Helpful Score: 4
The rise and fall of an international newspaper based in Rome, detailed through a string of vignettes centering around the lives of the paper's hapless employees. This is an incredibly enjoyable read, even if you know nothing about journalism. Alternately poignant, hilarious, and sad. Great read!
Helpful Score: 3
Very original novel - reads like a bunch of short stories about people who work at a Rome-based English-language newspaper, but all the stories are connected and are easy to follow.
You get a good sense of all of the characters' personalities - some of funny, some are poignant - some are just plain nuts. One particular chapter about a young college grad who thinks he wants to be a reporter (but gets taken advantage of by an older, ego-driven correspondent) was so entertaining and funny that it made me laugh out loud.
At first I wasn't sure about this book but the more I read, the more I loved it.
You get a good sense of all of the characters' personalities - some of funny, some are poignant - some are just plain nuts. One particular chapter about a young college grad who thinks he wants to be a reporter (but gets taken advantage of by an older, ego-driven correspondent) was so entertaining and funny that it made me laugh out loud.
At first I wasn't sure about this book but the more I read, the more I loved it.
Helpful Score: 3
Loved reading this, the characters are all so fully presented with their good and their bad and their naked faults exposed. The story is about an industry titan who doesn't marry the one he loves but follows her to Europe and in order to remain near to her, establishes a business, an international newspaper, so that they can work together while married to different people, with him never divulging his love to her. That particular bit is unsatisfying, but all the microscopic peeks at the others who work on the paper (for 3 generations) are all amazing in their breadth and depth and hilarity! There is Herman Cohen (whom I picture in my mind's eye as Madmen's Bertram Cooper) the militant grammar nazi at work who goes home to grovel at the feet of his loving wife, and Rich Snyder (Wayne Schneider the super on One Day At A Time) the slimy correspondent who totally abuses the hospitality of his stringer competition Winston Cheung, every character presented is delightful and pathetic in their own wholly realistic way.
I had high hopes after reading the book reviews on Amazon etc. I, however, found most of the stories tedious, most of the people uninteresting and often the little stories too short to cover the situation being covered. I often flipped the pages looking for more info. I think that is the only reason I finished the book. I thought maybe that more might be explained. It wasn't.
Helpful Score: 2
Surely the book is well-written, but do you really want to spend 272 pages with a bunch of unhappy people?
