LOVED this book, the best in fluffy reading!

From the backflap:
"Set in the 1950s, in an England still recovering from the Second World War, 'The Lost Art of Keeping Secrets' is the enchanting story of Penelope Wallace and her eccentric family at the start of the rock 'n roll era.

Penelope longs to be grown-up and to fall in love; but various rather inconvenient things keep getting in her way. Like her mother, a stunning but petulant beauty widowed at a tragically early age, her younger brother, Inigo, currently incapable of concentrating on anything that isn't Elvis Presley, a vast but crumbling ancestral home, a severe shortage of cash, and her best friend Charlotte's sardonic cousin Harry..."

Wow. I win this book in rapturina’s RABCK raffle and she carries it all the way from Holland to Helsinki and visits my hometown bringing all 433 pages (plus a big pile of other books) with her. Thank you rapturina! It was so nice to meet you and your friend. I hope you liked Tampere.

I got the book I wished for. Still, I was kind of surprised to find out it is a romantic novel. I don’t usually read anything like that. But hey, isn’t that part of the charm in BookCrossing; you get to read books you wouldn’t read otherwise.
Besides, I liked the title—that’s why I chose this book. And I do like the old-fashioned style of the cover and the fact that story is set in the 1950s. I’m intrigued.

Christmas! A Hilja Valtonen book in English! This one is just set in England instead of Finland.
Eva Rice does write just like Hilja Valtonen (1897—1988), popular Finnish romantic novel writer. This book reminded me mostly of Vaimoke (1933). Basically, the only difference is that where these more or less posh young ladies belong to British upper class, Valtonen’s protagonists are either hard working girls or part of some small town/village elite. They do more than spend one day in week in some antique shop and go to posh parties.
rapturina, I really think you and anyone who likes this book and knows some Finnish should read something by Hilja Valtonen. (I might try to find one for you if you like. Just let me know.)

In the blurb there’s a quote from the Cosmopolitan, “If Jane Austen were still around, she’d be writing books like this.” I don’t think so; Jane Austen today would criticise the British society and the English upper class much more. Instead of Austen, the text is more like a blend of Louisa M. Alcott (Little Women) and Anita Loos (Gentlemen Prefer Blondes). I’ve liked both of them.

There was something bugging me in the text. I hate it when the story is set somewhere in the past and at the same time some ideas are taken from the present—the idea of beauty, for instance. The girls in The Lost Art of Keeping Secrets are quite tall. They were born in the 30s and growing up during the WWII. And then they tell me there was food rationing in Britain.—Six foot, my ass!
Penelope’s (the narrator) lack of vocabulary was another thing annoying me. There was a lot of hissing, crying, and giggling. One might think that an 18-year old, who has gone to a posh private school, would know some synonyms. On the other hand, she is only eighteen. Perhaps Eva Rice is suggesting that young people didn’t—or don’t—use more words even if they knew them.

You can send your brains off for a holiday while reading The Lost Art of Keeping Secrets. Boring, I’m sorry to say. The plot is so predictable. The book has 433 pages and if somewhere between 3—20 you know everything that’s going to happen, what’s the point in reading the remaining 400+ pages? However, I did read them.
Well, there was one surprise quite in the end. It brought Daphne du Maurier and her novel Rebecca to my mind. They even mention Rebecca in the book.
I had to struggle my way through this book. But it truly is not Eva Rice’s fault. I might have actually liked The Lost Art of Keeping Secrets better if I had read it some other time. It’s just that I was pressured (by myself!) to read it right now. I have the next reader in my mind, you see. And I want the book to be ready and read when I meet her. I hope she’ll like The Lost Art of Keeping Secrets much more than I did.

I was wondering if they really talked about popmusic in the fifties. They probably did. Here in Finland the word didn’t come in common use until the 1960s.
Something else I learned too. There was this famous musician called Johnnie Ray. Never heard of him before. Perhaps he wasn’t that big in Finland? It is possible that Elvis became popular before we heard anything about Johnnie Ray. Anyway, it was interesting to learn about him now.

I didn’t—I did not!—hate this book. I just didn’t like it as much as I could have in other circumstances. As a matter of fact, it is quite well written, easy-read and very entertaining indeed. And it has pictures too:)
And I still love the title, the cover, and the whole book as an artefact.
And I am really glad I read it.
Thanks again, rapturina!

Oh Wow - I was presented with a wishlist book at the All-Finland kesäpäivät meeting in Tampere. Thank you!!

I just got home to Turku after this enjoyable short trip to Tampere and am going more or less straight to bed and will journal all the other books tomorrow... but I had to write immediately about this one because I was so impressed to be given a wishlist book. Thank you again.

I really enjoyed this! I can't remember anymore what I had read about it that inspired me to add it to my wishlist, but I'm so glad I did. It was a comfortable read, and yet witty. I was so glad when on page 4 I realized that Penelope was going to be able to hold her own against Charlotte:

'He's a conductor called Michael Hollowman. I suppose you're going to go all sophisticated and tell me you know exactly who he is and wasn't his interpretation of "Rigoletto" remarkable?'

'It was, if a little hurried and lacking in emotion,' I said.

Charlotte stared at me and I grinned.

'I'm joking,' I admitted.

Only now does it occur to me that we never meet Charlotte's mother, which seems a little strange, and how implausibly great the coincidence of Charlotte's first meeting with Penelope (as opposed to some other random girl) should be, but while I was reading I enjoyed every moment.

Thank you, Tarna. Especially thank you now that I scroll down and read that you rushed through this to have it ready for me! I really did enjoy it. Yes, I had a few small nitpicks (For example: Penelope is blasé about a lesbian aunt but it never occurs to her that Johnnie Ray might be gay??), but they didn't detract from my reading.

I will probably take this with me to offer up at the August meeting of Turku bookcrossers at the end of this month. But I'll close this journal entry with two internet links. Here's a video of a 1958 Johnnie Ray performance, including a trip down into the audience for a kiss (funnier than expected - I'd have thought it ridiculous if Rice had put it in this novel). And here's a snippet of "The Little White Cloud That Cried", actually recorded live at the London Palladium!

EDIT: 28 Aug: Taking this to the Turku August bookcrossing meeting. If nobody is interested I'll bring it home again and make other plans for it.

Thank you, Potokfan. I hope I enjoy this book as much as you did. :)

I've read almost half of the book now. The book was with me in hospital when I was waiting for my ankle surgery.

My feelings are rather similar to those of Tarna's. The book is boring but still I'm reading it. The description of the 50s isnt very plausible all the time and the plot is very predictable.

Still I would say the book has its moments. I like the mysterious American and, of course, the guinea-pig. :) Although I must point out that a guinea-pig needs a more versatile diet, not just water and carrots.

What I have been wondering from the beginning, was how Charlotte and Penelope meet for the first time. There was something creepy even in it. Charlotte drew Penelope into her life and family circles the way I would certainly find very uncomfortable. This feeling has affected my reading greatly.

The attitude to everything is light in this book. Eg. the family has lost their father in war but it doesn't seem to affect anyone's life very much.

I was just thinking that Finnish literature pretty much lacks this kind of genre. We have romantic fiction and then we have serious women's fiction, but nothing much between those two poles. Only Leena Lander's work is somewhat close to this kind of literature.

But let's see what I say after finishing the book.

Fire, death, secrets, sickness... Typical elements of a romantic story. I must admit that I started to sympathise the characters a bit more towards the end of the story. Especially Charlotte seemed a lot nicer and not as much controlling as she did at first.

But why make it so long? I could have easily deleted 100 pages out of these 430. There were some really boring bits, but then the story suddenly started to roll again.

I would have given more than 6 stars if I had been spared from the moments of boredom. But all in all, not bad reading during a sick-leave.

picked this up at the Turku Bookcrossing games night - hope this is less complicated than the pillars of the earth game (grin)

Still TBR but moving up the pile

Found this again ... buried on my bookshelf. Time to give it a shot ...

ENJOYing this ... This is definitely a wind-down-after-a-hard-day book. Very amusing! But also thought provoking.

e.g. p.264

I guess the strangest thing about your generation is that you grew up with the war as your normality. That's something I can't imagine ...

I am enjoying that I can really 'hear' the way the characters speak - particularly Penelope and Charlotte. Still not sure I get the plot - but as I said this is an enjoyable read. A good wind down bedtime read ....

This was a good read ..Somehow it was light enough to read for pleasure, without demanding too much. Though it didn't actually kindle my imagination much either, which was a pity.

What I did like was the glimpses into 'real' life of the mid 50s, for those who had money that is. For all their talk of lack of money, that they could skip up and down to Wiltshire by train, needed no actual job (any of them) and did employ 'staff' shows that neither Charlotte nor Penelope were short of a few bob, though no doubt their standard of living had dropped post war.

I found the secret at the end to be interesting :) and would concur with Prima that this is

enchantingly written, and the perfect read for fans of all things vintage

In particular I liked the views into the emerging pop scene of the 50s, and the ambivalent attitude towards the Americans.

RABCK for a friend, who I think will enjoy this modern vintage classic

BTW I love reading where books end up -and what other readers thought of the book (good and bad!) - so do please take time to make a journal entry if you possibly can. Appreciate that!

On my shelf

got this back from pinkleidi (who didn't Journal it) .... now time to let it go I think. But to whom and where?

Congrats on winning this RABCK - from Turku, the European Capital of Culture in 2011.

Thanks for the RABCK! I'm excited to read this!