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| The Private Lives of Pippa Lee | 
 enlarge | Author: Rebecca Miller
Publisher: Canongate Books
Category: Book
List Price: £7.99
Buy Used: £0.01
You Save: £7.98 (100%)
New (34) from £0.46
Avg. Customer Rating:  25 reviews
Sales Rank: 683
Media: Paperback
Pages: 240
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 7.6 x 5 x 0.4
ISBN: 1847672493
EAN: 9781847672490
ASIN: 1847672493
Publication Date: June 12, 2008
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews: Read 20 more reviews...
 Pippa Who? September 16, 2008
I actually just read this for the second time before posting a review and liked it slightly better than I did the first time. The writing's elegant but light and therefore easy to read but... I don't believe in Pippa Lee, she's not a real person, and if she were, she's not somebody I'd want to know. There's not really much of a plot, and what there is ties up far too conveniently at the end with none of the moral dilemma which would have made it interesting - although given Pippa's previous track record, there wouldn't have been much of a dilemma anyway. It's OK but doesn't hook you in emotionally, I can't believe they're making a film of it.
 Boring and mediocre September 15, 2008
I have to wonder what all the fuss was about with this book. If you take the author out of the equation, then it's a pretty unremarkable piece of work. Indeed, a snapshot of many people's lives, I feel, except for the suicide maybe, and surely not worth a mention by Richard & Judy. Sorry, I must have been missing something. I expected more from Ms Miller.
 Overrated and disappointing September 9, 2008
Was really looking forward to reading this book but i have to say that i found it both tedious and uncomfortable. Its dreary style was difficult to concentrate on and the plot line was both unimaginative and uninteresting.
I wouldnt recommend this at all. I couldnt wait to finish it so that i could move onto another book.
 Pleasurable Miasma September 8, 2008
A thoroughly engrossing book, interesting, intriguing and ultimately satisfying.
At first it seems like the average tale of a middle-aged middle class American woman, moving to a respectable neighbourhood and having adventures among the eccentricities of a retirement village. It is engaging enough to make you go with it, as Rebecca Miller fills her characters with a sufficient combination of quirks and ordinariness for you to want to live alongside them a little while.
Then begins the sleep walking for Pippa, and from there the novella itself takes on an ethereal quality that reminds one of dreams, or possibly the drugged states to which she refers in the story. It is a masterful use of style. Sometimes as clear as crystal, sometimes as murky as the places Pippa has inhabited.
You get absorbed into the narrative and accept what happens to the characters and the development of their relationships. Some, like Aunt Trish, sadly disappear from the tale and you wish they would reappear because their function is then too obvious and yet their character is intriguing.
The novella reminds me of nothing so much as the film "Factory Girl." There is also the feel of German mid twentieth century fiction about it.
If I have a complaint about this book, it is that it was too short, and that I feel Rebecca Miller could have produced a more complex weave of characters and story.
An Easy Read of Quality September 1, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
I thoroughly enjoyed this book and devoured it in as few sittings as possible. It is the kind of book that, for me, has too many extraordinary plot twists and character traits to seem completely realistic, but the writing was so good that I was prepared to suspend belief and just go with the story.
The novel begins with Pippa Lee at 50 years old, married to a man 30 years her senior, and moving into a retirement complex. The first part of the book describes her current life, focussing on her relationship with her husband and two adult children. The second part goes back to Pippa's childhood and charts her wild and self-destructive youth up until she meets her husband and changes her life. The final portion of the book returns to the present day, where all is not right between Pippa and her family, and things have reached breaking point.
I found Pippa to be an interesting if not always likeable character. She seemed to drift through life, easily influenced by others, with little conviction about what she wanted or with any kind of moral compass. Despite this, I liked Pippa. I felt she was very much a product of her childhood and was just a confused, lonely person at heart. I was also interested by a lot of the secondary characters and enjoyed how the author managed to perfectly sum up their personalities in just a few piercing descriptive sentences or lines of dialogue.
Perhaps the one false note was the ending. Part of me feels that the loose ends were all tied up too neatly, within just a few pages, and perhaps the book could have gone on a bit longer to make the ending more realistic. Furthermore, there was also something that happened near the end of the book that just didn't ring true. I won't give too much away, suffice to say that there was almost a metaphysical element to the ending that I found unsatifying.
Overall, I have to give this book 5 stars because it is an intelligent, sensitive novel, and also a real page turner. Who could ask for anything more?
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