
As an Amazon Associate and affiliate partner, Menrva Books earns from qualifying purchases. Learn more
Jamie Whitfield is a rarity among the sleek and chic of the Grid - the exclusive blocks of Manhattan's Upper East Side where it's all about keeping up with the Rothschilds. She's a working mother who never quite fits in, much to her ambitious husband Phillip's dismay. While Phillip is worrying that they're the poor relations of the neighbourhood, Jamie is more concerned about juggling her job as a news producer with the needs of her three chidlren - especially her struggling nine-year-old son Dylan. Enter the Manny. One look at Peter Bailey convinces Jamie that the idea isn't as crazy as it seems. Faced with the story of her career, and mutiny from Dylan, Jamie hires Peter to be her own manny. Calm and down-to-earth, Peter reminds her of who she once was - and who, underneath all the high-society glitz, she still is. And he proves to be a life-saver in more ways than she could ever have imagined...
A harried Manhattan mother attempts to balance her high-pressure career and family instability by hiring a male nanny, only to find her carefully constructed life shifting in unexpected ways. Jamie Whitfield struggles to maintain her footing within the hyper-competitive social strata of the Upper East Side while managing a demanding job as a news producer and the emotional needs of her son, Dylan. Her husband, Phillip, views their social standing as a precarious project, creating a domestic environment defined by status anxiety and exhaustion. The narrative, presented through a contemporary lens, follows Jamie as she navigates the social friction caused by her unconventional choice to hire Peter Bailey, a manny who challenges the rigid expectations of her elite social circle.
This novel functions as a sharp social commentary on the pressures of modern parenting within the confines of extreme wealth. The narrative suggests a focus on the absurdity of status-seeking, using the protagonist's domestic struggles to highlight the hollowness of her social environment. Readers likely find the juxtaposition of the grounded, down-to-earth manny against the frantic, status-obsessed backdrop of the Upper East Side to be the primary driver of the story's tension. The work appears to lean into the tropes of contemporary women's fiction while maintaining a satirical edge that critiques the very lifestyle it depicts.
Page Count:
400
Publication Date:
2010-05-04
Publisher:
HarperCollins Publishers Limited
ISBN-10:
0007369336
ISBN-13:
9780007369331
No comments yet. Be the first to share your thoughts!