The Nanny Diaries

By Emma Mclaughlin; Nicola Kraus
(St. Martin's Press, Hardcover, 9780312278588, 320pp.)

Publication Date: March 2002

Other Editions of This Title: Google eBook, Paperback, Paperback, Mass Market Paperback, Mass Market Paperback, Audio Cassette, Compact Disc

Categories: Humorous

Buy online from an indie bookstore
Find an indie bookstore near you

Link to this Book


Description

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 pre-schooler
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 Hermes 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.

The Nanny Diaries deftly skewers the manner in which America's over-privileged raise les petites over-privileged-as if grooming them for a Best in Show competition. Written by two former nannies, this alternately comic and poignant satire punctures the glamour of Manhattan's upper class.




About the Author

Nicola Kraus and Emma McLaughlin reside in New York City. They are no longer nannies.




Praise For The Nanny Diaries

"a national phenomenon" --Newsweek

"[Nanny is] Mary Poppins channeling Dorothy Parker" --Time

Indie Bookstore Finder

This book is on these lists:

To Read From Library by Mandi

All lists >>

Indie Bestsellers

1Q84
Haruki Murakami
Knopf
The Marriage Plot
Jeffrey Eugenides
Farrar, Straus, and Giroux
The Sense of an Ending
Julian Barnes
Knopf
Death Comes to Pemberley
PD James
Knopf

Make Your Own Wishlist






Update Profile