Reviews for The Nanny Diaries

The average rating for The Nanny Diaries based on 2 reviews is 1.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2007-09-23 00:00:00 Larry Land It is one long anecdote disguised as a novel. A lot like "Devil Wears Prada," it is just a laundry list of incidents while working for the shallow, designer-clad perfectionist. It reads more like an article in Us Weekly, In Touch, and or the Mecca of all celebrity rag mag's, People. What it is clearly the flaw in novels like "Nanny Diaries," and "Devil Wears Prada" is that the protagonist fumbles through the novel lacking any goal or purpose. Instead, these idealists, cute but not too cute young women lament over the horrors of working for demanding woman and display their own shallowness by painstakingly describing every brand and designer as if reciting some holy mantra. However, what I'll give Nanny Credit for, over Prada, is that at least Nanny is short and concise. Truly a gossip column of "did you know…" whereas Devil painfully goes on an on. It's a definitely a light read, requiring very little from the reader. However, from a cultural perspective it is interesting how we continue to vilify the successful woman and how we must focus on her flaws. Even more interesting is how the one doing the undercutting is other women. I don't dare pretend that these hardened woman don't exist but rather that there is now a whole market exploiting them.

Review # 2 was written on 2008-03-25 00:00:00 Ethel Bowles This book was a gift while I was working as a nanny. At first it was funny, with all of the little observations that all nannies make- mainly about a certain, small subsection of women who hire nannies- the wealthy, entitled, narcissistic bitches. As the story progresses, it becomes obvious that the children are the losers, the parents have no business being parents, and the nannies do nothing to help make the family a better place. Instead they whine about mistreatment, go along with abuse, and try to replace the parent with their own immature version of love. The account was infuriating because there was a great deal of truth in it, and it made me so upset (recognizing the same characteristics in children, nannies and parents of my acquaintance,) that I finally refused to finish the last few chapters. What made the whole thing worse is that the book is written in a vain, selfish-masquerading-as-selfless, preening, whiny voice, that made me want to reach through the page and tell her to grow some cojones (and take a writing class or two.) Thanks but no thanks, this book is a binner.