The Secret of Lost Things tells the story of Rosemary Savage as she travels to New York in search of the outside world after her mother passes away. She leaves her small home town in Tasmania and at first feels overwhelmed and alone in the big city.
She soon stumbles upon the Arcade, a huge second hand bookstore and its band of misfits of employees. This starts from the owner, Pike who often refers to himself by the third person (can you say weird??) to the manager, Geist, an albino whose eyesight and health are rapidly failing, to Pearl, a transsexual, who works as the cashier and aspires to be an opera singer even though the hormones which she takes are slowly destroying her voice.
Then she meets Oscar.She soon stumbles upon the Arcade, a huge second hand bookstore and its band of misfits of employees. This starts from the owner, Pike who often refers to himself by the third person (can you say weird??) to the manager, Geist, an albino whose eyesight and health are rapidly failing, to Pearl, a transsexual, who works as the cashier and aspires to be an opera singer even though the hormones which she takes are slowly destroying her voice.
Oscar, in all his neatness and obsession with note taking and profound knowledge of everything, intrigues Rosemary. She is soon drawn to him even though she knows that they will never be together.
Rosemary is soon unwillingly pull into a web of deceit when a hunt for a priceless manuscript by Herman Melville pulls the employees of the Arcade into its game. It does not help with her uncontrollable feelings for Oscar and Geist's somewhat perverse and desperate feelings for her as well.
Amongst all this, she seeks solace and counsel in Pearl and Lilian, a caretaker in the hotel at which she first stays at in her first few days in New York. The motherly figures offer her the let out and love, lacking which, one would believe Rosemary would be lost and forgotten like many in the big city.
When I first picked up this book amongst all the books, I felt the same way as Rosemary did as she stepped into the Arcade. Caressing book spines seemed to be something both of us can relate to. The book showed promises of a good read, like The Shadow of The Wind. Such a good read that was, something that had the musty and mysterious setting of a book store too.
Alas, this is not to be. The Secret of Lost Things did not impress me. Rosemary was bland, like a bowl of watered down soup. I felt none of the overwhelm-ness (is there such a word) that one would feel when first in New York city. And I felt none of the loneliness and sadness of a girl who just lost her mother. Rosemary's tendency to talk to her mother's ashes, which she brought over from Tasmania with her, did not convey this.
The story lacks a climax, and it did not feel gripping to me. Even the revelation of the mystery at the end was not captivating.The only thing lost i feel then was my time reading it.
Overall the book felt like something you wish you had not purchase full price at a bookstore.
Rating: 2/5
"I was born before this story starts, before I dreamed of such a place as the Arcade, before I imagined men like Walter Geist existed outside of fables, outside of fairy tales."
Alas, this is not to be. The Secret of Lost Things did not impress me. Rosemary was bland, like a bowl of watered down soup. I felt none of the overwhelm-ness (is there such a word) that one would feel when first in New York city. And I felt none of the loneliness and sadness of a girl who just lost her mother. Rosemary's tendency to talk to her mother's ashes, which she brought over from Tasmania with her, did not convey this.
The story lacks a climax, and it did not feel gripping to me. Even the revelation of the mystery at the end was not captivating.The only thing lost i feel then was my time reading it.
Overall the book felt like something you wish you had not purchase full price at a bookstore.
Rating: 2/5
"I was born before this story starts, before I dreamed of such a place as the Arcade, before I imagined men like Walter Geist existed outside of fables, outside of fairy tales."
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