For the unprepared reader of PEGGY, the question is how much of the novel is based on Peggy Guggenheim’s own autobiography and other historical documents and how much is fiction may be paramount. But let’s just pretend that our Peggy was not a real person and this is wholly a fictional story. How does it stand up? The writing is often lyrical. The key characters are for the most part well-formed. Some of the issues are quite interesting… how DOES a filthy rich heiress live when things are difficult? But the end of the book may be less than satisfying: a lot like watching a biopic and never getting to the point for which the main character is most famous. Perhaps our heroine comes to terms with her place ... or does she? Why is surrealistic art important to her? Of course the whole issue of the book’s author dying and her friend finishing the book adds another interesting dynamic for exploration. Yes, this would be a good book for a group discussion, or for anyone who likes historical fiction of this era and a corresponding interest in the art and artists of this time period.

3 ⭐️

I received this book as an ARC via NetGalley!

This is the story of Peggy Guggenheim, of the socialite Guggenheims from golden age America. It’s fictional but tells her true story. It was interesting but overall not my fave.

The author did a remarkable job placing the reader inside Peggy Guggenheim’s head. In that sense, the book was a triumph. The reader felt like they really understood her.

My problem was that I was so uncomfortable inside Peggy. I found reading the book a struggle.
I wanted to learn about this woman whom I knew was a force in the contemporary art world, but I knew virtually nothing about her. My curiosity was not satisfied by this novel. The part of her life that created her historic legacy ( her gallery/collecting period) felt like a footnote in this book. It was a rather brief chapter and that disappointed me.

For readers interested in psychological drama, it would be intriguing . But, I was interested in Peggy Guggenheim the patroness of the contemporary art world….. and I remain relatively uninformed. So, my quibble is not really with this book, just my disappointment that I was looking for one thing and received another.

I was uncomfortable with the character in the book, so it was chalkenging to spend a few hours with her.

NETGALLEY provided me a complimentary copy of this book in exchange for a candid review.

We have all heard the name Guggenheim before. What do you really know of the second daughter of Benjamin Guggenheim and Florette Seligman?
I knew little about her. That is why I love to read historical fiction. So much to learn in an enjoyable book.
Peggy Guggenheim wanted to be her own self. Her world was turned upside down when her father a passenger on the Titanic was among the dead. She was only fourteen years of age. She decided she needed to live her life to the fullest.
Tragedy came again when Peggy’s sister died during childbirth.
This was a beautifully written book by Rebecca Godfrey. It took tens years to write most of the book. Unfortunately Rebecca diagnosed with cancer and died before her book was published. She left notes and research for her friend Leslie Jamison to complete the story.
The book encompasses Peggy as her life takes her to Paris, London and Venice.
She has a troubled marriage and is abused by her husband. We meet many famous people on this journey including James Joyce and Samuel Becket.
This is a captivating story of Peggy’s accomplishments in the art world.
Many thanks to Random House and NetGalley for giving me this opportunity to read an advanced readers copy of this book.

This was such a special and unique novel! I love a girl power book, even more when the girl in question is tasked with discussing important points and presenting pressing topics to readers like the fight against anti-Semitism. Peggy is a feminist queen who pushes the envelope in her art and the way she lives her life. Thank you to NetGalley and Random House for a copy of this book for an honest review.

A fascinating book about Peggy Guggenheim, her family, her love life and how she became one the preeminent art collectors of the 20th century. Beautifully written with a whole host of interesting characters,
Peggy becomes a story of how one woman from a obscenely rich family finds her place in the world.

This was a wonderful book. We got to see the main character, Peggy, and her life's story. The writing and imagery used in this novel were unique and I think it worked very well with this book.

I was invited by the publisher to read this book. The story follows Peggy Guggenheim, of the famous family, as she comes into her own after the tragic death of her father. Readers get to watch Peggy go from an uppity and sequestered environment, to a life of her own where she is able to exercise her own thoughts and make her own choices through the lens of the art world.

Distinct about this book is that the author passed on before the book could be finished, and the end result is a patchwork of her writing and that of her friend. While the writing blends well, it is apparent whose writing style you are reading.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Peggy was a great book. I enjoyed it quite a bit. I believe all booklovers will love this book. Pick it up on publication day.

This intriguing histfic bio reveals heiress Peggy Guggenheim throughout her life, as survivor of many tragedies (she lost her father on the Titanic when she was 14), abused wife, and art collector/founder of her own museum in Venice. Recommended!

I really enjoyed this book. Thanks to the publisher for the e galley. There are a few sentences that didn’t make any sense, and I hope they have been caught by the editor. I also wish there was more about her later life and possibly less on her childhood. All in all, a very interesting, well done read.

Life as a Goog was tough. The Guggenheim family, despite their wealth, never quite gelled with the golden Jewish families of 1900s New York as the nickname would suggest. Peggy was the middle daughter of three, and by the time her father died on the Titanic (returning to New York with his mistress, who survived) her end of the family had already been cut off from the more traditional part of the Guggenheim clan. The Titanic scandal, and subsequent lawsuits from the mistress dogged the lives of Peggy's mother and sisters.

"Peggy" covers her life to the point where she shifts her focus to supporting art, but before she actively helped Jewish artists escape Europe in the late 1930s and become the post-war final word on art and artists. In the slice of life explored here, she marries unsuitable men and sews lots of wild oats. Most surprisingly, she offers shelter in France to anarchist Emma Goldman in one of the finest parts of this novel. After the war, her focus is different, and I feel that Peggy Guggenheim became her real self.

I think the most important parts of Peggy's life happened after this novel ends. Perhaps that was Rebecca Godfrey's plan, but unfortunately she died of cancer before "Peggy" was complete. She left detailed notes and the novel was sensitively completed by Leslie Jamison.

My thanks to Random House and NetGalley for allowing me to read an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I have skirted Peggy Guggenheim’s life in my reading, but essentially knew little about her. Peggy is a wonderful novel told in Peggy’s voice, a mesmerizing read that felt completely reliable.

Peggy’s family brought her great wealth, but she rejected their capitalistic values that exploited the working class. She forged a path far from the life her mother expected her to follow.

Peggy’s life was filled with loss, from her father’s fatal trip on the Titanic to her beloved sister’s death in childbirth. She fell in love with the wrong type of men. She struggled to find her voice and purpose, attracted to outsider art of the 20s and 30s.

The novel follows her story and culminates in her conception of the art museum that would change the association of the name Guggenheim from children dying in coal mines to the art that Peggy found spoke to her.

I was delighted with the novel. And sad to learn of the author’s passing before its publication.

Thanks to the publisher for a free book through NetGalley.

Peggy Guggenheim is a legend in the world of art. She was well known for making artists famous overnight with her galleries in London and NYC. But that’s not the focus of this book.

In 1898, Peggy was born in Manhattan with a large bank account from the family’s smart investments. She had the luxury that most people can only dream of: access to great schools, travel, books and art. She had everything with the exception of a more perfect nose. She was critical of her looks. But she made up for it with the most beautiful clothes and jewelry.

This biography takes the reader into her life of relationships with her parents, sisters, husband, kids and romantic partners. She was crazy in love at times and didn’t follow her mother’s advice with men. The sisters with the large inheritances attracted attention. Their mother tried to warn them of men interested in their money and a comfortable life. Did they listen?

When I started to read this book, I thought it would be all about her passionate career engaging artists and selling their pieces. I would love to know more about her critical eye for the paintings and how she was able to make contemporary artists well known. The book doesn’t cover what she did to awaken the world with Cubist and Surrealist artists until nearly the end. That’s when in 1938 the opening of her first gallery in London was highlighted. Peggy was 81 years old when she died 41 years later.

Peggy’s family was Jewish and it was a huge challenge with the wars. There was one part that addressed how she sent art on ships disguised as “dinner plates” to hide them from the Nazis. She and her family were constantly confronted with antisemitism.

The book was different than what I expected and yet, I found it to be well written with lots of drama. Peggy felt like she and her sisters were obligated to create something wonderful with their lives. And then she was devastated when her father went down with the Titantic. She had a feeling that she and her sisters were cursed fearing the worst; hoping for the best. After a year of helping out at a bookshop, she plunged into a more adventurous life with her silk dresses, furs and monogramed bags as she was headed to Paris.

The author, Rebecca Godfrey, collected piles of notes on Peggy’s life. It was her wish before she died of cancer in 2022 that it would be published. Leslie Jamison said she was honored to finish writing the book. I think Rebecca would be very proud that her hard work and years of research would be enjoyed and appreciated -- in the hands of readers everywhere.

My thanks to Random House and NetGalley for allowing me to read an advanced copy of this book with an expected release date of August 13, 2024.

I really enjoyed this book. Peggy Guggenheim was a complex woman, as were many in her family. Sometimes I found the stream of consciousness writing, without quotes, as to whom was speaking, a bit confusing. Needed to reread many passages. The Guggenheims were an industrious bunch and sometimes depicted as brutal in their assent to great wealth. Peggy was an outlier. She marched to her own drum. She and her sisters were tortured in different ways. Benita in trying to conceive, Hazel tormented in diverse ways and Peggy, married to a savagely violent man. Sometimes characters were introduced and I did not even know who they were or if I forget? I googled many times while reading this book to get more clarity into the family. Thank you NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group for sending this book for review consideration. All opinions are my own. #Peggy, #RandomHousePublishing.

“Peggy” is a biographical novel about Peggy Guggenheim, the famous philanthropist and daughter of Benjamin Guggenheim, who died on the Titanic. Since I am fascinated by anything even tangentially related to the Titanic, I was eager to read this book. It was told in the first person from Peggy Guggenheim’s perspective, covering her life from the loss of her father on the Titanic, focusing primarily on the 1920s including some events from the 1930s, with an epilogue set in 1958.

I must admit that after reading the book, I have mixed feelings about it. On the positive side, it was filled with beautiful imagery that brought to life the times and places depicted, including Gilded Age New York, 1920s Paris and the French Riviera. The focus was on her marriage to Lawrence Vail, who brutalized her throughout their marriage, which lasted from 1922 to 1928.

On the negative side, the writing style was sometimes hard to get used to with it’s stream of consciousness style, and absence of quotation marks to denote dialog, which made the conversations seem at a remove, as if the narrator were relating a past conversation rather than living in the moment. The book also had abrupt shifts back and forth in time, when Peggy’s thoughts would meander into a memory and then back to the present in a jarring and confusing way.

Overall, I did end up liking the book, as the eloquent descriptions and vivid characterizations overrode my misgivings about the aspects of the writing style that I did not like. I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys learning about interesting female historical figures.

A book about Peggy Guggenheim told from her own point of view. First let me say, this was obviously not the book for me - but if you like historical fiction, it may be the book for you. I wanted to like her but found her always unhappy with life.

I couldn't seem to identify or appreciate Peggy - I just couldn't get into this. Quite frankly, I found the book boring with too many details. I can't say that the book wasn't well written, because I think it was. It was just too philosophical or something for me. I did read the whole book but didn't really feel like the ending pulled it all together for me.

I was given this book by NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for a fair and honest review. All opinions are my own.

Peggy is a fascinating read about a remarkable woman, friend, and patroness of the arts. The writing has a fresh, energetic quality that works for the novel and invites readers to go with the flow as new characters/events/storylines emerge throughout (and often without much backstory or introduction). Laurence was awful and I was devastated that a woman who could have married anyone (or not married at all) ended up with someone like him.

Thank you to Random House and NetGalley for the opportunity to read a copy.

I would like to thank Random House and Net Galley for the opportunity to read this as an ARC. This is historical fiction, from the POV of Peggy Guggenheim. She was the daughter of Benjamin Guggenheim, who died on the Titanic. Her family was wealthy and famous. She loved a colorful life and became an Art Collector and ran several museums, notably one in Venice where she spent her last years of her life. It is an interesting take , one that has her Peggy telling her story, in various chapters, giving much detail to some things, skimming over others. It has a non linear time line, and I found myself going back and forth a few times to see just where I was in the story. It was well written, and interesting, however, I still do not feel like I know enough about the subject. For me, it was a little shallow. I just think that there is a lot more to Peggy Guggenheim , than I read here.

“Peggy,” by Rebecca Godfrey, is a historical fiction look at the life of Peggy Guggenheim. If you have heard of Ms. Guggenheim most likely it’s due to the Guggenheim Museum in NYC (named for her uncle) or else the Guggenheim Collection in Venice, Italy (started by her). This book is difficult for me to review because I did find Peggy’s life (as much was covered) interesting, but I also became confused. There are a number of time jumps and some characters seem to be introduced without any backstory, making me wonder if I’d forgotten them (possible, Ms. Guggenheim was acquainted with many people). In many ways, this story is sad because Ms. Guggenheim’s life story was sad - she married a man who (for all intents and purposes) didn’t love her and was abusive toward her. The writing style was odd, but that’s partially because two people wrote it and it’s easy to tell when the “author voice” switches, which was disappointing. While I’m glad I read the book, I wish it had been a lot more uplifting.