Product Description

Pippa seems to have everything in life. But suddenly she finds her world beginning to unravel. Amid the buzzing lawnmowers and suburban coffee mornings, she starts to wonder how she came to be in this place. The answer is a story of wild youth, unexpected encounters, affairs and betrayals, and the dangerous security of marriage. It brilliantly reveals the challenges of modern life - and all the possibilities that it holds.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #16508 in Books
• Published on: 2008-06-12
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 240 pages

Review
"* 'Like Jonathan Franzen's The Corrections without the bitterness, mixed with Jeffrey Eugenides's The Virgin Suicides without the eccentricity, The Private Lives of Pippa Lee is a thoroughly enjoyable and engrossing read" - Sunday Telegraph * 'Miller is a luminous writer... gazing into these multiple private Pippas is like opening a series of Russian dolls, each intricately wrought, self-contained and self-revealing.' - Olivia Laing, Observer * 'A beautifully layered and subtle novel of identity, with a wonderfully vivid sense of place and character. And it's hesitatingly wise in all sorts of ways, as well as being a deftly constructed page-turner.' - Joseph O'Connor * 'Miller's astute, beautifully nuanced novel explores the unpredictable consequences of choosing to live a safe, but emotionally compromised, life.' - Eithne Farry, Daily Mail * 'Miller writes with a natural poetic flair that's considered and free from affectation.' - Easy Living * 'With beautiful simplicity, Miller unravels Pippa's past and celebrates the stirrings of something new.' - Kerry Fowler, Good Housekeeping Book of the Month * 'Miller's prose is always sharp and visual without being overly descriptive. All of the descriptions, whether of people, places or emotions manage to be both prosaic and evocative... Although it had come to a natural and perfectly timed conclusion, I could happily have read much more about Pippa Lee and her secret lives.' - Aline O'Conner, Irish Sunday Independent"

FT Magazine
An easy read of quality is exactly how Miller's poignant, funny and wise novel could be described

Daily Mail
Miller's astute, beautifully nuanced novel explores the unpredictable consequences of choosing to live a safe, but emotionally compromised, life.

Customer Reviews

please do not buy this dreadful book
Oh dear, I seem to utterly disagree with every other review of this book. Am I missing something? Have others seen more in this unexplained story of a tedious life lived through a fifty-something woman who is on the preiphery of the American indie literary set than I have? I tried, I really did, but everything about this book made me cross, especially the, endless, commas, which, were, unnecessary and very annoying. I couldn't help but wonder what the point of it all was. Everything seemd over-written and, even worse, predictable so when everything fell apart, as such, it was obvious from the start that this was where the book was heading. I really can't find any reason to recommend it and, in fact, by the end I was guffawing with mirth as a litany of (no surprise) affairs were revealed followed by heart attacks and strokes and much more. I would rather have spent my holiday reading Jilly Cooper...and that's saying something.

Don't waste your time on this awful book
I chose this book because it was recommended by Richard and Judy's bookclub, and I have enjoyed some of the books thy recommended in the past, but this was just dreadful.

The main character, Pippa, is someone that I am totally unable to relate to. I felt nothing for her but contempt, she was nothing but an empty shell of a person, performing actions that appeared humanoid but there was no human feeling behind them. In addition to this, I did not like any of the other characters in the book, they were just as boring and empty as Pippa.

This book is a shell. It conveys nothing to me. I can't believe the reviews on the back of this book which called it 'uplifting' and 'Pippa is a woman you'd want as your friend'. No thanks!

The Odd Mystery of Pippa Lee
I had a major problem with Pippa Lee. I just didn't believe in her.

Having said that, I found her perfect life rather seductive; and her problems relating to her daughter, whilst completely adoring her son, seemed utterly convincing. But it was the middle section of the book -which goes back to her younger years- that I had trouble with. And the ending... Well... Hmm....

The bits of the book that impressed: Pippa's slow realization that she has been sleepwalking, such an uncanny hint of her own suppressed feelings. Pippa's neighbour Dot and Dot's inability to deal at all with her son.

While I risk spoiling the story (so look away now if you haven't read it) I didn't believe a woman who had had that kind of teenage years and early twenties could stuff it all down inside until she was fifty before it came bursting out again. Maybe I am missing some essential point about the human condition.

I think this is an enjoyable beach book but anyone who claims this is great literature... I am baffled.