The Nanny Diaries: A Novel
Wanted: One young woman to take care of four-year-old boy. Must be cheerful, enthusiastic and selfless—bordering on masochistic. Must relish sixteen-hour shifts with a deliberately nap-deprived preschooler. Must love getting thrown up on, literally and figuratively, by everyone in his family....
show more
Wanted: One young woman to take care of four-year-old boy. Must be cheerful, enthusiastic and selfless—bordering on masochistic. Must relish sixteen-hour shifts with a deliberately nap-deprived preschooler. Must love getting thrown up on, literally and figuratively, by everyone in his family. Must enjoy the delicious anticipation of ridiculously erratic pay. Mostly, must love being treated like fungus found growing out of employers Hermès bag. Those who take it personally need not apply.Who wouldn’t want this job? Struggling to graduate from NYU and afford her microscopic studio apartment, Nanny takes a position caring for the only son of the wealthy X family. She rapidly learns the insane amount of juggling involved to ensure that a Park Avenue wife who doesn’t work, cook, clean, or raise her own child has a smooth day. When the Xs marriage begins to disintegrate, Nanny ends up involved way beyond the bounds of human decency or good taste. Her tenure with the X family becomes a nearly impossible mission to maintain the mental health of their four-year-old, her own integrity and, most importantly, her sense of humor. Over nine tense months, Mrs. X and Nanny perform the age-old dance of decorum and power as they test the limits of modern-day servitude.
show less
Format: paperback
ASIN: B0009B2WTC
Publish date: 2003-03-18
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
Pages no: 320
Edition language: English
I've been listening to audiobooks this week because I've been working alone a lot, and I started The Nanny Dairies today. (The selection of audio is bad at the library, and most everything I really want to read is on hold.) Am I supposed to find this severely depressing? I'm not, right? The Midwest ...
This book was full of emotions from angry to beyond angry, to down right loving and caring. I loved the book and what it brought out. That being a nanny is like being a mom to a kid that sometimes doesn't feel like he or she is loved by their parents. This was also made into a movie in 2007 starring...