"Peggy" | Reviewed by Chris Stuckenschneider

Art collector and socialite Peggy Guggenheim makes a fascinating subject for the page turner “Peggy: A Novel.” This marvelous, intimate story imagines the life of a complicated woman born at the turn of the century.

Peggy Guggenheim was born in Manhattan, New York, in 1898, the middle daughter of Benjamin Guggenheim and Florette Seligman. The family’s fortune resulted not from banking but from Benjamin’s investments in mining. Because of their fame, the Guggenheims attempted to avoid the spotlight. Even though Florette expected her daughters to attend debutante balls and such, she tried to raise the girls quietly, yet demanded they follow the rules of the monied society to which they belonged.

Early on, rebellious Peggy turned her nose up at the strict guidelines imposed by her mother. Her closest tie was to her older sister Benita, her youngest sister Hazel not sharing the connection her older sisters enjoyed. Tragedy first hit the Guggenheims in 1912, when Benjamin was returning to the States for Hazel’s birthday party, after spending many months in Paris working. He purchased passage home on the Titanic and was drowned at sea, the horrific incident one of several that made Peggy believe the family was cursed.

This immersive novel follows the sisters’ school years and their early romances before delving into Peggy’s marriage to Laurence Vail, a poet, and mountain climber she was introduced to while working at a bookstore in Greenwich Village. Their chance meeting resulted in a successful date, followed by Laurence’s proposal that they meet up again in Paris the following year, the city where Laurence lived. Impetuous, reckless and unconventional, Laurence immediately impressed Peggy, who’d always been impassioned by the arts and enjoyed people who marched to a different drum.

Laurence and Peggy did meet up in Paris, and soon thereafter Laurence proposed marriage, a union that produced a son and a daughter and immense heartbreak for Peggy. The personality traits that attracted Peggy to her new husband ended up being the very traits that caused her the most grief. (More details about their relationship must be kept under wraps so not to ruin the story for others.)

While Peggy, the mother to two young children, struggles to understand and live with Laurence, her beloved sister Benita, who is married and living in America has her own crosses to bear, unable to carry a child to full term. More family heartache occurs when the youngest sister Hazel suffers an inconceivable loss that lands her in a sanatorium. 

“Peggy” is a must-read certain to prompt readers to research additional information on the Guggenheims and learn more about surrealism and other types of artwork Peggy collected, which eventually were displayed in her gallery in Venice, where she lived later in life.

The book’s author, Rebecca Godfrey, died from cancer before “Peggy” was finished. Thanks to Leslie Jamison, who finished the latter sections of the novel, readers have access to this marvelous story about a bohemian heiress who lived life to its fullest but suffered mightily from familial tragedies.

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