Publisher Gets What He Deserves (or does he?) : The Imperfectionists

In the last two stories/chapters in Tom Rachman's "The Imperfectionists" there's a sudden and to some degree welcome change. In these two stories at last the beleaguered staff members of the international newspaper (obviously modeled on the IHT) show a little backbone and react when trampled upon - and they take it out on the horrible management and ownership of the paper. Any newspaperman/woman past or present (e.g., me) can understand that, and there's a certain schadenfreude in watching the idiotic publisher and the heartless accounts executive get what they deserve. And yet: there's such an underlying cruelty in these two stories; I won't give away the surprises and twists, though most readers can probably see them coming, but the characters who act out are very nasty - in one case impulsively and in the other case much more deviously and by design. I know, I want it both ways - I have remarked in previous posts that too many of Rachman's characters are doormats and now when they strike out against (corporate) oppression and idiocy I think they're cruel and unfeeling (which they are). Overall, I'm a bit puzzled and at sea about The Imperfectionists - I did really enjoy reading it, the "types" Rachman creates and describes are amusing and to an extent recognizable to any newsroom denizen, but they're not happy, not pleasant, not idealistic and enthusiastic and energetic like so many I've known in the business. Maybe these burnout types or hapless naifs are more typical of an international paper, I don't know. I'd encourage other newspapermen/women to read it, but I wonder how many would agree with me: This is like Bizarro Planet, recognizable but strangely fractured and bewildering and not really the world that I know.