The Nanny Diaries: A Novel

Rating:
Summary: Loved It!
Review: I totally loved the satirical take on nanny-ing. They nailed it down with the perfect balance of heart, humor, and real information. The authors inspired me to use the same approach with my book. Keep up the good work girls!

Rating:
Summary: Promotes female stereotypes
Review: Take two bites before you say you don't like it, I say. So, finding this book in hardback for $.50 at the local Half-Price, I decided to take the plunge. Bitchy behavior is completely acceptable. We are flighty. We bond over clothes if nothing else. We are phlegmatic. We need men to define our lives. Rather annoyed by all the designer name-dropping. The attempt at creating a laundry list for the maid buying clothes from Mr. X was gratuitous - like ten cherries, instead of one, on top of a banana split. The only redeeming quality are the realism in her relationship with H. H. Men are never around, and so many women take them for granted.

What's wrong with writing realistic female fiction? Books for educated women?

Light entertainment only, along the lines of the movies Uptown Girls and Legally Blonde. Save your money and buy this used or borrow it from the library.

Rating:
Summary: Mary Poppins had it good.....
Review: Compared to Nanny. A struggling grad student, trying to make her way in the world and eck some sort of life out of her studio apartment takes a job as a nanny to the X family. I really think the name of the family is symbolic. As the story progresses you see how they have no time for anyone, not even themselves to see what is happening around them. So much to the point where it doesn't matter if they have a name. Mr. and Mrs. try to carry on like the other families but it is only for show.

Nanny forms a strong and loving bond with her keep, Grayer. Through sickness and four year old tantrums, Grover and Nanny make the best of it. Making play dates, eating unpalatable health foods and even helping Nan score with HH, the story takes you through a year's worth of unbelievable events. I think the story was capped when the Xes had no compassion whatsoever for Nanny's graduation. I could totally imagine myself in her predicament and I tell you, she held it together quite admirably.

Though you would have been able to read more pages at the end, the pure emotion that runs through the last chapter really brings everything to a head. I enjoyed reading this novel because it was smart and funny. It showed me that there are other people out there who realize that some parents are whack jobs and should never have had kids in the first place. But then again you wouldn't have people like Grayer. Tough choice but great book. I recommend it highly and I wonder why it took me so long to read it! Guess it was waiting for the paperback version, that's all :)

Rating:
Summary: Dragged on and on
Review: I wanted to like this book. It had a great concept. But my problems with it were:
1. The book is all about stereotypes. Yes, we know that alot of rich upperclass NY women have nannies and don't take care of their kids and are skinny and are manicured and wear high-end clothes and shoes. We know their husbands are jerks and workaholics and cheat on them. We know their employees are overworked and underappreciated. The book would have been more enjoyable if these people had broken out of their stereotypes-even only for a second.
2. This book dragged. on. and on.. and on.. Every time I came to a new chapter, I was upset that she didn't tell off Mrs. X and quit, and then I was hoping that in the next one that she wouold. That never happened. This book had absolutely NO climax. Basically, Mrs. X treats her like dirt the entire book and she does nothing about it, until she gets canned, which is my last point.
3. THe ending was horrible! Totally anticlimatic! After suffering through the whole book, it ended like this? She leaves a nice message for her on a tape recorder? I'm glad I didn't spend money on this, and checked it out from the library!

Rating:
Summary: True to Life
Review: I could not put the book down. I felt for Nanny and kept rooting for her to get out of such a demeaning profession. I also felt so sad for the first nanny, Caitlin, who got fired without any warning from her employer, Mrs. X. The insufferable Mrs. X only used Nanny to show up the first nanny who found out the hard way that she was being relieved from her duties. Actually, Caitlin lucked out to escape from that horrible job of servitude to this ungrateful woman! The trophy wife is like many women of her socio-economic class who will promise one thing and then do the opposite. The beginning of the employer/employee relationship is always good since the upper-class housewife wants to win over her nanny and get her to feel obligated to do the other crummy tasks. Any young lady wanting to do this type of work needs to read the book and realise that fiction often mirrors real life. My advice to women who are thinking of being a nanny is to RUN far, far from these Park Avenue mothers and their dysfunction!

Rating:
Summary: Entertaining, even if a little over-hyped
Review: Again, another book "everyone" talked about. I have to say, it held my attention and was entertaining, but the whole relationship with the guy in the building didn't really ring true to me, and while the "family" she works for may have been as horrible as described, it was so one-sided that I started to lose interest in them. They almost lacked any redeeming qualities, which I guess was the point, but made the entire story kind of predictable. Even so, it kept me turning the pages because the main character is truly likeable and a good person. Nanny made the book, even if sometimes I just wanted to give her a nudge every once in a while and tell her to grow a backbone or get out. There's only so much a girl can take.

Rating:
Summary: Somewhat of a letdown
Review: I liked the book - but I didn't love it. I thought some of the book really dragged, especially the end. Nanny is great and my heart went out to Grayer. I wanted to pull him out of the book and give him a hug! In the end I was hoping for a little more substance.

Rating:
Summary: A good read but not THAT good.
Review: I thought this "novel" was a real page turner, and I loved to hate the antagonistic Mrs. X right along with Nanny as she pulled one nefarious stunt after another. However, I grew frustrated with several elements of the book, which is why I have taken off two stars:

1) The names. Would it kill the authors to come up with a name for "Nanny"? Jane. Sue. Mary Lou. They don't have to name her after themselves; just give her a generic name to make it easier on the rest of us. If it was JUST Nanny, or JUST the Xs with the fake names, then I could deal. But to even give "Harvard" a pseudonym is taking the point too far. Who cares what your boyfriend's name is? Why does he need shielding too?

2) The Nanny. I don't care how mean and evil your employers are. Drinking on the job is NEVER okay. Drinking on the job when you work with KIDS is INSANE. No self-respecting Nanny would behave that way, and any that did deserves firing, at the very least. I work with kids, and I know that you need all five of your senses plus like three more. And everything about you needs to be in full awareness in order to handle children. You can't be intoxicated, you can't be impaired. Showing Nanny as the type to drink on the job made her a less sympathetic character, as did her flagrant abuse of the rules set down by Grayer's mom. Mrs. X is nutty, but she IS his mom, and if she doesn't want him eating pizza, then he shouldn't be allowed to have it. Period. Also Nanny flirting with men non the job and calling people on her work cell phone and getting so upset about a Nanny cam . . . silly! People have to protect their kids.

3) The spinelessness. THERE ARE OTHER JOBS IN THE WORLD! Work at a fast food place. Walk dogs. Increase your financial aide. Ask your obviously rich grandmother for assistance. If you hate being a Nanny, then QUIT! I hated seeing Nanny fail time after time to stick up for herself and just put her freakin' foot down and REFUSE to be MISUSED and ABUSED. At some point, you have to draw the line, not just toe it, expecting Christmas bonuses.

4) THE ENDING!! After MONTHS of abuse and the FINAL STRAW of being grossly UNDERPAID by the nefarious Mrs. X, Nanny finally exacts her revenge . . . and then retracts it. She erases the tape. She doesn't contact the family to get the money she's owed. She doesn't file a lawsuit. She just takes the puppy and quietly walks out of their lives. It was the most disappointing ending to an otherwise good book I've ever read. A complete let down. Add that to the fact that there was no resolution to the Harvard romance and no real resolution to Nanny's job situation, and you've got a bunch of loose strings POSING as an ending. I know it's based on real life and real life doesn't always wrap up like that, but honestly, if you're advertising your book as a novel, then you've got to have all the trappings of a novel, and that includes a beginning, a middle, and an end, dudes.

All in all, I don't feel this book wasted my time. I paid full price for a brand new copy, which is a rarity for me, because usually I only buy used books unless it's just released and I can't wait to read it. I waited for years to see this in a used book store and finally gave up and just bought it. Luckily, I don't feel my thirteen bucks went to waste, so that's good enough for three stars.