Product Description

Nan, in her early twenties, goes to work for the wealthy X family to help put herself through college, and is shocked by their antics. Between raising the X's son Grayer, keeping on top of her studies, moving house and ensuring Mrs X's day runs smoothly, it's a wonder Nanny ever finds time to hang out with the gorgeous HH on the sixth floor. With divorce on the cards, Nanny finds herself caught up in the X's embittered world of power plays, lies and deceit. As communication rapidly breaks down,will Nanny be able to maintain the mental health of Grayer, despite the onslaught of Personal Problem Consultants, macrobiotic nutritionist and bilingual meals?

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #149894 in Books
• Published on: 2002-03-07
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 320 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
The Nanny Diaries is an absolutely addictive peek into the utterly weird world of child-rearing in the upper reaches of Manhattan's social strata. Cowritten by two former nannies, Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus, the novel follows the adventures of the aptly named Nan as she negotiates the Byzantine byways of working for Mrs X, a Park Avenue mommy. Nan's four-year-old charge, the hilariously named Grayer (his pals include Josephina, Christabelle, Brandford, and Darwin) is a genuinely good sort. He can't help it if his mother has scheduled him for every activity known to the Upper East Side, including ice-skating, French lessons, and a Mommy and Me group largely attended by nannies. What makes the book so impossible to put down is the suspense of finding out what the unbelievably inconsiderate Mrs X will demand of Nan next. One pictures the two authors having the last hearty laugh on their former employers. --Claire Dederer

Review
For the upper classes of Britain and Europe, the nanny has long been a vital part of the domestic scene; hence the references to Mary Poppins in this sparkling satire on a seriously rich way of life in New York. Rich as in money: spiritual values are pointedly shown to be in very short supply. Our narrator nanny soon becomes very attached to her four-year-old charge, Grayer, but also repelled by his parents, Mr and Mrs X, a spoiled and desperately selfish couple with an over-developed sense of entitlement: their own. Employees in the X menage are entitled to nothing, and are exploited as a matter of course. Nanny, however, shows herself to be a young woman of spirit as she contends with Mrs X in particular and with the world in general for the right to her own life. Like most effective and well-written satires, this book is based on sobering truths, while the humour, sometimes rollicking, often wry, overlies several messages of great importance. The authors make important points about the needs of children: no matter how disastrous the Xes are as parents, Grayer still loves and wants them, and Nanny often finds herself a supportive second-best. Children also need to be children, yet here we are shown tots being groomed for power almost from the cradle, with schedules almost as tight as their parents'. These same parents seem to regard the bearing of children as an important thing to achieve, but then have scant interest in rearing them, as well as a cavalier attitude to handing them over to strangers. Even though this entertaining book is a work of fiction, it is hardly surprising that Kraus and McLaughlin are no longer nannies. (Kirkus UK)

Rich parents, neglected brats, an overworked caregiver. First-novelists and former nannies McLaughlin and Kraus get the details right: in acid asides, they limn the decor, trendy therapies, and the pretensions of social-climbing Manhattanites. It's the woebegone children who often suffer, according to the authors' young heroine (her name: Nanny), a child-development major at NYU. Mrs. X, a perfectly groomed Park Avenue princess, hires Nanny to care for four-year-old Grayer, and the girl does her best to comply with a long list of rules. The boy is rarely permitted to play inside the luxurious apartment, eat anything made with refined flour, and so forth. Mrs. X is too busy with committee work and salon treatments (and keeping an eye on her philandering husband) to do much mothering. Though Grayer is a holy terror, Nanny has a way with kids-and a family of her own to give advice when the tot falls ill. Racking cough? High fever? When Mrs. X is away at a spa and has left orders that she's not to be disturbed for any reason, Nanny's mother diagnoses croup. But "tragedy" strikes again: Nanny is hoping for a lavish Christmas present but all she gets is earmuffs. When she isn't microwaving tofu snacks or teaching Grayer the intricacies of the Hokey Pokey, Nanny indulges in daydreams about the Harvard hottie she's been flirting with in the elevator-and participates in obligatory gripe-and-gossip fests with her girlfriends. Should she tell Mrs. X about the black thong panties that Mr. X's bitchy mistress left behind? And how about going with them to Nantucket? There's nothing to buy there except candles and nautical trinkets, and her employers are sure to be at each other's throats. When Nanny quits, she tells off Grayer's indifferent parents at last, having discovered that they've been spying on her through a nannycam concealed in a stuffed bear. Sometimes farcical, largely sincere-and ultimately trivial. (Kirkus Reviews)

About the Author
Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus are both in their early twenties and live in New York City. Both of them have been nannies and this is their first novel.