BOOKS: The Private Lives of Pippa Lee, Left Bank, Everyone Worth Knowing

Read it, just to remember yourself for a night.

Hey Zeph!
Been meaning to tell you about The Private Lives of Pippa Lee by Rebecca Miller for ages.
It is a strange book, not quite chick-lit, not quite quality fiction. But it must have had a hold on me because I read it in a night, and that doesn't happen too often - the last time I did that was for The Life of Pi. The premise of the book - well, all one needs to know - is that Pippa Lee once was a strange girl, an experimental girl, and now she is a grown woman, a mother, and a wife. She adapts, like any smart woman, and it's to her credit that she pulled off normality as if she isn't dying inside. She did that so well in fact that when she and everything falls apart, she kinda didn't see it coming.
There were various infedelities and sexual experimentations I couldn't relate to in the book, and there were other indiscretions that I could. There's a part of me and you, Zeph , and probably heaps of girls that stumble upon this blog, that is all Pippa Lee. It's not amazing but it's an easy book, and I say read it, just to remember yourself for a night.
AND:
This book is being turned into a movie starring Winona Ryder and Keanu Reeves! Yep - that's where they were when you sent me that excited email along the lines of 'my prayers have been answered and my opinions validated' (or similar!) with news of their rumoured dating. And, I just found out today, Blake Lively the star of gossip girl and voodoo-doll muse for America Ferrera (haha I just can't let that go) is going to play the young Pippa Lee! The rest of the cast includes Alan Arkin, Robin Wright Penn, Juliane Moore, Monica Belucci and more and the director is the author herself... this may very well be my most anticipated movie of 2009.

Complete trash, throw it straight in the garbage. Left me wanting more France.

And two more books I have just recently finished are Everyone Worth Knowing by the author of The Devil Wears Prada, and Left Bank by Kate Muir. The first came free with Red, which is a magazine with a demographic readership that is waaay older than me, and thankfully way sadder than me, so really I had no place reading this book. But I did buy the magazine and I did read the book, which is a completely ridiculous story about a boring girl who gets a glamourous job.
Once I had started I felt bad if I just stopped (which I dreamt about doing everytime I opened it and read a line) so I somehow managed to finish it. This book is complete drivel. There is not a clever, funny or unpredictable moment in all its print, and the fact that the main character is addicted to romance novels (the main character has no brain or style and therefore is embarrasingly into romance crap) is not even cute, because the book is shamelessley a bad copy of the genre! The book, which I refuse to name again but is obviously pictured above, is complete trash, so if you get it free with Red throw it straight in the garbage. I was not brave enough to do that yet but I will, I just wanted to share with you these wierd quotes by the author from her Acknowledgements first...
'[My agent] handles the logistical details of my career so I'm free to write the important literature of our time' and 'A huge thanks to my parents and sister... I could never have written such a masterpiece without you'
What a freak, the book is totally, unironically shit so her humour just dies. It's as if she knows it - she doesn't even have faith in her own creation. Ok I'm tossing it now.

Afterwards, I plucked Left Bank off the library shelf. I needed a book that would do the job the above book failed to do. Left Bank completely rescued me with its borderline chick-lit up to date name-the-restaurant-designer-and-event detail but at the same time it was mercifully dark, interesting and strange, and it left me wanting more of France. It is about a dysfunctional family made up of celebrity parents and a semi-cool nanny. It has a stupid ending but is satisfying nonetheless, especially for a light read. Girls learning French or dreaming of Paris, you will enjoy this, I promise.

xxF


Hey Feather, thanks for the book reviews. I've been looking for a new book to read. I just read the OJ Simpson book, If I did it. I know, a bit dark/wierd, but I have a thing for celeb crimes.
I'll definately be getting a copy of The Private Lives of Pippa Lee and also Left Bank. And I'll be sure to give that other crapola a miss.

Z