Hmmmm...I picked up this book because it was recommended on Borders.com. Pretty lame reason to read something, I guess, but I've found several good gems this way in the past.
This is the story of several employees of an English-language newspaper headquartered in Rome. Each chapter is the story of one character, with in-between vignettes of the history of the paper. There's the story of the washed-up Paris-based reporter. The balls-clenching editor-in-chief. The newbie trying to make it in Cairo.
Each of these stories, when taken as a piece, is fantastic. I loved reading the stories of these...well....losers. Each one of them sucked for a different reason (I hope I'm not giving away too much), whether it be being too bull-headed, too pansy, too sex-driven, etc. I really liked the stories, but I have to admit that I was hoping for some big, bring-it-on-home moment a la Crash or Babel (movies with intertwining stories that all mesh together in the end). Instead, it just ended. No redemption. No climax to the story. Just a big let-down.
So I guess if you take each chapter as its own short story, I would recommend this book. But as a whole, I was disappointed!
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