karieh13's review against another edition
3.0
“The Secret of Lost Things” is the latest in a long-ish list of books about characters that love books. This year I’ve enjoyed “The Thirteenth Tale”, “The Shadow of the Wind” and the latest by Jasper Fforde…all more than I enjoyed this book by Sheridan Hay.
The plot elements intrigued me…a sheltered girl from Tasmania moves to New York following the death of her mother, is drawn to an begins work at a “emporium of used and rare books called the Arcade”, a possible lost then found manuscript of Herman Melville’s…
And yet…after the first few chapters…I found myself drifting off. The pace of the book was too slow, tempting me to skim over parts of the book. The characters of the novel, while colorful, were not very compelling. And at times, the colorful bits just seemed too “over the top”.
“In fact, as I walked behind him, Geist’s white ears reminded me of delicate sea creatures suddenly exposed to light, vulnerable and nude. There was a shrinking quality to him, a retraction from attention like an instinctual retreat from exposure. I was fascinated and repulsed by equal measure, a contradiction that was never to leave me.”
On one hand, I appreciate the Dickensian creatures that inhabit The Arcade, and I suppose they are all the more mysterious and interesting to a young girl who was discouraged from meeting other people by her mother…but at the end of the day, I just didn’t believe in them.
I love bookstores. I love the smell of the paper and ink, the smell of dust, the possibility that I will discover a hidden treasure…I could spend hours in a good bookstore. And yet? Maybe I am too old to be enchanted by a description like this.
“Try to see this place for what it is.” “And what’s that, Arthur?” “Well, a bookstore, but also a reliquary for the bones of strange creatures. Mermaids’ tails, unicorn horns…that sort of thing. You’re looking at natural history in this place.”
There were, however, small treasures to be found in “The Secret of Lost Things”. There are moments of genuine emotion that pour out of two of the characters that have let life pass them by, who mourn for that which never was. A sentence here, a paragraph there drew me back in enough so that I finished the book. (And a small bit of applause for Hay, who seems to think about giving the reader the ending that s/he expects...the one the book has been hinting at all along…and instead...takes a better route.)
And here and there – I find something that reminds me of my love of books.
“No doubt my fondness for the Rare Book Room came in part from a sense of familiarity. It was a version of Foy’s hat workroom from childhood visits to Sydney. There were no piles of skins, no wall of drawers filled with bric-a-brac, but each old volume amounted to something like the same thing. A book was like a drawer: one opened it and notions flew out.”
In “The Secret of Lost Things” – the drawer that I opened yielded only bits of sparkle instead of a treasure.
The plot elements intrigued me…a sheltered girl from Tasmania moves to New York following the death of her mother, is drawn to an begins work at a “emporium of used and rare books called the Arcade”, a possible lost then found manuscript of Herman Melville’s…
And yet…after the first few chapters…I found myself drifting off. The pace of the book was too slow, tempting me to skim over parts of the book. The characters of the novel, while colorful, were not very compelling. And at times, the colorful bits just seemed too “over the top”.
“In fact, as I walked behind him, Geist’s white ears reminded me of delicate sea creatures suddenly exposed to light, vulnerable and nude. There was a shrinking quality to him, a retraction from attention like an instinctual retreat from exposure. I was fascinated and repulsed by equal measure, a contradiction that was never to leave me.”
On one hand, I appreciate the Dickensian creatures that inhabit The Arcade, and I suppose they are all the more mysterious and interesting to a young girl who was discouraged from meeting other people by her mother…but at the end of the day, I just didn’t believe in them.
I love bookstores. I love the smell of the paper and ink, the smell of dust, the possibility that I will discover a hidden treasure…I could spend hours in a good bookstore. And yet? Maybe I am too old to be enchanted by a description like this.
“Try to see this place for what it is.” “And what’s that, Arthur?” “Well, a bookstore, but also a reliquary for the bones of strange creatures. Mermaids’ tails, unicorn horns…that sort of thing. You’re looking at natural history in this place.”
There were, however, small treasures to be found in “The Secret of Lost Things”. There are moments of genuine emotion that pour out of two of the characters that have let life pass them by, who mourn for that which never was. A sentence here, a paragraph there drew me back in enough so that I finished the book. (And a small bit of applause for Hay, who seems to think about giving the reader the ending that s/he expects...the one the book has been hinting at all along…and instead...takes a better route.)
And here and there – I find something that reminds me of my love of books.
“No doubt my fondness for the Rare Book Room came in part from a sense of familiarity. It was a version of Foy’s hat workroom from childhood visits to Sydney. There were no piles of skins, no wall of drawers filled with bric-a-brac, but each old volume amounted to something like the same thing. A book was like a drawer: one opened it and notions flew out.”
In “The Secret of Lost Things” – the drawer that I opened yielded only bits of sparkle instead of a treasure.
lazygal's review against another edition
3.0
Clearly set in a version of The Strand bookstore, Rosemary's journey from naive, sheltered Tasmanian childhood to a little savvier New Yorker is filled with quirky characters. Almost without question she accepts trans Pearl and the variously creepy men (Walter Geist, Arthur, Mr. Pike) that inhabit The Arcade, and there were times I wondered if that was real or if it was "older" Rosemary looking back at "younger" Rosemary. Had this just stayed with life in the bookshop and Rosemary's growing up the book would have been stronger. However... there's the Melville Mystery and it feels so very contrived.
Several readers have pointed out the author's MFA, which I also noted. Perhaps there was a need to make this more literary focused? It felt shoehorned in and unnecessary. It's not unbelievable that there might be theft of valuable materials from a rare books room, or that employees might have conflicts, but then we should have seen something different in the lead-up so that this didn't appear to have been written for a different book.
Several readers have pointed out the author's MFA, which I also noted. Perhaps there was a need to make this more literary focused? It felt shoehorned in and unnecessary. It's not unbelievable that there might be theft of valuable materials from a rare books room, or that employees might have conflicts, but then we should have seen something different in the lead-up so that this didn't appear to have been written for a different book.
tashaw's review
1.0
DNF at p. 110 -- how many times can one book use the word "antipodean"? How can one make moving to NYC and working in an enormous bookstore so slow-moving and boring?
wolfpack75's review
2.0
Not an exceptional debut novel, the author showed promise in some of the characterization but otherwise this book is unimpressive. The main character is excessively naive, oblivious of so many things as if Tasmania lacked members of the opposite sex or dating or any knowledge of basic human desires. In the end the book is not much of a literary mystery, it's more about mourning the loss of someone and finding that relationship with other people in your life.
caribbean_skye's review against another edition
2.0
The book started off strong and very interesting but 3/4 of the way through it was just blah.
gentlellama's review against another edition
4.0
When I picked up this book, I thought it would be one of those "fluff" books you take on vacation with you (which is exactly what I read). It is, however, everything but "fluff." While I knew this book was about books, I did not know how highly allusive it would be. Hay references many other works in The Secret of Lost Things, sometimes obviously (as seen in her excerpting of parts from Melville's Moby Dick and his letters to Hawthorne) and sometimes quite subtly (having read this book a week ago and began another highly allusive book, I cannot think of specific examples, unfortunately). The protagonist Rosemary is well-developed, but her coworkers are left much more flat and one-dimensional (for example, Arthur and Pike). My biggest problem was Oscar, who behaved as expected in every scene of the novel, though Rosemary seems to be the only person unable to predict him. Still, the book was very enjoyable, very literary, and quite well-written. I loved Hay's writing style, but I found this to be more of a coming-of-age story than the book-lover's mystery it was packaged as being.
inconceivably's review against another edition
2.0
I intended through almost the entire book to give it four stars just based on the characters; however, the ending made me want to give it only one or two...I settled for a compromise. I WANTED to love this book, and I did-through about the first half. I loved Rosemary, she moved to New York and started over on her own, and walked to work at a bookstore everyday-that sounds like a dream life to me. BUT...falling in love with her character could only get me so far...as much as I tried, the plot never engaged me. I would still recommend the book however, it is a pretty quick read, and not altogether a flop.
miss_tsundoku's review
3.0
Not bad for a first novel.
I found myself can relate to Rosemary Savage, but I have to confess that sometimes her stupidity - sorry, naivete, pained me.
I found myself can relate to Rosemary Savage, but I have to confess that sometimes her stupidity - sorry, naivete, pained me.
julialowebe's review against another edition
4.0
I loved this book! Interesting, well-thought out characters, each with their own past and all come together through working at the Arcade, a large used book store in New York City. The bookstore itself is another character. Any reader would love this book and the way the author speaks of reading, quotes great works throughout the story, and obvious respect for literature. "I knew books to be objects that loved to cluster and form disordered piles, but here books seemed robbed of their zany capacity to fall about, to conspire. In the library, books behaved themselves." - Love it!