The Private Lives of Pippa Lee

Pippa Lee is the devoted wife of the brilliant New York publisher Herb Lee. Now in his 80s, Herb is finally retired and ready to make a “pre-emptive strike against his decrepitude” by moving with his wife from Gramercy Park to the Marigold Village retirement community. Pippa, 30 years younger than Herb, attempts to settle gracefully into life at Marigold Village, but she soon finds herself unravelling: walking, even driving, in her sleep. Chain-smoking. Drawn to the troubled son of a neighbour. Pippa wonders if she is having a nervous breakdown, or if cracks are beginning to show in the veneer she has so carefully constructed. For Pippa hasn’t always been a sophisticated and beatific wife and parent. She has been daughter to a Dexedrine-addicted mother, Lolita to a teacher, model for S&M lesbian erotica, runaway, drug addict, free spirit and secret mistress -- all before seemingly finding love and security in a family of her own. Now, that identity, too, is coming apart. In this absorbing, fearless novel, writer and director Rebecca Miller reveals how many lives can exist within one person -- and how leaving them behind is nearly impossible. In spite of all my devotion, in the early days of my marriage, there were moments when, like a wolf domesticated by humans, I caught a scent of my old ways and felt hemmed in. A beautiful young man walking by on the street, the sight of teenagers high in the park, sometimes threw me off balance; I could feel myself teeter on the edge of my new existence, and imagined the thrill of kissing a man I barely knew, or the sharp kick of amphetamine between my eyes. —From The Private Lives of Pippa Lee