A young girl moves to New York from Tasmania after her mother passes away. She gets a job at a bookstore full of eccentric employees. In fact, they might be too eccentric. It seems at times that the author is pushing them in our faces and trying to convince readers that we should like these characters. It didn't work for me.

I like the idea of a lost manuscript. Although personally, I'm not a fan of Melville, so I say "Let it stay lost." The quest to find acceptance, friendship, romance, and the manuscript just don't come together for me. Too much searching, looking, and yearning, and not enough just plain storytelling. ( )

The Secret of Lost Things by Sheridan Hay is about a young woman from Tasmania, who moves to New York and takes a job in a used book store, where all the employees are real 'characters.' Much intrigue ensues when word of a valuable lost manuscript by Herman Melville comes to light, but even before then, Melville and Moby Dick are a running theme of the book. What's odd is that I've studiously avoided anything Melville since having to (attempt to) read Billy Budd in high school, but after reading this book, where everyone is so enamored of Melville, I'm thinking of tip-toeing back into the waters and giving him another try. Highly recommended. ( )

I have to say this was not one of my favorite books. The story line seems to be a good one young woman with no father, looses mother on birthday. She moves to New York to find her way in life, and in the meantime finds a job at a book store. She meets all the misfits in her daily life and also unknowingly gets herself in the middle of a scandle.
The problem I had was how long it took for anything to really start happening. There where several chapters of nothing but set up. Once the story really started moving, it was ok. I liked the historical links, it was a great bonus.
However, I am not so sure I will recommend it. ( )

This book was a read for a RL book group.

I am rather ambivalent about it. On the one hand I thought the writing was very good. There was a sensual quality at times that made me want to roll around in it.

On the other hand the characters and story were exceptionally bland and uninteresting for most of the book. It picked up at the end, and the introduction of Melville and his lost book was interesting.

The story is about a young, innocent, unbelievably naive 18 year old girl from Tasmania, named Rosemary. She had no father and after her mother died, a family friend sent her to New York City. There is no year given but I suspect it was in the 70s.

In NYC she stays in a run down, cheap, women's residence. She eventually finds work at the Arcade bookstore (modeled on the Strand). Just by walking in and asking.

The bulk of the story is about her trying to navigate the world of the bookstore, and its strange employees, while also building a life in the city. Internally she is trying to deal with the loss of her mother and the abandonment of her father.

The owner and the employees are all odd, but not really interesting. The only character I find interesting is Pearl the cashier who is about to undergo sex reassignment surgery to become a woman anatomically.

Rosemary develops father fixations on several employees, and a romantic crush on one who does not have romance/sex or emotional attachments to either sex. Oscar is not above using Rosemary's attraction to him, for his own gain.

The owner, Mr. Pike, attempts to control the store and the employees. The employees in the sections they are in charge of, are plotting against each other, and trying to meet their own idiosyncratic needs. The plotting is around customers/collectors, sales, and finding rare or coveted books. Information about books is the lifeblood of the store.

The store manager is an albino dwarf, who is also infatuated with Rosemary, but he repels her for most of the book. She ends up getting a loan to allow her to take an apartment, and part of the agreement is that she will become Mr. Geist's Assistant. It is never clear if the loan is from the store or Mr. Geist, and she is off-balance because of it.

With her new position as his Assistant she becomes aware of a letter sent to Mr. Pike that is offering to sell a copy of Melville's lost work. Mr. Geist has intercepted it. She is unable to keep it to herself and she tells Oscar. Oscar believes that Geist is plotting to get the manuscript for himself and sell it for profit, keeping the store and Mr. Pike out of it. Oscar thinks the book belongs in a library or museum.

Rosemary becomes involved in various deceptions in trying to find out who has the book for sale, and who is going to buy it. She has also told the man in the rare book room, a father figure, about the letter.

The theme of Melville's book is supposed to be about remorse, and it seems that the actual story is about that as well. Rosemary wonders if her father who deserted them is remorseful.

She is often remorseful for the actions she takes or doesn't take. She is spinning tales to each about what she has told the other 2 men about the letter, She has also made promises to each not to tell anyone else.

She also makes friends with the woman at the desk of the women's residence, Lillian. A strange hostile woman who turns out to be from Argentina and the mother of a disappeared son taken by the government who never returned, and whose body has never been found.

Lillian and Pearl try to warn Rosemary about her infatuation and imaginary romance with Oscar. It does no good.

The lost Melville book project becomes pubic and has dire repercussions.

The book finally ends, with Rosemary growing up. ( )

I fell in love with the language and writing style of Sheridan Hay in the beginning of this book. By the time I got to Part 3, I was ready to change the title to "The Secret of Lost Interest". Despite the writing style, the development of the main character was really annoying to me. The entire cast of characters in the book are more caricature than character, but Rosemary "for remembrance" was naive, and facile. The arc of the story is about a lost manuscript of Herman Melville's with the theme of loss scattered through out the book. There is a bit of a moral at the end: Things are never lost when you hold them inside your memory.

I really wanted to like this book, but I ended up not liking the main character and her naive motivations. ( )