Interconnected stories about a struggling newspaper and its employees. I thought it was very well-written. There's not much to like about the characters, but they were interesting.

Only one of 5 people attending this meeting liked the book.

We all agreed that it was an interesting way to write. We enjoyed many parts of the book, but found it somewhat hard to keep track of characters. It was alternately funny and sad.

Trying to keep track of characters and their connection to one another was somewhat challenging.

Book put together in a form that is hard to follow. Too many characters to follow. All of them losers. sometimes well written but mostly confusing. When you finish it, you feel that who cares about these people? Not the reader. Not well received at our book club.

I found this a funny, wry novel which seemed like a series of short stories (which I'm not particularly fond of), but ended up being an interesting interweaving of the lives in a small Italian newspaper. Clever, sometimes frustrating, but always entertaining.

Rachman has incredible insight into people at all stages in their life journey. His character sketches are deep and often surprising, and he interweaves them in a way that is ultimately very satisfying.

I admired the author's ability to develop simultaneous plot lines while executing excellent character development. He captured the flaws and foibles of human behavior, and the complexities of the time changes were well worth it.

Every chapter was about a different person and did not tie together until the end.

In a series of non-chronological vignettes, Rachman tells the story of an international English newspaper which was founded in the 1950s, had its glory days in the 1960s, and pretty much struggled from then on. It's not so much the paper that the story is about-- though it did almost feel like a character--but the many people who worked there over the years. The author chose to use character sketches of the reporters, editors, proofreaders to tell the paper's story. In the 1990s when the internet came into prominence it was easy to see that the future wasn't very bright for a hard-copy newspaper. Most members of our book club enjoyed this a lot more than I did--for me, the format was too hard to keep up with (jumping from 2006 in the first chapter to 1953 in the next, then up to the near present again, and then to 1954). All of the characters were pretty unlikable which is never my favorite trait in a book. However, we did have a very lively discussion--not too much about weighty themes, but much about the writing, the format, and the really odd characters. If you select The Imperfectionists for your club, I would suggest taking notes as you go, for instance, in the first chapter, note the character's name and what position he's in: Lloyd Burko, stringer searching for stories, 2006. And on the italicized sections, especially, be sure to add the date!

I liked this book. I thought it was very courageous for a first time author to take on this writing style and that may account for the fact that it was sometimes confusing to keep the characters straight.( He wrote each section of the book as a short novella with a continuing thread of commonality running through it.) I loved the settings, the themes and the characters.They were all interesting and sometimes humorous,sometimes sad, and sometimes amazingly normal!. We had a good discussion in our group about the book and the reviews were decidedly different for each of us. That rarely happens.

Made me feel a whole lot better about my own life...many of these characters had a pointless existence. Most of the characters had no real meaning to their lives. It is sad to know if there are people out there who live these types of lifestyles. However, it was interesting to see the circumstances, the reasons how they became who they are, and that they were all tied together in some fashion. Difficult to keep the characters separated...will have a book club meeting soon on this book and I doubt I can remember "who done what"?