The Perfect Nanny: A Novel

(24) This was tense and tightly written short novel about a Parisian couple who hire a nanny that seems too good to be true. She gives them their lives back and takes care of them as well as their two children, Mila - an incorrigible preschooler, and Adam, the baby. Louise, the nanny, is an enigma; a cipher. We begin to see she actually has no life of her own - she appears to be desperately poor, widowed, estranged from a daughter - glimpses of her life before her current position are disturbing. But on the surface she is prim, and proper, continually described as doll-like throughout the novel. Surely, she is not capable of killing the children she cares for like a mother, right? Or is she?

This book is easy to read and compelling - show more the chapters jump around in time and include narration from characters that are only peripherally involved. This is intriguing and the reader senses a mystery building. At the outset of the novel we are given the heinous crime - so it is only left to sort out who? and why? It seems obvious - but there must be a twist, right? Well, I will say no more but therein lies my criticism of this novel. There is no pay-off. The scene is painstakingly created, deft characterization and atmosphere - but nothing much is done with all that hard work.

So mixed feelings - the material that is there is very well-written but it seems only half written to me. Or maybe a completely written haunting character sketch; but an incomplete psychological thriller/mystery. This author has great potential. I am still shuddering a bit at that chicken carcass . . . really? you didn't fire her after that. . . show less

I picked this up in a bookstore in Paris in the English language French translations section. I wanted to find something that looked like popular fiction that I hadn't heard of. Lullaby is billed as a "thriller". On the first page you learn that a nanny has killed the two children in her care. Then we go back to the beginning and learn about Louise's life and what might have brought her to murder these children. We also see the marriage and parenting of Myriam and Paul - their relationship and how it is impacted by this perfect nanny (and she does seem perfect - except for killing the kids . . . ).

I really liked this and read it in one go on the plane ride back home - until the end. I thought everything was developing nicely and I show more thought I was starting to see how Louise came to commit this violent crime, and then the book just sort of ends. I didn't feel it was sufficiently resolved in terms of character development. So that was disappointing, especially since I was really enjoying it and would have gladly read another 80 pages to have better development. Oh well. It passed the time well enough. show less

This isn't a thriller. We know that the nanny murders her small charges in the first chapter of French author Leila Slimani's novel. The question isn't who, but why, with the tension slowly rising as the parents fail to take seriously Louise's deterioration.

When it's time for the mother of two very young children to go back to work, she and her husband choose a nanny to care for their children. They are nervous, but Louise fulfills all of their needs and more, keeping the small apartment spotless and preparing wonderful dinners for them. They quickly grow dependent on her. At the same time, Louise is in crisis and as her situation worsens, the couple begin to have doubts about her, but they manage to set them aside because she has show more grown vital to the family's functioning.

There's a sense of remove to this story, with the characters remaining opaque. It is very much not a suspense novel, or even a crime novel. It's more a look at how people relate to one another, the expectations and disappointments that color how they see each other, and about loneliness. show less

The cover says it's the new 'Gone Girl' but it's much better than that, because it's entirely believable.
Myriam and Paul are a rather yuppie-ish couple in Paris. Professionally ambitious, but with two demanding small children, Myriam is eager to spend half her salary on childcare just to escape to the office. And nanny Louise seems so perfect- her life revolves around the children; she cleans,cooks and never minds how late she stays.
But we know from page 1 that there's a terrible ending. Slimani does a brilliant job of portraying Louise's escalating mental chaos; the growing tensions between herself and her employers.

I went into reading The Perfect Nanny by Leila Slimani expecting basically a typical domestic suspense novel set in France. There would be a secret or something sinister that would eventually throw a perfect family into disarray. I knew from reading the reviews that the nanny would murder her charges - this is not a spoiler, as the first lines of the book describe the dead children. I figured maybe there would be more to it, maybe the nanny didn't really do it and the book would be figuring that out or something.

But nope, the book is exactly what it seems and yet it is so much more interesting. The nanny did it, no question, and this book will tell you how she gets to that point. But it's not even really about figuring out why one show more person snapped, so much as it is showing how an endless series of deprivations, small humiliations, and thoughtlessness can destroy a person. And what the world feels like to a person who is told she is "like one of the family" but praised for her ability to be almost invisible.

The reader is probably supposed to have an equal balance of sympathy for Louise (the nanny) and Myriam/Paul (her employers), but from the very beginning the relationship is so exploitative and self-centered that I had a really hard time empathizing with anyone except Louise.

Paul and Myriam quickly see Louise as indispensable. They are briefly, slightly ashamed at taking advantage of her willingness to work long hours, cook dinner for their friends, and handle household repairs, but her self-sacrificing nature and breadth of skills is just so useful. Myriam, the wife, is "at once embarrassed and secretly thrilled" that Louise does things she's never been asked to do. They never consider paying her for these extra duties (never mind that they couldn't afford to), and Myriam comes to believe Louise is "grateful" to shoulder the burden. They occasionally make token gestures, like inviting her to attend a dinner Louise has cooked for their friends, but then show her off like she's something they own and fail to notice when she leaves the table to clean up while their friends get drunk and put out cigarettes on the dinner plates Louise will have to wash.

Although Louise is "like family," she does not exist to Paul, Myriam and their children when she is not attending to their needs. They never once ask about her life or even how her day is. When, accompanying the family on vacation, Louise reveals that she never learned to swim (which is presented as a class issue), the children mock her. Paul is embarrassed and angry with Louise "for having brought her poverty, her frailties all the way here." He feels her sadness and embarrassment spoil the day and is irritated that she cannot relieve him of the task of caring for his children. In what he likely believes is a magnanimous gesture, he buys her a pair of child's floating armbands and tries to teach her to swim, ignoring her obvious terror. After the vacation, the family cannot wait to separate from Louise and decide that they will not ask her to accompany them next year because it is "too hard" for her to be exposed to things she's been deprived of.

As the family begins to turn on Louise for the crime of making them acknowledge class differences, they spend more time apart from her, and the reader gets to see more and more of Louise's life when she is not with the family. And again, the reader realizes that Paul and Myriam have never once expressed interest in or concern about Louise outside of her ability to be useful to them. We discover more about Louise's backstory, how she came to be working as a nanny, her horrid living conditions, and her inability to afford food or rent on what Paul and Myriam pay her. When Myriam realizes that Louise seems to always wear the same clothes, she is sickened, rather than concerned. When Louise is deathly ill and unable to work, Myriam thinks only of how this will inconvenience her. Yes, Louise is creepy and damaged, but she is also so desperately alone and has spent her entire life serving people who would prefer not to think of her as a person who exists separate from their needs. It is hard not to feel at least anger on her behalf.

I highly recommend this excellent and unbelievably sad -- though not for the reasons you might think, given that it's about child murder -- book. show less

Ugh, from the very beginning, this book was chilling. Unsettling. It’s not a typical thriller, more character-driven, maybe a character study of sorts. None of the characters were likable, but they were fascinating.

A young Parisian couple, Myriam and Paul, hire Louise as a nanny for their two small children. With a good reference from her previous employer, and being somewhat desperate to find childcare, they quickly welcome Louise into their lives. Oh, dear. Louise seems perfect on the outside, but she has hidden issues, which are slowly reveled as the story progresses.

While reading this book, I felt like I was watching the characters from a distance rather than being a part of the story. I wonder if it’s because this is the show more English translation from French, or was that the intent. The writing was good…just had a distant feel. The ending, well, I wanted more. Too many questions unanswered. show less

“The baby is dead. It only took a few seconds.” This is the shocking, and unforgettable opening to Leïla Slimani’s short but captivating novel. Its dark message sets the tone for what follows in this disturbing story, as it shifts between past and present to explore the background to this shocking act.
Miriam and Paul live in Paris and have two children, three-year-old Mia who was born just two weeks after Miriam graduated from law school, and baby Adam, who is a few months old. Miriam is becoming increasingly depressed, frustrated by being a stay-at-home mother, with not having anything to talk about apart from the daily antics of the children and conversations overheard in the supermarket. She resents the fact that Paul show more “escapes” to work each day and comes home full of accounts of his more stimulating experiences. Then, as she is spending yet another unstimulating time in the park with the children, a chance meeting with a former law-school classmate leads to an offer of a job. The opportunity to put her training into use for the first time feels like the answer to her dreams and she discusses it with Paul. He had not realised just how frustrated and unfulfilled she had been feeling so agrees that she should take the job, even though the cost of a nanny will barely be covered by Miriam’s earnings. Having heard some horror-stories about other families’ experiences with unsuitable nannies, they recognise that they need to be careful in their choice and early interviews confirm that finding the right person won’t be easy. Then along comes Louise, a quiet, elegant and gentle older woman who has glowing references and demonstrates an immediate affinity with Mia and Adam. They are instantly certain that they have found the right one and
Louise soon becomes an indispensable part of their family, effortlessly caring for the children, endlessly patient in playing imaginative games with them as well as meeting all their physical needs. In addition to this, she brings order to the chaotic household and is always prepared to put in extra hours, without extra pay. She cooks evening meals for Miriam and Paul, as well as elaborate meals for when they entertain – all their friends envy them their good fortune! Before long they are totally dependent on her, unable to imagine life without her, and Louise does all she can to reinforce this dependence.
This is a dark and disturbing story which gradually reveals the background to Louise’s need to present herself to the family as the perfect nanny, to constantly prove her worth and thus to make herself indispensable, ever-fearful of any repeat of rejections she has experienced in the past. Miriam and Paul think she is wonderful, take full advantage of her willingness to take on more and more of the daily tasks they have no time for, thus making their lives run smoothly. Yet they also expect her to be content to “know her place”, becoming resentful when she appears to over-step the employer/employée boundary. The author skilfully captures the increasing dilemma for Louise as she struggles to accept being praised for being so perfect, so indispensable whilst expected to remain in the background. She knows so many of the intimate details of their lives, but do they know, or even care, anything about what hers is like when she is not with them? Do they even know where she lives? Just as skilfully, the author conveys the increasing irritations felt by Miriam and Paul as they start to feel that Louise is taking too much control, that the balance of power seems to be shifting too far in her direction and the frictions which arise as they attempt to regain it.
This tautly written story captures the dilemmas faced by women who want to return to work and the guilt they feel about handing over the care of their children to a stranger. They have been brought up to believe that they can “have it all” but no one prepares them for either the consequent dilemmas they will almost inevitably face, or any guidance about how to resolve these tensions. If anything does go wrong, as it does in the “worst nightmare” scenario of this story, people are most likely to blame the mother for putting her own needs before that of her children. In an effectively subtle way, Leïla Slimani’s eloquent writing captures the misogynistic attitude which remains prevalent – that it is the woman’s role to be the main caretaker.
It also captures the fact that, in caring for other people’s children, some childminders, for economic reasons, have had to abandon their own children, leaving them for long periods in the care of relatives. This is particularly so for the nannies who are immigrants and who may, for many years, lose all contact with their children. Some of these tensions are explored through Louise’s interactions with other nannies in the park where she takes the children to play. In a reversal of the usual stereotype, she is white whilst her employer, Miriam, was born in Morocco, so she feels she has little in common with the other nannies she meets, all of whom are immigrants. However, her living conditions are similarly impoverished so the social divide between her and her employers is, yet again, highlighted and adds to her increasing resentment about her situation. For reasons which become clear as the story progresses to its violent outcome, Louise gradually loses her grip on reality and descends into psychosis.
The fact that this story begins with its tragic ending did nothing to remove the tension from the exploration of what led to the murders and this is testament to Leïla Slimani’s precise, economical use of language, her understanding of the dynamics of the shifting balance of power in relationships and her subtle explorations of gender, modern-day parenting, class, privilege, race, immigration, social isolation and loneliness (to mention just some of the themes). Although this story is set in Paris and highlights the very different lives lived by the “haves” and the “have nots”, much of its power lies in its universality, the fact that it could be set in any affluent city. Because of its inherent sadness and the exposure of so much human frailty, there were times when I found it difficult to read but I really admired the author’s willingness to explore the darkness which can exist in relationships and which can lead to such a tragedy. She has created multi-faceted characters, not always likeable but certainly recognisable and convincing, and has used them to tell this tragic but provocatively thought-provoking story. It is a book which, because of its wide-ranging themes, would make an ideal choice for reading groups. show less