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Book Review of The Nanny Diaries

The Nanny Diaries
cheezygirl avatar reviewed on + 6 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 2


An insane social satire in the vein of The Devil Wears Prada, this book delves into the world of society mavins and the people they hire to be their children's pseudo-parents.

Nanny is trying to finish her degree in child development at NYU, and takes on nanny positions as a way to stay housed in her tiny studio that she shares with her over-sexed stewardess... i mean... flight attendant... roomate.

She finds new employment with the X family, which consists of Mr. X, his socialite "i'm-too-busy-with-the-Parent's-League-to-BE-a-parent" wife, and their 4 year old son, Grayer. What should have been a two nights a week job, turns into a full-time nanny position, plus the bonus of getting to be a personal assistant to Mrs. X, all for the whopping sum of 10 bucks an hour. In between jaunts with Grayer to his French lessons, piano lessons, playdates, preschool, doctor appointments, and schlepping to Saks to get the right kind of lavender water for Mr's X's trendy soirees, Nanny tries desperately to get to her classes on time and write her Senior thesis.

Add to this the discovery of finding out Mr. X is cheating on Mrs. X with a colleague... *gasp*. Suddenly, even the mistress is trying to tell Nanny what to do, and what to buy!

This story is pretty entertaining. The girls who wrote this both have actually BEEN nannies to over 30 families in NYC, and one must wonder how many of these instances that happen actually happened to them, because surely, you can't just make this sh*t up.

One thing i could have wished for... a 'real' first name for the main character. She and everyone else call her 'Nanny' through the entire book, and until i was halfway through the book, i kept wondering to myself who on god's green earth would NAME their child Nanny and how IRONIC it was that she would end up BEING a Nanny, til i realized that Nanny must be a fictional pseudonym for the character, much as the last name of "X" for the family she works for. What threw me was that all her close friends and family kept calling her 'Nan' like it really was her name...

I do recommend this for a read, if you enjoy this sort of book. I thought it was so touching how close she and Grayer became, and i could definately use some of her nanny moments in my real life sometimes.