Customer Reviews

The Secret of Lost Things

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(21)
3 star:		(16)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(11)

 

 

I loved this novel about the goings-on inside what may sadly soon become an anachronism: a bookstore, populated by a fascinating cast of oddballs, in New York City. This old, vast, dimly lit bookstore is the sort that is a world unto itself, and the young Rosemary, freshly arrived from Tasmania, of all places, becomes absorbed in its doings when she signs on as an employee.

"The Secret of Lost Things" is the sort of book that a book-lover will cherish, full of literary references and quotes, atmospheric descriptions of the world of books, and of the eccentric types who populate that world. There is action and intrigue, too, around the finding of a lost manuscript of Herman Melville (one of my favorite writers), and the author has woven her plot using actual letters from Melville; these make the events of this novel more plausible and even riveting.

Reading this novel was espacially pleasurable becuse of the author's lovely way with the language; while still modern, she manages through her construction and vocabulary to capture the peculiar formailities of the classics of English literature. I look forward to her next book; the quest for another lost manuscript, perhaps? It could be an interesting motif for a series...

I devoured this book and loved MOST of it.

It's a warm story of a young girl finding her way from Australia to the US. She finds a job in a used book store, which is a wonderful setting for any real book-lover. The people she meets inside the store are quirky and interesting.

Rosemary ends up on a quest for a lost Herman Melville transcript. The story line provides mystery and intrigue.

My only complaint is that (as another review mentioned) the characters are not well enough developed. Also, I didn't feel at all satisfied with the conclusion regarding Oscar, Rosemary's infatuation. I never felt that he was fully explained to the reader.

All in all, it was an enjoyable read and I recommend it to anyone who loves books and bookstores!

This fabulous, coming-of-age novel about a young herione named Rosemary is really a book about books. Literary references scatter the pages along with humor and wonderful characters. Rosemary is an 18 year-old girl who comes over to America from Australia and finds herself working in a bookstore with an array of odd people. She soon discovers a missing manuscript written by Herman Mellvile (which, in actuality, was written but never published). The world of books and Mellvile draws her in.
This is a great book for every reader who loves books. Hay gives Rosemary a wonderfully fluid narration with lovely insight to her surrondings, leading you to love the character and the author herself. The people that surrond the herione herself are just as interesting. The beauty of this novel is that there are no "weak" characters. Every side story to the main tale that is Rosemary's is just as insightful and beautifully told. The curiousity of each person is so intriging. Hay's debut is full of quirks and, in the end, is really just a great read.

This book took me far too long to read. The story is ambitious, scholarly. The characters are well drawn, yet quirky and not entirely likeable. There is a mystery that makes the plot compelling; however, at times I found the prose overwritten and the language unnecessarily lofty. (The author either has a remarkable vocabulary, or had a handy thesaurus). Why I stayed with this until the end is ultimately very simple. It was because of the narrator, Rosemary Savage, an affable and sympathetic young woman, who comes of age during a year in New York City.

Rosemary is a beautiful redheaded teenager. She leaves the island of Tasmania shortly after her mother passes away and sets out to find herself a life. Virtually penniless and without a formal education, she is a clever girl and has had the benefit of being raised by a strong, single mother as well as training from a loving friend named "Chaps," who owned a bookstore. It's therefore no surprise when Rosemary winds up working in a dark cavern of a bookstore filled with eccentric, erudite misfits. Owned by George Pike, The Arcade specializes in rare books, catering to collectors who will regularly drop as much as $40,000 for a book. Her education is swift and she quickly becomes an integral part of the store's daily life.

Soon, Rosemary is pulled into a tangled mystery involving a lost manuscript by Herman Melville. It's known as "The Isle of the Cross," and uncovering its history and pending acquisition is central to the story. If you knew nothing of Melville prior to reading "The Secret of Lost Things," you will certainly learn as much as Rosemary did as she pursues the potential whereabouts of this valuable manuscript. Meanwhile, she falls in love with an aloof coworker named Oscar, and must learn to deal with the advances of the repulsive store manager, Walter Geist, a blind albino on the brink of losing his mind.

The story is unique and I ultimately believe it was a successful and worthwhile reading experience. It's not for everyone, but if you love books, I'm sure you will appreciate this effort.

Michele Cozzens, Author of A Line Between Friends and The Things I Wish I'd Said.

This was a carefully written book, with a cast of quirky characters, but a minimal plot that really went nowhere and took a long time to get there.

Every character except the heroine was deliberately peculiar or abnormal: the albino, the transsexual, the overweight gay man diddling himself in the stacks, the miserly bookstore owner who always referred to himself in the third person, and several more.

But although the author gave many of these characters detailed attention, they remained little more than caricatures of real individuals who for me did not come alive in the book. Even the heroine often seemed more like a movie victim whose primary function was to do foolish things in order to drive the plot along.

To be fair however, I did finish the book, which I rarely do if it doesn't have some redeeming qualities. There were some interesting literary allusions, mostly related to Herman Melville. But the book's promise was not realized; the various plot threads were not resolved. In short, it was ultimately an unsatisfying experience.

The setting for this novel is about as interesting as the characters who are a pretty odd mixture of people. The characters are so odd they are more caricatures than real people. However, the mixture is a good one so it makes for a fun and interesting read for those of us that love a bit of mystery, a bit of literary history, and a bit of the bizarre.

This is just a fun read and nothing more - not great literature and not particularly a book that will linger in your mind, but there's nothing wrong with that.

In reading other reviews of this book, I find critics to be sharply divided on the merits of The Secret of Lost Things. While I understand the criticisms (the actual, constructive criticism as opposed to nebulous rantings), I can only disagree with the negative outcome.

The Secret of Lost Things has flaws, but on the whole, it is a compelling tale written in lush language that is seldom seen from a contemporary writer. Rosemary, the first-person narrator, is imperfect, and so are the people she encounters. Some of her co-workers are downright disturbing (much like the people most of us encounter every day, frankly). This only deepened my interest in the story. That the novel involves a mystery (the appearance of a previously-thought-lost manuscript by Melville) set in a large bookshop, it only became more compelling as I turned the pages.

I also disagree with the critics who said that the story didn't "quite come together," as I thought Miss Hay combined the threads very well. Also, and to her credit, I did not see the plot twists coming from miles away (and there are indeed several twists). This is not a compliment I'm often able to give.

Opinion is ephemeral, as the wide range of ratings for this novel clearly shows. You may loathe The Secret of Lost Things. You may adore it. I came much closer to the latter than the former, and the best praise I can offer for this first effort is that, several days after finishing the last page, I'm still mulling it over.

Lost things, dreams, letters, her ideas of people and place permeate Sheridan Hay's lovely, first novel. Here is an energetic story teller, masterfully embodied in the young Rosemary Savage who, after her mother's death, travels from Tasmania to New York to shake herself from grief, or perhaps from the sheer routine of life on such a faraway isle.

Her job at the Arcade bookstore brings Rosemary in touch with all kinds of zany characters. As she helps Geist with his mission of secretly procuring a lost novel of Herman Melville, Rosemary enters the world of people who deal in books for the thrill of their possession as well as their contents. Each has his or her own agenda. Hay's ability to bring a little of American literary history alive amidst her fictional millieu kept me turning the pages. Her voice has the quality of a writer who has lived a bookish life, but her turn of phrase displays the lighter touch of one who still believes in fairy tales.
I found The Secret of Lost things a very satisfying novel on several levels and I am very glad to have read it.

Rarely have I read a novel by a first-time author that captivated me the way The Secrets of Lost Things has. Sheridan Hay captures the lower East Side of New York city with its quirky characters in the charm of a huge used book store and a three dimensional main character.

After the death of her mother, 18 year old Rosemary Savage leaves her home in Tasmania to begin a new life in a big city. With all her worldly goods in one suitcase and a bag of books she sets off leaving behind her mother's best friend and her mentor, Esther Chapman or Chaps as she calls her.

Languid with grief, she listens to Chaps who advises her to make a break but not to Sydney which was so familiar to her. As further encouragement, Chaps gives her, $300, a plane ticket and a wrapped present, a Huon box.

She couldn't have picked a bigger city than New York.. Combining the best and the worst, New York has everything one could want. It's also the loneliest place on earth if you're alone. And Rosemary was totally alone.

Finding a place to live in the dingy Martha Washington Hotel for Women Rosemary's next priority is a job. You can almost feel her fear the first time she ventures out into the labyrinth of the city surrounded by noise, dirty sidewalks and the fast fury of the mass of people.

The story really takes off when she wanders past the Arcade and realizes it's a huge used bookstore. It's not home or Chap's little book store but, for the first time, she feels at hopeful.

Sheridan Hay writes with great emotional feeling as she tells us of the characters both working at the Arcade and the customers visiting it. This is a bookish book including the obsession with Herman Melville and a mystery about a lost Melville manuscript. It's a good story, well written and crammed with characters that jump off the page.

Interest lags a bit and the pace gets murky with the mystery of a lost Melville novel but that's really a picky criticism by someone who's not a fan of Herman Melville.

If you like a well written novel, a story about a book store and characters that engage you, this book is for you. I, for one, will look forward to Sheridan Hay's next book.

I didn't love it, but I liked it. Hay's writing is technically excellent, so rare today. But the protagonist seemed implausibly introspective and analytical, and dramatizes everything. Sometimes I just wanted her to stop thinking too much and get on with it. And, as others have noticed, some of the characters are a bit cliched: the transsexual with a heart of gold, the Latina who knows the true meaning of life and sorrow, the creepy albino (named Geist! A bit obvious, isn't it?), etc. Interesting, too, that the heroine is able to wander all over 1979-1980 Manhattan on foot at all hours of day and night without ever considering her safety or encountering any intimidating individuals. Anyway, I enjoyed it overall, in spite of it's flaws. I look forward to Hay's next novel, and to her maturation as a writer.