The Nanny Diaries
Emma McLaughlin, 2002
Romance Graphic novels & humourContemporary fiction
Two broke nannies and a tribe of Manhattan parents who want childcare without ever calling it a job — a comedy of money, manners and other people's children. A dry, fast-moving satire of Manhattan money and manners, told in a witty first-person voice that keeps the power imbalance sharp.
Feels like humor, unease and tenderness. About society, family and power.
Who it’s for
You may enjoy this if you like workplace comedy, social satire, and stories about other people's families. The humor can be acid, and the passage's call-girl comparison signals a sharper, more adult tone than a gentle family comedy.
Why read it
It gives you a funny, pointed look at the invisible labor behind wealthy family life, and the two former nannies' firsthand background keeps the absurdity close to real.
A page from the book
A job interview where neither person will say the word job.
This is the only part of the Interview that resembles a professional exchange. We will dance around certain words, such as “nanny” and “child care,” because they would be distasteful and we will never, ever, actually acknowledge that we are talking about my working for her. This is the Holy Covenant of the Mother/Nanny relationship: this is a pleasure—not a job. We are merely “getting to know each other,” much as how I imagine a John and a call girl must make the deal, while trying not to kill the mood. Emma McLaughlin.McLaughlin and Kraus both worked as Manhattan nannies while studying at NYU; the novel grew out of those years and the stories they traded afterward.
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Questions readers ask
- Is The Nanny Diaries for me?
- You may enjoy this if you like workplace comedy, social satire, and stories about other people's families. The humor can be acid, and the passage's call-girl comparison signals a sharper, more adult tone than a gentle family comedy.
- What is The Nanny Diaries like?
- A dry, fast-moving satire of Manhattan money and manners, told in a witty first-person voice that keeps the power imbalance sharp. Feels like humor, unease and tenderness. About society, family and power.
- What should I read after The Nanny Diaries?
- If you liked The Nanny Diaries, try The Devil Wears Prada (Lauren Weisberger), Confessions of a Shopaholic (Sophie Kinsella) and Big Little Lies (Liane Moriarty).
A taste of the feed
Three years into a career, still certain someone will notice you're faking it.
Of course, I still know nothing about finance. People at the bus stop know more about finance than me. Schoolchildren know more than me. I’ve been doing this job for three years now, and I’m still expecting someone to catch me out.
Confessions of a Shopaholic · Sophie Kinsella
The arithmetic of cool, and who is left to do the ordinary work.
All around him, millions of newly minted American millionaires were engaged in the identical pursuit of feeling extraordinary - of buying the perfect Victorian, of skiing the virgin slope, of knowing the chef personally, of locating the beach that had no footprints. There were further tens of millions of young Americans who didn’t have money but were nonetheless chasing the Perfect Cool. And meanwhile the sad truth was that not everyone could be extraordinary, not everyone could be extremely cool; because whom would this leave to be ordinary? Who would perform the thankless work of being comparatively uncool?
The Corrections · Jonathan Franzen
Every honest confession leaves something out, and it rarely matters.
Seldom, very seldom, does complete truth belong to any human disclosure; seldom can it happen that something is not a little disguised, or a little mistaken; but where, as in this case, though the conduct is mistaken, the feelings are not, it may not be very material.—Mr. Knightley could not impute to Emma a more relenting heart than she possessed, or a heart more disposed to accept of his.
Emma · Jane Austen
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