The Nanny Diaries, Why I LOVE it!

About a decade ago, in a library much smaller than I would imagine in the outskirts of Los Angeles, my friend Lindsay found a short novel in our Echo Park library and read it. She enjoyed it so much that she passed it on to me. Welcome, The Nanny Diaries. Welcome, INSTANT LOVE!

Today I am writing about this book for multiple reasons:
1.) I just reread it and already want to pick it back up!
2.) I realized that this is the number one book I have gifted others with! (And if you are an expecting friend of mine from New Jersey, due with your first little darling this October, you can betcha I have a copy ready for you in your gift box for those late night feedings!)
3.) It tags along with my most recent review for a little book called, Just One More. (You can find that post here.)

In this novel, Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus so creatively and hysterically articulate the life of Nan, a fictional nanny in New York City. Nan gets the great priveldge of practically raising a little man, Grayer, whose parents are more interested in their handbags and secret mistresses. The New York Times agrees with my acclamation of The Nanny Diaries with it's strong review stating it to be, "Diabolically funny".

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So, review. 
Although I am very fond of this book, feel like I could be decent friends with Nanny -I was an Au-Pair at one time, which is similar to a nanny- and I am over the moon for Grayer and Gran, Nanny's paternal grandmother, it is not without its downfalls. 
For instance, there is a LOT of language. I don't put up with language when I am watching television and movies. I suppose while reading I have figured out a good style of skimming past the cuss words, and so I am not as taken aback by them. Now the swearing, THAT is my biggest issue. Emma, Nicola, this book could be pure genius- if not for the swearing!
(Girls, when you write this well, and you do write really well, you don't need to cuss like a Sailor to make your point- you most certainly do not need to swear and get downright blasphemous! You write well, you can find creative alternatives, I just know it!)

I highly recommend this book to any adult who enjoys good reading, laughing, and being entirely drawn to a book from start to finish- you will be up all night reading this one!

Additionally, there is a movie version starring the beautiful Scarlett Johansson as Nanny herself. I have not seen the movie yet, but not for lack of interest! Perhaps if you have seen it, you can give a review of your own in the comments section!?

OK, lastly, I mentioned that this book somehow related to the children's book, Just One More. One of my favorite scenes in the book takes place in the basement of the extravagant apartment the X's (the aloof parents of Nanny's charge, Grayer) live it. It is nearing Christmas and both Grayer and Nanny were sent down under to retrieve the Christmas decor. 
Grayer, (a.k.a. Grove, a.k.a. Grover) leading the way with a flashlight, finds his way to the storage unit and Nanny follows behind:

   "Do you know what you are looking for, Grove?" I call into the piles, as I haven't heard
   anything in a few minutes. Loud clanging noises break the silence. "Grayer! What's going on
   in there?" I start to stand up as his flashlight comes rolling out of the darkness and stops at my
   feet.
   "Just getting my stuff out, Nanny! Turn the light on me, I'm going to get the blue box!" I click
   the high bean on and point it into the cage as directed, illuminating two dirtied socks and a
   little khaki rear end tunneling into the middle of the pile.
   "Are you sure that's safe, Grayer? I think maybe I should..."
   What, crawl in behind him?
   "I got it. Oh, man, there's lotsa stuff back here. My skies! These are my skis, Nanny, for when
   we go to Aspirin." 
   "Aspen?"
   "Aspen. Found it! Going to pass 'em out. Get ready. You get ready, Nanny, here they come."
   He is far into the boxes. I hear fumbling and then a glass ball comes flying out of the darkness
   at me. I drop the flashlight and catch it. It is hand blown and has a Steuben mark on it, along
   with a red hook. Before I can look up another one comes flying out.
   "GRAYER! FREEZE!" With the flashlight rolling around on the floor, casting a weird light on
   Grayer's boxes, I realize I've been letting Mickey Mouse run the show. "Back it up, mister,
   back  it right on up...."*     

Similarly to Ruby calling the shots a little too often and getting away with a little too much, our sweet Grayer, four years old and well spoiled with material stuff but starving for parental affection, gets a little ahead of himself. Eventually Nanny has to put a stop to Mickey Mouse, and eventually Jennifer Hansen Rolli, the author of Just One More's Ruby, must do the same as she writes in her book flap that...

   "She [Jennifer] (usually) gets a kick out of her own children pushing for "just one more" until
   the occasional crash! boom! bang! and the realization that she has let them express a little
   too much independence!"

Happy reading!