The Private Lives of Pippa Lee was a slow-starter for me - it took me a couple of weeks to make it through part 1, not because the writing is especially dense or difficult, but because the first fifty-ish pages barely captured my interest. However, other reviews suggested that the novel was worth persevering with, and I am very glad indeed that I did.

The novel opens with Pippa moving into a retirement community with her much-older husband, Herb. Decades younger than all the other residents, Pippa is alternately smugly aware of her relative youth and dismayed to be a middle-aged woman so accelerated into old-age. Pippa seems to have been the model housewife, catering to Herb's every need and providing him with bright, successful children. As Pippa's grasp on the present wavers, she begins to tell the story of her life from its inception.

This, for me, is where the novel really picked up. Pippa's journey from pampered child to perfect housewife - embracing a wayward adolescence - is fascinating. Pippa herself seems something of a cipher, buffeted from one experience to another but somewhat powerless as an actor in her own life. She is repeatedly clothed by other characters, moulded into a particular role according to their desire until the time comes to move on, to assume another identity. The novel documents the emergence of Pippa from these influences, the transition from moving through others' stories into living one of her own.

Miller's writing is detached, even in the middle sections which use first-person narration, and this does make it difficult at times to care about the characters. Not everyone will find Pippa a compelling character due to this, and the way in which her presence within the text is often difficult to grasp. However, despite my early misgivings, I found this a well-written and ultimately rewarding novel. ( )

it took me a while to get into this book. The first part when pippa & herb are settling into the retirement village wasn't keeping my attention. However, this merely sets the scene for the rest of the book. Once the story delved into Pippa's past, I was hooked. It was so well written. ( )

The book begins with middle aged Pippa married to Herb who is 30 years her senior. We are then taken back to her childhood and the bizarre relationship with her mother and then the book also focuses on the relationship with her own daughter Grace, who has a twin brother Ben.

I found this a weird and wonderful read that had me absolutely engrossed. Even though the start was slow, I found travelling through the book to be an emotional experience. It definitely felt like Pippa had lost a part of herself and she was just waiting for the moment where she could reconnect with her whole. Through her life she meets some interesting characters and is drawn to some of them and feels herself repelled by others.

I felt the book came to a fitting conclusion and wouldn't hesitate to recommend it to those that have travelled through some dark times in their life.

Review here: http://bookannelid.wordpress.com/2008... ( )

A slow start almost made me leave the novel unfinished. It took me a while to get into the story, perhaps it needed something a little more exciting at the beginning than moving into a retirement community. However, once the novel got underway it became much more readable and enjoyable. Looking at the actors/actresses listed for the film, I can see how the film will be very successful as Miller's novel can be easily adapted for screen; in fact I think the visual imagery will be more beneficial than the printed word in this case.

I'm unsure as to why the novel has 'private' in the title; there is nothing about Pippa's life that is kept private. The main characters within in her life know all about the things she got up to. This confused me. Pippa thinks she is on the verge of a nervous breakdown and begins to reflect on her life. The dust jacket talks about a story of wild youth - this is quite mild, it's openly sexual and covering lots of different tastes. Not too sure what else to say about this except I won't be recommending it to my mother!! Her reflection looks at betrayal - some done to her and many caused by her. As a disturbed youngster Pippa ruined herself and many a life along the path to the retirement community she regrets moving in to.

The titles of the chapters flow with the mood swings of Pippa, as if they are often after-thoughts she experiences during her impending breakdown. Towards the end of the novel Pippa sees her future more clearly than she ever did throughout her earlier life and it was this Pippa I enjoyed reading about. It is a good plot, the characters are difficult to emphathise with and I don't feel that the novel lives up to the hype on the dust jacket but I am pleased I have read it. If someone is looking for a simple holiday read I'd suggest this. ( )

This book came to me through Library Thing's Early Reviewers, though I must admit that, thanks to both work and family, I am rather late in getting round to writing about it.

When Pippa Lee moves to a retirement community with the much older husband to whom she is devoted, she finds herself out of step with the other residents and, increasingly, with her chosen life. Suspecting that her husband is showing signs of senility, instead she discovers that she is reacting to her new circumstances by sleepwalking. Faced with the revelation that her subconscious is rebelling against the life she has chosen, she finds herself reviewing her past, her childhood, and the circumstances which led to marriage and motherhood.

Although events are seen from Pippa's point of view throughout, the narration alternates between first and third person, permitting access to her thoughts while events are moved along within an occasionally more distanced framework. I'm not sure that this achieves a great deal, as it offers neither a more privileged insight into Pippa's moods and motives nor, mostly, any knowledge of those of the other characters, except in two brief interludes; however, the book doesn't lack pace as a result, and Pippa is an interesting and attractive protagonist, despite her troubled youth. This latter caused me a greater problem, in that I found the disjunct between troubled youth and contented marriage the least convincing element in the story – yes, so much was buried that it was bound to resurface later, and the move in her fifties to the retirement community, for which her husband might be ready, but she certainly is not, is a plausible trigger, but I'm not entirely persuaded that she could have quashed it so thoroughly. Of course, it emerges that there were signs of strain even within the contented marriage but, nonetheless, Pippa seems to have believed the myth along with everyone else.

I felt, in some sense that I can't pin down, that Pippa's voice was younger than her years. The immediacy of her exploration of her younger years, while attracting the reader's attention and empathy, both lacks contrast with her mature voice and offers no feeling of reflection on the past – it is a little too immediate. I also felt that the character of the husband required more depth.

Despite these reservations this was an entertaining book. A brisk read, it reminded me a little of Updike in its considered analysis of a modern American marriage. Not profound, nor even especially thought-provoking, but absorbing enough, and the author's handling of Pippa's emotional life has a clear-sighted quality which lends a feeling of veracity. Nicely produced by Canongate, too, which always adds to the pleasure.

Posted at http://geraniumcatsbookshelf.blogspot... ( )