The Nanny Diaries: A Novel / by Emma McLaughlin

Nan is a recent college graduate turned part-time graduate student at NYU in need of a steady job to pay tuition along with the rent on her tiny but expensive Manhattan studio apartment. Thinking that a gig as a nanny could be right up her alley--she is majoring in early childhood development--Nan replies to a quirky newspaper ad requesting a young woman to be an au paire for a four-year-old child in a ritzy part of uptown, little knowing what she's getting herself into. The family, referred to as the X's--Mr. & Mrs. X and son Grayer X--epitomize wealthy upper-class Manhattan society and, wholly without warning, Nan is thrust into the world of insane duties and demands disproportionately irrelevant to her position. Soon she learns just how domineering, overbearing and downright despotic the parents of a priveleged Park Avenue toddler can be.

In addition to attending to Grayer's basic toddler needs--supervising his hygiene, ensuring he's attired properly and that absolutely NO sugar is in any of the food he eats--Nan must escort him to all manner of activities which fill up his day, many of which are expressly intended to help Grayer gain entry to one of the city's more prestigious preschool/pre-K institutions. Grayer is not allowed to watch TV, play video games or partake in any other form of popular entertainment and may only interact with potential friends on a pre-approved "play date". Any deviation from these rules--intentional, unintentional or otherwise--and Nan catches hell from Mrs. X, whose daily routine of aerobics, spa treatments and window shopping will have now been thoroughly ruined if one of the petty directives circumscribed on her little lists aren't adhered to. Needless to say, Nan is unavoidably torn between resentment and loathing for Mrs. X and sympathy toward the innocent and still uncorrupted Grayer, whose life, it seems can only become worse after Nan finds out that the ever-absent Mr. X is currently cheating on Mrs. X with another woman.

What begins like another lighthearted chick-lit caper, humorously following its heroine through the perils of New York City, quickly moves into more serious territory, becoming an earnest, solemn and even sinister diatribe on domestic roles and boundaries as the story progresses. While the X's are blatantly lampooned as being among the most thoroughly over-indulged, self-absorbed figures in society, there's the sense that it's not all in plain good fun. Almost immediately Nan begins to interpret the fragile ties binding the three members of the family together, threatening to break apart at any moment: Mr. X is a workaholic with absolutely no time (nor the willingness to make the time) for his son; Mrs. X makes a permanent livelihood of masking her imperfections and extreme vulnerability through the sterilizing of her surroundings; and Grayer is really a child without a childhood, cruelly deprived of not only any joy in life, but of the stability to make it happen. Nanny Diaries is by no means a perfect book; but it offers an entertaining read which is well worth it on multiple levels. (FIC MCLAUGHLIN)