Can You Keep A Secret? Why Is This A Bestseller?
By Susan Reeder May 6, 2004 Issue

When I mentioned to a colleague I was going to review this book, she said rather dismissively, “Oh, Chick Lit.” It is a term with which I was unfamiliar, but with a clear meaning. I tried to think about whether I had ever read any other books that might fall under this category and decided Bridget Jones Diary and the follow-up called The Edge of Reason probably qualified. Although the author of Can You Keep A Secret is also British, Helen Fielding need not worry about being supplanted by Sophie Kinsella.

Where Bridget was truly funny and seemed truthful, this is a clearly contrived fairy tale aimed at 20-something readers. It has been weeks on the bestseller list of the independent bookstores, which is why it came under review. I’m wondering why it is so popular, and it may have something to do with the author’s previous best sellers, which from the titles have something to do with shopping.

Perhaps I’m too old, but this is in no way literature and while I’m generally unopposed to breezy brain candy reading, this book offers little in the way of a plot and the attempts at providing tension seem forced. The story concerns a young woman on her first major assignment for the marketing department of a mega-successful soft drink company. Things go horribly awry at the meeting with our heroine Emma spraying cola all over a Scottish executive. Things get better for a minute when she is bumped into business class for the short flight home, but then worse again when the plane experiences excessive turbulence.

Sitting beside her is a tall, dark and handsome stranger who is forced to listen, as the I’m-sure-we’re-all-going-to-die nitwit starts spilling every secret she has ever kept from her boyfriend, her parents, her flat mates and seemingly every person she has ever known. A sane seatmate would have killed her and put all of us out of our misery, but at this point, we are only on page 30 and the book has 327 pages left to fill.

Come Monday morning when Emma is back at work, the entire building is all abuzz because the American CEO of the company is in town for a week to check on operations. Of course the executive turns out to be Emma’s hapless seatmate from the plane and our heroine is mortified at the memory of the secrets she has spilled.

The rest is pure Cinderella story as this excessively wealthy, urbane; man about the world is inexplicably enchanted with ordinary Emma. Romance flares, then fades, and then flares again, culminating in an ending a 10-year-old would know is coming. I look at this book as two hours of my life I’ll never get back, but I had to finish it. Partly I had to finish it because I had to write this review, but I also wanted to know just how the ups and downs would be played out. Not because it was compelling, but I was curious.

There are some cute moments, but none of the laugh out loud pleasures I experienced with Bridget Jones. Maybe it had something to do with Bridget being older and less self-absorbed. This is great beach fare because you can stop anywhere and it wouldn’t be difficult to pick up the thread. Come to think of it, you could almost start anywhere and pick up most details, as the author is fairly repetitive throughout, what with the character playing and replaying her every spur-of-the-moment plane utterances. My recommendation would be to re-read Bridget Jones Diary if you’re headed for a day at the beach.

Can You Keep a Secret, 357 pages, published by The Dial Press. Available at local booksellers and libraries.

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