Tom Rachman
Author of The Imperfectionists
About the Author
Tom Rachman was born in London, England and raised in Vancouver, Canada. He is a graduate of the University of Toronto and the Columbia School of Journalism. He was a foreign correspondent for the Associated Press and from 2006 to 2008 was an editor at the International Herald Tribune in Paris. show more Rachman is the author of The Imperfectionists and The Rise & Fall of Great Powers. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Works by Tom Rachman
Associated Works
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Canonical name
- Rachman, Tom
- Birthdate
- 1974
- Gender
- male
- Education
- University of Toronto
Columbia University - Occupations
- journalist
editor
novelist - Organizations
- Associated Press
International Herald Tribune - Relationships
- Rachman, Gideon (brother)
- Nationality
- Canada
- Birthplace
- London, England, UK
- Places of residence
- Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Rome, Italy
London, England, UK
Members
Reviews
Tom Rachman writes really well and has, so far, chosen to write about things that interest me. So my expectations were unnaturally high for The Italian Teacher (art! Italy!). I'm happy to say that Rachman exceeded what I had anticipated. The Italian Teacher hit all my sweet spots, while also being a very good book.
Pinch is born in 1950, the son of Natalie, a young Canadian woman who came to Rome to work on her art, and Bear Bavinsky, a larger than life prominent painter who dominates every show more room he enters. Bear eventually leaves his second family for a third, and Natalie and Pinch become a team. She encourages his painting and he helps his increasingly unstable mother negotiate life in Rome and then in London. The novel follows Pinch all through his life, one that is quiet and restrained, but also dominated by the spirit (and occasionally the presence) of his father.
This book, guys. It's a whole bunch of things. Just when it starts to approach a dead end or seems to be going somewhere expected, it shifts into something different. The coming of age novel in which Pinch and his mother negotiate a rag tag life in Rome becomes a college novel set in Canada, and then it all becomes somewhat Stoner-esque, as Pinch, a naturally modest person, lives quietly as a foreign language teacher, and then the whole book explodes with deception, intrigue, forgeries and lies. I liked it. show less
Pinch is born in 1950, the son of Natalie, a young Canadian woman who came to Rome to work on her art, and Bear Bavinsky, a larger than life prominent painter who dominates every show more room he enters. Bear eventually leaves his second family for a third, and Natalie and Pinch become a team. She encourages his painting and he helps his increasingly unstable mother negotiate life in Rome and then in London. The novel follows Pinch all through his life, one that is quiet and restrained, but also dominated by the spirit (and occasionally the presence) of his father.
This book, guys. It's a whole bunch of things. Just when it starts to approach a dead end or seems to be going somewhere expected, it shifts into something different. The coming of age novel in which Pinch and his mother negotiate a rag tag life in Rome becomes a college novel set in Canada, and then it all becomes somewhat Stoner-esque, as Pinch, a naturally modest person, lives quietly as a foreign language teacher, and then the whole book explodes with deception, intrigue, forgeries and lies. I liked it. show less
Bear Bavinsky is a globally revered artist so absorbed in his own self-importance that he leaves a trail of family devastation in his wake. Spawning multiple children from a string of failed relationships and marriages, there is only one child - Pinch, the narrator of the story - who he keeps up any kind of meaningful relationship with. Pinch worships the ground his father walks on from an early age, which Bear takes advantage of, ensuring that Pinch remains forever in the his shadow and the show more ultimate protector of the lifelong vanity project of his art.
This is a wonderful novel, quick to pull you in. Bear is a fantastically unlikeable alpha character who bursts in and out of the novel creating hurt on nearly every page he's on, whilst Pinch is his antithesis, frustrating to the reader as he consistently holds himself back through life, convinced he's not good at anything as he never receives the validation he craves from his father.
4 stars - one of those books that's just a blooming good read and will keep you turning the pages way longer than you'd planned to. Will be looking out for more from this author. show less
This is a wonderful novel, quick to pull you in. Bear is a fantastically unlikeable alpha character who bursts in and out of the novel creating hurt on nearly every page he's on, whilst Pinch is his antithesis, frustrating to the reader as he consistently holds himself back through life, convinced he's not good at anything as he never receives the validation he craves from his father.
4 stars - one of those books that's just a blooming good read and will keep you turning the pages way longer than you'd planned to. Will be looking out for more from this author. show less
Rating: 4* of five
The Publisher Says: Set against the gorgeous backdrop of Rome, Tom Rachman’s wry, vibrant debut follows the topsy-turvy private lives of the reporters, editors, and executives of an international English language newspaper as they struggle to keep it—and themselves—afloat.
Fifty years and many changes have ensued since the paper was founded by an enigmatic millionaire, and now, amid the stained carpeting and dingy office furniture, the staff’s personal dramas seem show more far more important than the daily headlines. Kathleen, the imperious editor in chief, is smarting from a betrayal in her open marriage; Arthur, the lazy obituary writer, is transformed by a personal tragedy; Abby, the embattled financial officer, discovers that her job cuts and her love life are intertwined in a most unexpected way. Out in the field, a veteran Paris freelancer goes to desperate lengths for his next byline, while the new Cairo stringer is mercilessly manipulated by an outrageous war correspondent with an outsize ego. And in the shadows is the isolated young publisher who pays more attention to his prized basset hound, Schopenhauer, than to the fate of his family’s quirky newspaper.
As the era of print news gives way to the Internet age and this imperfect crew stumbles toward an uncertain future, the paper’s rich history is revealed, including the surprising truth about its founder’s intentions.
Spirited, moving, and highly original, The Imperfectionists will establish Tom Rachman as one of our most perceptive, assured literary talents.
My Review: I was very remiss with this book. It came out in 2010, and I read it that year. I've since gifted it to several others. Did I set down a review? No! Lazy lazy me. That doesn't mean that I don't encourage you to read it, because I do.
There is nothing of the novel about the book, though. Don't go in thinking you'll get Time's Arrow bedecked with cohesive details. You're getting interconnected short stories set in the same world. But say that to the marketing people at any publishing house, the buyers at every bookery, and even the Woman in the Street, and watch their eyes dim and their arms cross and their butts shift uncomfortably in the chair. Stories = Death in publishing. Less than a third the copies of a novel, be it hit, bestseller, or failure. So disheartening! So very annoying to me, too, since what is a chapter except a deeply woven short story set in a shared universe?
Anyway. Enough about that.
Why should all you storyphobes read this book?
That's one of many passages that made me pause, reach for the Book Darts, and mull. Memories are us, we are our memories, life is a brief flash before the eyes and then a deposit on the stockpile of memories. Yes. Well. What makes that okay, for me, is the existence of literature and the presence in my environment of books. So Rachman puts it to me, in this passage, that my stockpile of memories is susceptible to loss and reminds me that it's something to fear...except:
Aha. Yes. As bad as it gets is losing the memories to come! Agreed, and in a very odd way, it soothed a bit of my ill temper at the inevitability of death. (I'm still ticked at the prevalence of loss, which is in fact a thing to dread.)
That is the bargain one makes in forming relationships, though. Loss is a part of it, whether to death or separation. We're always in a process of loss after a certain age, or a process of *consciousness* of loss to be precise. It's the defining characteristic of being in relationship. Or A defining characteristic, as Rachman points out:
For good or for ill, that is the basic motivation, the essential need, the driving desire of them all, be they romantic, sexual, casual, intense, fleeting, or enduring. We want something, unless we're Bodhisattvas. That makes the whole of human existence sound so tawdry, doesn't it?
But nothing in all of the Universe is unmixed. Not even the pure chemical elements are unmixed. After all they each and every one began their existence as hydrogen, the simplest thing in all of creation, and were forced, compressed, annealed into their current pure states by the explosion and death of a star. From that death, that ultimate transformation of a bright and shining object into a myriad of other, unshining things, all of existence as we know it flows. Our own lives show us that endings are beginnings and all beginnings are neutral. It's what one does next, what flash of the present one accepts into the stockpile of memories, that determines which endings are "good" and which "bad." Rachman says this more succinctly, I think, when he writes, “Anything that's worth anything is complicated.”
Mmm hmmm.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. show less
The Publisher Says: Set against the gorgeous backdrop of Rome, Tom Rachman’s wry, vibrant debut follows the topsy-turvy private lives of the reporters, editors, and executives of an international English language newspaper as they struggle to keep it—and themselves—afloat.
Fifty years and many changes have ensued since the paper was founded by an enigmatic millionaire, and now, amid the stained carpeting and dingy office furniture, the staff’s personal dramas seem show more far more important than the daily headlines. Kathleen, the imperious editor in chief, is smarting from a betrayal in her open marriage; Arthur, the lazy obituary writer, is transformed by a personal tragedy; Abby, the embattled financial officer, discovers that her job cuts and her love life are intertwined in a most unexpected way. Out in the field, a veteran Paris freelancer goes to desperate lengths for his next byline, while the new Cairo stringer is mercilessly manipulated by an outrageous war correspondent with an outsize ego. And in the shadows is the isolated young publisher who pays more attention to his prized basset hound, Schopenhauer, than to the fate of his family’s quirky newspaper.
As the era of print news gives way to the Internet age and this imperfect crew stumbles toward an uncertain future, the paper’s rich history is revealed, including the surprising truth about its founder’s intentions.
Spirited, moving, and highly original, The Imperfectionists will establish Tom Rachman as one of our most perceptive, assured literary talents.
My Review: I was very remiss with this book. It came out in 2010, and I read it that year. I've since gifted it to several others. Did I set down a review? No! Lazy lazy me. That doesn't mean that I don't encourage you to read it, because I do.
There is nothing of the novel about the book, though. Don't go in thinking you'll get Time's Arrow bedecked with cohesive details. You're getting interconnected short stories set in the same world. But say that to the marketing people at any publishing house, the buyers at every bookery, and even the Woman in the Street, and watch their eyes dim and their arms cross and their butts shift uncomfortably in the chair. Stories = Death in publishing. Less than a third the copies of a novel, be it hit, bestseller, or failure. So disheartening! So very annoying to me, too, since what is a chapter except a deeply woven short story set in a shared universe?
Anyway. Enough about that.
Why should all you storyphobes read this book?
“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. My past- it doesn't feel real in the slightest. The person who inhabited it is not me. It's as if the present me is constantly dissolving. There's that line from Heraclitus: '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.”
That's one of many passages that made me pause, reach for the Book Darts, and mull. Memories are us, we are our memories, life is a brief flash before the eyes and then a deposit on the stockpile of memories. Yes. Well. What makes that okay, for me, is the existence of literature and the presence in my environment of books. So Rachman puts it to me, in this passage, that my stockpile of memories is susceptible to loss and reminds me that it's something to fear...except:
“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. And that’s bad enough, surely.”
Aha. Yes. As bad as it gets is losing the memories to come! Agreed, and in a very odd way, it soothed a bit of my ill temper at the inevitability of death. (I'm still ticked at the prevalence of loss, which is in fact a thing to dread.)
That is the bargain one makes in forming relationships, though. Loss is a part of it, whether to death or separation. We're always in a process of loss after a certain age, or a process of *consciousness* of loss to be precise. It's the defining characteristic of being in relationship. Or A defining characteristic, as Rachman points out:
“I have to wonder if you're not being slightly naive here. I mean, are you saying that you want nothing from people? You have no motives? Everybody has motives. Name the person, the circumstances, I'll name the motive. Even saints have motives -- to feel like saints, probably. ... But still, the point of any relationship is obtaining something from another person.”
For good or for ill, that is the basic motivation, the essential need, the driving desire of them all, be they romantic, sexual, casual, intense, fleeting, or enduring. We want something, unless we're Bodhisattvas. That makes the whole of human existence sound so tawdry, doesn't it?
But nothing in all of the Universe is unmixed. Not even the pure chemical elements are unmixed. After all they each and every one began their existence as hydrogen, the simplest thing in all of creation, and were forced, compressed, annealed into their current pure states by the explosion and death of a star. From that death, that ultimate transformation of a bright and shining object into a myriad of other, unshining things, all of existence as we know it flows. Our own lives show us that endings are beginnings and all beginnings are neutral. It's what one does next, what flash of the present one accepts into the stockpile of memories, that determines which endings are "good" and which "bad." Rachman says this more succinctly, I think, when he writes, “Anything that's worth anything is complicated.”
Mmm hmmm.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. show less
Some novels are like balloons slowly being filled with air. Just when the book reaches its breaking point, when no more tension can possibly be inserted, relief arrives in one of two ways: either the book springs a leak and fizzles to a disappointing end, or it explodes into one of those satisfying endings readers will remember for a long time. Mystery and thriller writers are always trying to make their balloon pop, and the good ones do it more times than not. Unfortunately, The Rise and show more Fall of Great Powers springs a bad leak instead of exploding. It begins with an interesting premise, hints at some kind of intriguing revelation to come, and then fizzles into mediocrity.
The Rise and Fall of Great Powers tells the tale of Tooly Zylberberg, a little girl who is having one of the strangest coming-of-age experiences imaginable. Tooly lives with her father, a man who about once a year moves her to a new continent where she starts her life all over again. That Paul is hiding them from someone goes right over Tooly’s head. To her, being suddenly submerged into an entirely new culture where she has to struggle with language and a new school is perfectly normal. And, every so often, no matter where they are, a woman called Sarah shows up to spend a little time with Paul and Tooly. It is all perfectly routine to the little girl – until the day Sarah steals her away from her father.
Rachman tells Tooly’s story in a recurring succession of segments that occur in 1988 (when Tooly is 10), 1999-2000, and 2011 (the present?). Although this approach is a bit confusing at first because of the number of characters involved, it soon becomes a fascinating process of filling in all the blanks about how the various characters became the people they are in 2011 when Tooly is trying to solve the mysteries of her childhood. Who knows the truth – and is willing to share it with Tooly?
Is it Humphrey, the old Russian who at times seems to have raised Tooly on his own while everyone else in her life forgot about her? Zenn, the charismatic young man Tooly has always admired and looked to as her protector? Sarah, the woman who kidnapped her? Her father, who seems to have made little effort to find and get her back when she disappeared?
What promises to be the fascinating truth about her childhood is out there somewhere, and Tooly is determined to find it. But when she finally does find it, all the air comes out of The Rise and Fall of Great Powers and the reader is left holding little more than an empty balloon. show less
The Rise and Fall of Great Powers tells the tale of Tooly Zylberberg, a little girl who is having one of the strangest coming-of-age experiences imaginable. Tooly lives with her father, a man who about once a year moves her to a new continent where she starts her life all over again. That Paul is hiding them from someone goes right over Tooly’s head. To her, being suddenly submerged into an entirely new culture where she has to struggle with language and a new school is perfectly normal. And, every so often, no matter where they are, a woman called Sarah shows up to spend a little time with Paul and Tooly. It is all perfectly routine to the little girl – until the day Sarah steals her away from her father.
Rachman tells Tooly’s story in a recurring succession of segments that occur in 1988 (when Tooly is 10), 1999-2000, and 2011 (the present?). Although this approach is a bit confusing at first because of the number of characters involved, it soon becomes a fascinating process of filling in all the blanks about how the various characters became the people they are in 2011 when Tooly is trying to solve the mysteries of her childhood. Who knows the truth – and is willing to share it with Tooly?
Is it Humphrey, the old Russian who at times seems to have raised Tooly on his own while everyone else in her life forgot about her? Zenn, the charismatic young man Tooly has always admired and looked to as her protector? Sarah, the woman who kidnapped her? Her father, who seems to have made little effort to find and get her back when she disappeared?
What promises to be the fascinating truth about her childhood is out there somewhere, and Tooly is determined to find it. But when she finally does find it, all the air comes out of The Rise and Fall of Great Powers and the reader is left holding little more than an empty balloon. show less
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