The Nanny Diaries: Truthful & engaging

Book: The Nanny Diaries
By Emma McLaughlin & Nichola Kraus

Written in 2002, and made into a film starring Scarlett Johansson in 2007, this is a satire that gives you a glimpse of how the other half lives: the over-privileged denizens of New York’s Park Avenue. Underlying the hilarious tale about the fake lives and idiosyncrasies of Manhattan’s super-rich, as seen through the eyes of ‘Nanny’, there is, nevertheless, a thread of poignancy and a sense of emptiness that runs through the narrative.

Too True To Life

The authors, who worked as real-life nannies for several children in NYC, start off with disclaimers that the utterly surreal Mrs X who is Nanny’s employer, is a real person, but the depiction rings too true to life. And that’s what makes the book interesting.

To know that there exist such parents (Mr X provides tough competition for his wife’s parenting skills or the lack of it) in the actual flesh and blood is bound to be viewed with bizarre fascination by many of the book’s 20 million-plus readers across the globe. Sure, it would be unfair to paint the rich and privileged with the same black brush, but the presentation of the slice of life in Manhattan’s snooty upper echelons rings rivetingly true. The book is stylishly written, and aimed largely at an American audience, but strikes a chord with parents, nannies and child-caregivers across the world.

A Tale of the Rich & Mean

Mrs X is very busy doing nothing, except shopping for top brands. She has no time for her son, Grayer 4, who enters the book as a spoilt brat but is revealed to be a sweet, loving little boy who is desperate for his parents’ affection and attention. Mr X flits in and out – mostly out – too busy running his top job and making out with women.

Nanny soon discovers that she has to cater to not just little Grayer who finds his way into her heart, but also to his mother, the crass, rude and mean Mrs X who shows chinks in her ‘branded armour’ when she discovers her husband has been playing the field. Sadly for her, Mrs X knows his games all too well, for she too was his playmate when he was cheating with her on his first wife.

Why Nanny Stays On

Nanny’s life is a frantic dash between trying to keep her job to finance her graduate studies at NYU, make her grades, flirt with the ‘Harvard Hottie’ who lives in the same apartment building as Mr and Mrs X and keep her shared studio apartment. Nanny’s friends, Sarah and Josh, are part of the eclectic cast of characters and are dragged into her adventures. In one hilarious sequence, the trio is raking the house looking for a pair of lacy black thongs which Mr X’s mistress threatened to leave behind for Mrs X to discover. Kind-hearted Nanny tries to save Mrs X from the horror of such a discovery and drags her friends in to help her.

Nanny stays on in the ghastly job, which doesn’t pay her fair, is draining, and where she is repeatedly humiliated by Mrs X, primarily because she cannot bear to abandon Grayer. The poor little boy, in turn, becomes dependent on Nanny, who grows to love him, and who even nurses him through a dangerous racking cough and high fever one night when neither of his parents would care to be around.

And So Life Goes On

There is a sequence where Nanny raves and rants about the horrible people Mr and Mrs X are (she does so to a Teddy Bear with an embedded camera), but the book does not offer solutions to alleviate such lives. And what happens to Grayer, the poor little rich boy? To know this you have to read the sequel and catch up with Nanny who returns to Manhattan as a 33- year-old married woman.

Read The Nanny Diaries of a weekend to laugh much and ruminate a little on the way we are.