamlessly into the worldview of each subject, letting the personality colour his prose with humour, kindness, exhaustion, or whatever other dominant trait tints each particular worldview.

Between each of the character study chapters are brief narrative chapters detailing major events in the history of the paper. These give context to the character studies, and help build anticipation as the reader moves toward the conclusion of the book – will the paper's staunch anti-electronic stance gain it a certain cachet in the market? Will staff be able to amp up their investigative skills and their feature writing to gain enough new readers? Can the paper possibly survive the strife in its Board?

With a spare, empathic beauty to its writing, The Imperfectionists is a masterpiece of a debut novel. It's earned a place solidly within my list of top 5 reads for the year, and is well worth a glance for readers who value spare, lyrical prose in character-driven literary fiction.


This review appeared in The Stratford Gazette on December 22nd. Written by Shauna Thomas, Librarian.
Email ThisBlogThis!Share to XShare to FacebookShare to Pinterest
Posted in shelf life adult | No comments
Newer Post Older Post Home

0 comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)

Popular Posts

  • Family Day
  • French resources for you and your family
    Last night, the Stratford chapter of Canadian Parents for French hosted a Parents Success Night at the Falstaff Early Years Centre. There w...
  • The Best Science Fiction & Fantasty
     Image from the NPR    The  National Public Radio has released their list of the top 100 science-fiction, fantasy bo...
  • Blind Date With A Book and CBC Radio 1
    Two weeks of fun, Under-the-Covers! February 14-28 Come into the library to meet your match! We’ve selected some hidden gems from our collec...
  • Shelf Life [adult]
    Leaving Everything Most Loved b y Jacqueline Winspear @SPL: FIC Winsp Maisie Dobbs has come a long way from her start as a kitchen maid in...
  • Shelf Life [kids]
    The Tree that Bear Climbed  by Marianne Berkes, 32 pages. @ SPL:  JP Berke There are many parts to a tree, and all of them have a role to pl...
  • downloadLibrary and the Windows Phone
    Good news for Windows Phone users! There is now an Overdrive Media Console App for your phone too! This new app will allow users of download...
  • Library is a kind of paradise
    [ source ]
  • Shelf Life [kids]
    Wild Colt by Lois Szymanski, 40 pages. @ SPL:  JP Szyma      Full-page pictures created in oil paint bring to life a beautiful new children’...
  • Send Us Your Flower Photos!
    I don't know about you but I'm ready to see some flowers shoot up from beneath the snow and slush. March 20th is the first day of Sp...

Categories

  • 2.0
  • about spl
  • awards
  • BiblioCommons
  • book sale
  • books
  • CLA
  • Cloud computing
  • contest
  • culture days
  • Cyberbullying
  • databases
  • downloadlibrary
  • DVD
  • ebooks
  • education
  • email
  • employment
  • events
  • Evergreen™ Award
  • Evergreen™ Featured Title
  • facebook
  • finance
  • french
  • Friends
  • Friends of the library
  • fundraising
  • get connected
  • Google maps
  • health
  • helpful links
  • hotmail
  • Image Quest
  • intelligent community
  • kids
  • Lego
  • Library Board
  • Library Foundation
  • library life
  • literacy
  • local
  • magazines
  • March Break
  • movies
  • OPLW
  • Paralympics
  • PCIN
  • penny drive
  • Pinterest
  • PLOW
  • poetry
  • Reading
  • school life
  • shelf life adult
  • shelf life kids
  • strategic plan
  • Stratford
  • Summer 2011
  • Tagging
  • tdsummerreading
  • technology
  • teen
  • travel
  • volunteers
  • Waterloo lectures
  • website

Blog Archive

  • ►  2013 (133)
    • ►  October (9)
    • ►  September (11)
    • ►  August (16)
    • ►  July (16)
    • ►  June (16)
    • ►  May (14)
    • ►  April (11)
    • ►  March (16)
    • ►  February (13)
    • ►  January (11)
  • ►  2012 (195)
    • ►  December (12)
    • ►  November (14)
    • ►  October (16)
    • ►  September (12)
    • ►  August (16)
    • ►  July (14)
    • ►  June (14)
    • ►  May (17)
    • ►  April (14)
    • ►  March (23)
    • ►  February (18)
    • ►  January (25)
  • ▼  2011 (172)
    • ▼  December (20)
      • Did someone say donuts?
      • SPL Shelf Life [adult]
      • Monster Madness!
      • SPL Shelf Life [kids]
      • Holiday Hours
      • SPL Shelf Life [adult]
      • SPL Shelf Life [kids]
      • Staying Up On Technology
      • SPL Shelf Life [adult]
      • SPL Shelf Life [kids]
      • Merry Christmas SPL!
      • Help! I got an eReader!
      • Library Foundation looks to the future in establis...
      • Tumblin' Around
      • SPL Shelf Life [adult]
      • SPL Shelf Life [kids]
      • Your Library Today... and Tomorrow
      • Exciting News for Android Phone Users
      • SPL Shelf Life [adult]
      • SPL Shelf Life [kids]
    • ►  November (16)
    • ►  October (26)
    • ►  September (22)
    • ►  August (20)
    • ►  July (20)
    • ►  June (24)
    • ►  May (20)
    • ►  April (4)
Powered by Blogger.

About Me

Unknown
View my complete profile