MixedThe New York Journal of BooksLong wandering sentences and stories within and of themselves are not necessarily a trait of all African writers, but tend to dominate much of the language, as it does with Ms. NDiaye’s, even though she was raised in France and now lives in Germany ... No one really comes into his or her own power or feels complete and whole. The stories tell tales and let us know what people are thinking and feeling, but there is little progression, change, or insight with the characters ... There is no salvation. Everyone is doomed to live life as it is. In some respects, this is refreshing and realistic, but readers usually read in order to be taken out of our quotidian monotony, not for immersion in the minds of characters who have accepted the hopelessness of life as it is ... These stories torment readers with the possibilities and unfulfilled potential to which they could have aspired.
Tom Rachman
MixedNew York Journal of BooksWith keen insight, Mr. Rachman takes us into the minds, self-doubts, and insecurities of the newspaper world, but finds it difficult to get underneath the characters’ skins. He provides the essentials of who, what, when, where, and why (like a good reporter), but tends to minimize the impact that events and relationships have upon the characters. It feels as if they are talking about or thinking of their lives, as opposed to being in them—the sense of being kicked in the gut or feeling the shattering of one’s dreams was sorely absent from the narrative, even in moments of intense loss or heartbreak ... The Imperfectionists is a good book if you wish to know more about the inner workings of putting out a newspaper and the ongoing challenges being faced in the news-publishing world. There is also an interesting and well-crafted beginning and end. If you wish to read something that has more of an emotional punch, however, you may want to pick up another novel—one that doesn’t sound as much like one newspaper story after another.
