{"id":3397,"date":"2026-02-15T19:36:13","date_gmt":"2026-02-16T03:36:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lunabase.org\/~faber\/blog\/?p=3397"},"modified":"2026-02-15T19:36:13","modified_gmt":"2026-02-16T03:36:13","slug":"review-the-secret-of-the-old-clock-1930","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lunabase.org\/~faber\/blog\/?p=3397","title":{"rendered":"Review: The Secret of the Old Clock (1930)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I normally read books in the strict sense of the word, which is to say I don’t do a lot of audiobooks. That’s not prescriptive, it’s just the way I generally prefer to engage with books. But Nate DiMeo who does The Memory Palace<\/a>, read the 1930 version of the The Secret of the Old Clock<\/em> when it entered the public domain this year. I’d heard him read Walt Whitman’s Song of Myself<\/em> as a bonus episode of the Memory Palace before the 2016 election. That so entranced me that I pretty much listen any time he wants to read a long form piece. So, Nancy Drew.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I quite liked it. The mystery is twisty enough that it keeps you engaged, even if the title gives a bit away. The characters are for kids, so there’s only so much going on there. But everything worked and was engaging enough without talking down too far.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What I really did enjoy was seeing how 1930 the whole book was. There’s a plot point about the fact that many roads are still unpaved. One of the characters is an elderly woman whose health is declining rapidly and without a family around her, there’s really no hope of health care without having substantial means. And the depiction of a black caretaker is right out of Amos and Andy. Nate read the book cold and his surprise at this portrayal is a thing. He presses on, but he’s outright apologetic at several points.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was also interesting to see what people put in children’s books at the time. The strict gender roles are in effect, but Nancy is depicted as being very self-sufficient. I remember a line to the effect of “Of course, Nancy Drew could change a tire, but didn’t relish the task.” She also fixes a boat engine. Great stuff. There’s some evidence pilfering and illegal liquor as well. I think I support all of that when needs must.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I see there was a 1959 rewrite, which I expect sanded some of those edges off, but having a look at the original was good fun.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Recommended.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I normally read books in the strict sense of the word, which is to say I don’t do a lot of audiobooks. That’s not prescriptive, it’s just the way I generally prefer to engage with books. But Nate DiMeo who does The Memory Palace, read the 1930 version of the The Secret of the Old […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3397","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books","category-reviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lunabase.org\/~faber\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3397","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lunabase.org\/~faber\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lunabase.org\/~faber\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lunabase.org\/~faber\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lunabase.org\/~faber\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3397"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.lunabase.org\/~faber\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3397\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3398,"href":"https:\/\/www.lunabase.org\/~faber\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3397\/revisions\/3398"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lunabase.org\/~faber\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3397"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lunabase.org\/~faber\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3397"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lunabase.org\/~faber\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3397"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}