True Life: Nanny Diaries

You'll Never Nanny in This Town Again by Suzanne Hansen
This book tells the true story of what it's like being a nanny to the stars in Hollywood. When I heard true, I was a little unsure what that meant. I figured pseudonyms would be used, and I wouldn't be able to figure out just who she was referring to. While that happened at times overall that wasn't the case. Also there's the fact the book reads so-much like fiction that it's hard to believe it's true. But overall it is. It's even peppered with a few diary entries that most like have been ripped out of the author's own diary at the time.

So much of the book is meant to be a shock value, sort of a "look how rich celebrities are and how awful they treat people around them." It's really kind of sad to think about that someone who has the money to spend almost unlimited time with their children chooses not too. In a way it made me sad since part of me enjoys seeing celebrities through this picture perfect lens of being wonderful people and wonderful mothers on top of it. But it was nice that through the horror stories, there would still glimmers of hope. And it was also comforting that some of the "good" parents where those you would expect, and likewise of the "bad" parents. Is it that surprising that Michael Eisner doesn't come off looking like the greatest father figure? Or on the other hand, it is nice to know that Sally Field comes off as sounded like a great mom like she plays on tv.

Reading the book in a way, makes me wish I could have been a nanny to the stars. I would imagine that with the change in paparazzi it's a little different being a nanny know, than it would have been back in the '80s, but I can't help but think how fun it would be. Of course the book, does paint the negatives of that life as well. But even so I can't help but imagine what it might have been like if I had taken off a year or two before or after college to try it out.

After all the struggles Suzy goes through it is a nice ending to be able to read her author's note to see how far she's come. Suzy is now a labor and delivery nurse, (and of course an author), which is something he had been wanting towards at the end of the book so it's nice to hear she met her goal. (Of course the book was written after the fact, so who knows what her actual goals at 19 were.)

Overall, I really did enjoy this sneak peak into the lives of the starts. (Maybe you could tell from the novel I've written?) I really didn't want to stop reading, and once I did I even googled a child or two referenced in the books. The book definitely hits all my likes of books, movies, babies, and even the fact that so much of it's in California that it really shouldn't be a surprise how much I enjoyed it.

~Shoshanah