And that's coming from a self proclaimed book nerd...
Heads up, I liked the book. I'll warn you now, this review will read like a love letter to Tom Rachman.
It has taken me an embarrassingly long time to get through this book.
Read: Blame graduate school, the need for sleep, and my sister downloading Sims on her computer.
Synopsis: Centered around the rise and fall of an English language newspaper in modern day Rome, the book pulls from 53 years of headlines, love lives, and personal misfortunes played out on a professional stage. Each chapter is a profile of a character, a day/week/month in the life of one of the many people filling the newsroom in which the story exists. The chapters hold dual text; first, in plain script, the character profile. And following that, in italics, a portion of the timeline of the paper - outlining how it began, when it peaked, and why it fell, through the eyes of the Ott family who conceptualized and ran it.
There is so much right about this book, I'm not even sure where to begin, or end, my review of it. Lets start here, with the title of this post:
This is the greatest book I've ever read in my life. This is not me being factious. This is
literally the greatest book I've ever read in my entire life.
With each chapter, brings a new character; perhaps a name that's been mentioned in passing earlier, or someone who will pop up in a later aside. Each is unique in the time spent and challenges faced, but the common ground for me was that in each story line, I did not want the chapter to end. The author took careful consideration in the closure of each chapter, of that I'm sure. You get to the point in a scene where all you would want is one line, one more line would clear things up, give some closure; but instead your left wondering, hanging in the balance trying to decide what would have happened next. It is both the best and the worst feeling to have while reading a book. Hatred and satisfaction all at the same time.
I started this book on a noisy plane, with crying babies and the nasly voice of the woman in front of me, but I was lost in the story. I want to live in this book. The minute details of the characters' lives, the eccentricities that only exist in journalists are perfected and immortalized in this book. I say this now, and without hesitation, I will read everything this author ever writes.
Normally when reading, I make notes in the margins, thoughts for review or discussion later, but with this book I can't. If I were to annotate or highlight each passage I'd like to talk about here, there'd be no un-highlighted portions of the text left; rendering the highlighting useless in the first place.
Every carefully chosen sentence conveys the exact emotion in the reader that it is meant to. You cringe when Snyder dips his finger into Winston's eggplant dip. You shed a tear when Oliver lays the broken Shopenhauer (his trusty basset hound) onto the elevator floor. And you pray, that someday Hardy will realize that she shouldn't be paying for her free loading boyfriend, you pray that someday she figures out she's better than that. And you hold your breath, not wanting to exhale during the final staff meeting on the newsroom floor.
I'd recommend this book to anyone who enjoys well developed characters, intersecting plot lines, and especially the business of newspapers.
See, I warned you.
