Since giving birth, I’ve been unable to pick up any of the 3 books for any length of time because I think the whole focus thing was more than just an “I’m uncomfortable on the train and can’t read for more than 5 minutes” thing. But I’m willing my way through my unable to focus mind set and I WILL prevail whether it likes it or not. So without further ado. Here is my first book review. I can’t promise any earth shattering review or future reviews to come. You’ll have to excuse this one review being that I didn’t exactly read this book with a book review post in mind. Next book I read/get back into and finish will be read with a book review in mind and my thoughts will perhaps be a bit more formulated. I know I did book reports in school, but does this compare? I don’t know. I’m sure my book reviews will evolve from book to book and perhaps feedback from you in my comments will help me formulate better book reviews in the future. We’ll find out. So here goes.

Book review of: The Nanny Diaries.

Note: I read this book on a recommendation from Pocklock. We were watching tv together when a preview for the movie came on, and conversation ensued about how I hadn’t read it yet, and I was to READ IT and THEN, and ONLY THEN we could go see the movie together. And this is part of the reason all three of those other books went on the back burner. Pressure, pure pressure, to finish reading the book before the movie is OUT of the theaters.

I will start by saying, this book is very funny. However, I was disappointed by the ending. I keep thinking I missed something that would bring a little more closure to it at the end. Let me back up.

The authors made the characters of the book very ambiguous so as to not reveal the real names since this book is based on the authors experiences as nannies. So, the parents of the boy “Nanny” watched, their names were Mr. & Mrs. X, and the nanny just was referred to as “Nanny” or “Nan”…making it seem as though you could take any nanny, parent, child combo in New York City and the situations would vary slightly but more or less you’d get the same type of relationships across the board. I thought this was well done. I actually reminisced about my time as a nanny back in 1997-98, but those circumstances were so different and the people I nannied for were nothing like the description of the typical NYC nannified family. They were soooo soooo soooo nice and awesome to me and I love them to this day. So back to the book. I really enjoyed the relationship between Nanny and Grayer (the son). I love that Grayer gave her a hard time at the beginning when Nanny first started, because what kid wouldn’t? And I love that by the end of the book Nanny was the only person Grayer would trust with EVERYTHING, even more than his parents. I know as a parent I would never wish my child to trust a caregiver more than myself or hubbie, but Grayer needed someone or he would’ve gone off the deep end at some point or another in his life.

I think it’s terrible the way Nanny was treated and I can’t fathom these parents actually treating their nannies this way. Here are just a few highlights.

Nanny had to dress up as a teletubby for Halloween which matched Grayer’s teletubby outfit.

Nanny wasn’t nearly paid enough on any given occasion.

While all the other “servants” to this family were given very nice gifts like designer handbags and stuff for Christmas, Nanny was given a pair of earmuffs.

Nanny was very often belittled in front of the family’s guests or at any event Nanny was dragged along to.

Nanny was accused of mistreating Grayer.

Nanny was forced to deal with Mr. X’s “other woman” on more than one occasion.

I mean things were bad. Immoral even. She stuck her neck out for this family and the only one who appreciated it was Grayer (most times…even his dedication to her is a bit iffy at times). Nanny does everything with Grayer, she picks him up from school, she takes him to play dates, she reads to him, she cooks really not kid friendly meals that Mrs. X insists he must eat, she takes him to practices, essentially everything, and when Grayer does not get accepted to an uppity private school, Mrs. X places all the blame on Nanny. And get this, Mrs. X even installs a nanny-cam.

So here’s the thing. As in every book like this, there is a love twist which is Nanny hooking up with another tenant in the building. She refers to him as H.H. which is short for Harvard Hottie. I’m kind of disappointed by the end of the book that they don’t tell where that relationship went. She left for a family vacation with the Xes and he went to school (I think) and at the end of the book there’s nothing that lets you know they lived happily ever after or split or anything. I wanted something. I wanted to know. In a life like hers where the only good things on day to day basis were Grayer and H.H. I wanted to have some sort of closure.

When Nanny is away at the end with the Xes, Nanny pisses off Mrs. X in some way, or perhaps it’s just Mrs. X making a big deal of something minute (which was usually the case) but Nanny winds up fired, Mr. X drives her to the ferry and she heads home. Once she gets back in NY, she finally looks at the check Mrs. X gave her for her time on vacation with them, which was about 10 days and a lot of frustration dealing with other people’s children in addition to Grayer, she discovers Mrs. X only gave her like 5 or 600 dollars. Nanny is livid. She still has a key to their apartment so she goes there. She grabs the nanny-cam and records a good bye speech for Mr. & Mrs. X. At first she tells them what she really thinks of them, all their faults and basically reams them out for how they treated her and how they are nonexistent in raising their own son. And then she realizes, what she has said will not help them to be better parents to Grayer. So she re-records a softer speech giving them some pointers on how to be better parents.

I was a good ending, but like I said, I’m disappointed about the whole Nanny/H.H. love story that never went anywhere, and I’m also disappointed that Nanny and Grayer never got to say good bye to each other. When she left the vacation house, Grayer was sleeping and when he awoke as she was leaving, she was being shoved out the door and he started screaming for her and Mrs. X couldn’t care less. it broke my heart. I definitely laughed throughout parts of the book, mostly because I can picture some nannies that I’ve passed on the street here in New York and I could picture what their life is like with the children they help raise and the relationship they havewith the parents of the children. God only knows some of the horror stories that were not told in the book.

I would definitely recommend this book. I think I would give it 3 out of 4 stars. The ending really made a big difference in that last star.