The Secret of Lost Things
by Sheridan Hay
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Book Summary Information
Author: Sheridan HayEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 2008-03-11
ISBN: 030727733X
Number of pages: 368
Publisher: Anchor
Product features:
- ISBN13: 9780307277336
- Condition: NEW
- Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
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Book Reviews of The Secret of Lost Things
Book Review: A darker hybrid between 84 Charing Cross Road and Armistead Maupin
Summary: 4 Stars
This is a slow and careful book which charts the journey of a young Tasmanian woman in a quirky corner of New York. Rosemary, the eighteen year old central character, is both much younger than her age - lacking in worldliness and any sort of 'modern cred', and also, much older, in terms of her attraction to a life of internal, rather than external, focus.
The small cast of characters in the book are all loners, oddballs, possessed of peculiar damage in some way.
There is a lot of nuance in this book , and it is sweetly, and sadly, delightful. To my shame, I am unfamiliar with Hermann Melville, so felt that there were probably layers and echoes which were lost on me, and that I might even have rated the book as 5 star if I had read Melville's books (much of the book is devoted to the search for a missing manuscript by Melville, and there are excerpts of his letters and writings included, these allusions both driving plot and character)
I really enjoyed meeting the distinctly oddball bookshop characters (hence the hybrid in my reveiw title).
However i did find there was something ultimately unsatisfying in the tie up of the Walter Geist storyline - something not quite believable in the development of relationship, nor in the 'sting' - even though how that was going to end was quite predictable.
I DID like the way she only dropped hints about the 'stinger' and didn't spell out the obvious person responsible - there was no unmasking of their identity, Rosemary never alludes to their identity, though I think the reader will have a very definite knowledge of who it is!
My guess is, if you liked the books mentioned above, and or the wonderful 'Piano Shop on the Left Bank', you will find this to your taste. If you only like the Armistead Maupin territory, this may be just a little too slow and 'pastel' in its colours, where Maupin uses a much more vibrant set of 'colours' - Hay's cast - even the wonderful Pearl - are somehow more secretive in their weirdness.
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