The Private Lives of Pippa Lee

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 show more 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. show less

Pippa Lee is in her fifties when she moves into an old folks' community because her much older husband is worried about growing old. Pippa has always been the perfect wife, so she doesn't complain, and does a beautiful job of selling up and starting afresh. However, not all is calm under the surface, and Pippa starts to examine her life to see what brought her to this place, and also her role as a mother to her two grown-up children.

I thought it was simply fascinating, and was so good to read a book with a fully detailed, contradictory, complex woman at the heart of it. I was particularly impressed with how I liked her at the beginning, even when she was being a Stepford Wife.

In the beginning, I liked the book a lot more than at the end. Life in Marigold Village (a retirement community) was more appealing to me than the sex and drug hoopla of Pippa's youth. Am I aging? "Once a philanderer, always a philanderer" answers the "what I learned" prompt from Goodreads. Pippa was well developed as a character but I never really got a bead on the other characters, particularly Chris. The writing was good (as befits Arthur Miller's daughter). But this book won't go on my end-of-the-year top titles.

At the start of this novel you are lulled into reading a story about a 50 year old wife and her 80 year old husband. On his suggestion they have sold everything and moved to 'wrinkle village' a retirement complex. Pippa plays the perfect housewife, adores her husband and panders to his needs but she is not entirely happy with her lot.

When a neighbours troubled son arrives on the scene I felt the book was going down a predictable route, but it then take an unexpected twist.

The middle section of the book is Pippa relaying her life from birth until she married her husband. It explores her relationships in particular with her mother. There are parts of this section which made me raise my eyebrows as she leaves home and disappears into a show more spiral of drugs. I felt she was easily led and was constantly seeking the unconditional love of a parent figure. She lacks ambition and responsibility, she allows others into her life at the deepest level and then drops them and runs.

The book ends back in the present with a few more discoveries about Pippa and those surrounding her.

Pippa is a strange character - not what she appears on the surface, I would like to know what becomes of her.

The book is articulately written, the author creates believable characters and relationships. Womans fiction with a dark undertones, I enjoyed it and will certainly look out for her next book. show less

My first comment upon finishing this one is I find the choice of title a bit…. Odd. If by “private lives” the author means the growing inner turmoil Pippa experiences, then I still struggle with the “private lives” bit. Maybe it is in reference to the fact that Pippa’s life with Herb, her husband, is a polished veneer and very different from her intense and psychologically damaging childhood years where her Dexedrine-addicted mother’s manic behaviour is a catalyst for Pippa’s own wild and unhinged youth. Either way, the title is a strange one, but maybe fitting for what is a rather odd story. The story dissects Pippa’s life into sections in a manner that one reviewer refers to as being “like opening a series of show more Russian Dolls, each intricately wrought, self-contained and self-revealing”. Sadly, I have to agree with the reviewer when they go on to say that each section is just as empty as the last. There is a lot of show, but not a whole lot of substance in this one. The supporting characters seem to come across as slightly exaggerated personalities but even then, there is still an overall flatness of tone to the story. Miller may have done this on purpose to enhance the rather dreamy, sedate aspect of Pippa’s personality (making me think of a Stepford Wife on suppressants), and if so, I am not sure that it works in the way Miller intended. Even when there are what are probably supposed to be shocking scenes - thinking of when the younger Pippa is a participant in an amateur S&M movie - the whole reading experience is a bit surreal.

Overall, a different kind of story of self-examination and discovery but one that didn’t really work for me. Maybe it works better as a movie... I don't know. The fact that it was immediately made into a movie shortly after being published tells me that someone somewhere thought it had potential. show less

This book starts seemingly as a safe predictable read about a middle aged woman and her much older husband moving into a retirement community. However it soon changes changes into something entirely different when we are taken back to Pippa's dysfuntional childhood and teenage years. It then appears to go down the sado masochistic and drug scene for a while. When Pippa starts a relationship with Herb Lee 30 years her senior who ultimately becomes her husband, a truly shocking event seems to trigger a period of domestic harmony and a perfectly behaved Pippa for the next 20 years or so.
In the third part of the book yet more unexpected things happen. Pippa befriends the strange son of her new friend who is portayed as an almost show more supernatural god --like being during one intimate scene which some readers might find offensive.
I enjoyed reading this book and liked Pippa Lee especially when she behaves like the perfect housewife on the outside but has rebellious thoughts all cooped up inside.
The author writes well in my opinion show less

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 show more 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/2008/07/12/the-private-lives-of-pippa-lee-by-re... show less