osprey_archer (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
osprey_archer) wrote2012-01-10 07:39 am
osprey_archer) wrote2012-01-10 07:39 am
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Book review: The Lost Art of Keeping Secrets
And now for a review something I actually liked: Eva Rice’s The Lost Art of Keeping Secrets, which is like I Capture the Castle if I Capture the Castle took place in the mid-1950s and was not only an exquisite coming-of-age novel but also a perfect crystallization of an era.
The story kicks off when our heroine, Penelope, impulsively hops in a taxi with Charlotte - never mind she’s never met Charlotte before in her life. Their friendship becomes the heart of this lively, meandering story; Charlotte’s brash, impulsive, larger-than-life personality encourages Penelope to leave behind her retiring childhood and experience the world.
And what a world it is! It’s 1955, and in England rationing is only just ending; after decades of suffering life is becoming fun again, youth culture is blooming, there are grand parties and Johnnie Ray (a precursor to Elvis) and Americans, with their exotic American accents: the birth of a bright new modernity.
The Lost Art of Keeping Secrets captures this excitement beautifully. It’s not often that a book makes me want to visit the 1950s - but damn, this one does.
But, though main mood of the book is giddy excitement, all isn’t sunshine. This rush of newness swamps the old, and while the change may be necessary, letting go is painful. Penelope lives in a grand old house, Magna, which belonged to her father who died in the war. The house is an albatross around the family’s neck, a huge cash drain; yet it is also home.
The only problem with the book is that the ending is somewhat rushed, as is the romance. Rice makes the somewhat unusual choice to end with Penelope’s realization that she has feelings for the young man in question, rather than the two of them actually getting together; while on the one hand this keeps the focus of the book on Penelope and Charlotte’s friendship, which is as it should be, it’s not quite satisfying.
The story kicks off when our heroine, Penelope, impulsively hops in a taxi with Charlotte - never mind she’s never met Charlotte before in her life. Their friendship becomes the heart of this lively, meandering story; Charlotte’s brash, impulsive, larger-than-life personality encourages Penelope to leave behind her retiring childhood and experience the world.
And what a world it is! It’s 1955, and in England rationing is only just ending; after decades of suffering life is becoming fun again, youth culture is blooming, there are grand parties and Johnnie Ray (a precursor to Elvis) and Americans, with their exotic American accents: the birth of a bright new modernity.
The Lost Art of Keeping Secrets captures this excitement beautifully. It’s not often that a book makes me want to visit the 1950s - but damn, this one does.
But, though main mood of the book is giddy excitement, all isn’t sunshine. This rush of newness swamps the old, and while the change may be necessary, letting go is painful. Penelope lives in a grand old house, Magna, which belonged to her father who died in the war. The house is an albatross around the family’s neck, a huge cash drain; yet it is also home.
The only problem with the book is that the ending is somewhat rushed, as is the romance. Rice makes the somewhat unusual choice to end with Penelope’s realization that she has feelings for the young man in question, rather than the two of them actually getting together; while on the one hand this keeps the focus of the book on Penelope and Charlotte’s friendship, which is as it should be, it’s not quite satisfying.
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I actually interpreted the ending as Penelope and the young man in question getting together - or at least, being at the beginning of getting together, if that makes sense.
Ever since you suggested I Capture the Castle should be a genre, I've been trying to think of other books which qualify (apart from A Brief History of Montmaray, of course...) and not really getting anywhere.
I wondered about L.M. Montgomery's Emily books, which have some-what eccentric family and attachment to a family home, but I'm not convinced.
Do you have any suggestions for the genre?
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I'm not sure the Emily books work, either. Emily's family is eccentric but too chilly - there isn't the sense of insular closeness that the families have in the other I Capture the Castle type books. Also, I haven't read the later books in the series, but I would be surprised if she came of age in quite the way that the heroines of I Capture the Castle books do - if there was a sharp break with her childhood self.
Let's see, other possibilities for the genre. Have you read Daddy-long-legs (http://osprey-archer.livejournal.com/148903.html)? There's no big house or eccentric family, but the voice is very similar and the book is all about the heroine's mental growth. I think you're really like it.
That's all I have off the top of my head. Four books, that's a genre, right? I'll let you know if I think of any more.