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The Au Pair: A True Story
A British wife and mother’s life is turned upside down when she meets and falls in love with her much younger Afrikaans au pair in this candid memoir. This tantalizing, unconventional, true love story details how two women found each other at an inopportune time in their lives, how they faced reactions to their relationship from their families and friends, and how they ultimately dealt with their own guilt. Jaw-dropping and often humorous, these pages express the urgency and passion felt by a woman whose true sexuality emerges later in life.
- GenresNonfiction
322 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2010
About the author
Michele Macfarlane
1 book7 followersMICHELE MACFARLANE was born in South Africa in 1968 and moved to the UK when she was 14 years old. She attended drama college in Coventry where she met her husband.
At the age of 24, she became a full-time mother and home educator. After their third child was born, the happily married couple decided to embark on a new adventure that would take them to Cape Town, South Africa. Though the move was just what the family needed, caring for her children became more difficult when she was diagnosed with the degenerative eye disease, Retinitis Pigmentosa which causes tunnel vision, headaches and eventual blindness. As her visual impairment worsened with age, Michele appointed an au pair to assist with driving and childcare. That is when everything changed.
Her book "I left my husband for the Au Pair" is available on Amazon. Her follow-up book will be published at the end of 2015.
Connect with Michele at https://www.facebook.com/authormichmac
www.michelemacfarlane.com
https://twitter.com/AuthorMichMac
At the age of 24, she became a full-time mother and home educator. After their third child was born, the happily married couple decided to embark on a new adventure that would take them to Cape Town, South Africa. Though the move was just what the family needed, caring for her children became more difficult when she was diagnosed with the degenerative eye disease, Retinitis Pigmentosa which causes tunnel vision, headaches and eventual blindness. As her visual impairment worsened with age, Michele appointed an au pair to assist with driving and childcare. That is when everything changed.
Her book "I left my husband for the Au Pair" is available on Amazon. Her follow-up book will be published at the end of 2015.
Connect with Michele at https://www.facebook.com/authormichmac
www.michelemacfarlane.com
https://twitter.com/AuthorMichMac
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
June 23, 2014
The title of this book makes it fairly self-explanatory. It is a coming out story of sorts. Michele Macfarlane hires an au pair to help with her three young children when her eyesight continues to worsen. She makes the difficult decision to give up driving and accept a helping hand with the household. It isn't long that Lynette, the au pair, works for Michele before Michele realizes her feelings for Lynette. Lynette is an out lesbian who frequently discusses her relationship with her girlfriend, Hilary, to her boss, Michele. Michele is quite intrigued by this and her curiosity drives her to explore new things, including attending a gay club and questioning what being a lesbian means. They develop a close friendship and it isn't long before Michele decides to leave her husband for Lynette. The book details that decision and its consequences.
Nearly every chapter includes an email from Michele to her best friend Sara, who lives across the globe and surprisingly enough, has questioned her own sexuality. Sara had an affair with a woman but decided to cut it off and stay with her husband. Michele chooses the opposite. It fulfills her in a way she's never had before.
This is sort of where my issues with the book start. In the beginning of the book I was enjoying the fast pace of it all, appreciating that Michele didn't drag out the hiring of the au pair and what the readers knew was going to happen. However, this approach to telling the story proved to be very detrimental in my opinion. None of the characters were well-developed. I was not invested IN anyone because I didn't know much ABOUT anyone. Michele and John's marriage seems fine because the readers are not given much information. Michele's decision to leave John for Lynette seems haste and very short-sighted, even though we are told over and over how Michele cannot live without her, because we don't know this character. Throughout the whole book I was left wanting more. There was so much that could have been expanded on, but instead I feel like I got an extremely shallow version of the story.
Because the characters were so underdeveloped (including Michele), she seems quite careless to have made such a rash decision to leave her marriage and uproot her children's lives. As a person who was previously in a lesbian relationship, I could identify with Michele discovering this part of herself and was all for it. Because of the writing, however, she just seems like a very self-centered, naive woman.
Only at the very end of the book is the toxicity of her relationship with Lynette discussed. I felt very strongly early on that Lynette was manipulative, controlling, possessive, and jealous. She is an extremely destructive force in Michele and John's life and her relationship with Michele is not portrayed healthily at all. I kept waiting for the realization from Michele that she felt pressured and like she was moving too quickly because Lynette was the driving force behind that, but she never did. That is the primary reason I kept reading, to see if Michele ever ends up realizing the situation she's in and gets her and her children out. Given that I felt like Lynette could've been my ex in all the wrong ways, I was really hoping for some words of encouragement. It brought back a lot of memories and bad feelings, but offered nothing in terms of how to deal with that, as Michele doesn't see anything much wrong with her situation. I know if I had read this when I was with my ex, I would have used it as justification to stay. Now that I'm out of it, however, I really hope Michele sees that for herself one day, and that no one reading this uses it as a reason to stay.
This book is portrayed as being a brave story of a woman coming out and the struggles with that. It is instead a scary glimpse at a life filled with chaos and turmoil we were never meant to see, as the author doesn't even realize that is the story she's telling.
Nearly every chapter includes an email from Michele to her best friend Sara, who lives across the globe and surprisingly enough, has questioned her own sexuality. Sara had an affair with a woman but decided to cut it off and stay with her husband. Michele chooses the opposite. It fulfills her in a way she's never had before.
This is sort of where my issues with the book start. In the beginning of the book I was enjoying the fast pace of it all, appreciating that Michele didn't drag out the hiring of the au pair and what the readers knew was going to happen. However, this approach to telling the story proved to be very detrimental in my opinion. None of the characters were well-developed. I was not invested IN anyone because I didn't know much ABOUT anyone. Michele and John's marriage seems fine because the readers are not given much information. Michele's decision to leave John for Lynette seems haste and very short-sighted, even though we are told over and over how Michele cannot live without her, because we don't know this character. Throughout the whole book I was left wanting more. There was so much that could have been expanded on, but instead I feel like I got an extremely shallow version of the story.
Because the characters were so underdeveloped (including Michele), she seems quite careless to have made such a rash decision to leave her marriage and uproot her children's lives. As a person who was previously in a lesbian relationship, I could identify with Michele discovering this part of herself and was all for it. Because of the writing, however, she just seems like a very self-centered, naive woman.
Only at the very end of the book is the toxicity of her relationship with Lynette discussed. I felt very strongly early on that Lynette was manipulative, controlling, possessive, and jealous. She is an extremely destructive force in Michele and John's life and her relationship with Michele is not portrayed healthily at all. I kept waiting for the realization from Michele that she felt pressured and like she was moving too quickly because Lynette was the driving force behind that, but she never did. That is the primary reason I kept reading, to see if Michele ever ends up realizing the situation she's in and gets her and her children out. Given that I felt like Lynette could've been my ex in all the wrong ways, I was really hoping for some words of encouragement. It brought back a lot of memories and bad feelings, but offered nothing in terms of how to deal with that, as Michele doesn't see anything much wrong with her situation. I know if I had read this when I was with my ex, I would have used it as justification to stay. Now that I'm out of it, however, I really hope Michele sees that for herself one day, and that no one reading this uses it as a reason to stay.
This book is portrayed as being a brave story of a woman coming out and the struggles with that. It is instead a scary glimpse at a life filled with chaos and turmoil we were never meant to see, as the author doesn't even realize that is the story she's telling.
August 12, 2022
This book makes EL James look like Margaret Atwood. It is the biggest heap of festering wet cat litter I have ever read. Everyone in it is a nightmare, and not in a fascinating antihero sort of way (or even just like realistically flawed human adults); at least, McFarlane makes them seem like the sort of people you'd break an arm to avoid, which surely can't be deliberate because she comes off equally poorly and, if the events related in this book are true, she lacks the self-awareness to do that on purpose. The writing veers between poor and barely workmanlike (you will long for the erudite, articulate heights of Sidney Sheldon). The editing is abominable. I cannot stress enough what a waste of time reading this was.
June 16, 2014
Received from Net Galley.
The synopsis of this book sounded like a lifetime movie, and the book met that expectation - it was entertaining, but not very good. I thought the format was a bit strange, since the emails to Sara that opened and closed some chapters didn't really seem necessary - that info could have been easily written into the story itself. I also didn't feel that the author made anyone seem very sympathetic in the way she wrote the book, especially herself and Lyn. Finally, although it very well could be a completely true story, it definitely seemed like there were some things that must have been embellished.
The synopsis of this book sounded like a lifetime movie, and the book met that expectation - it was entertaining, but not very good. I thought the format was a bit strange, since the emails to Sara that opened and closed some chapters didn't really seem necessary - that info could have been easily written into the story itself. I also didn't feel that the author made anyone seem very sympathetic in the way she wrote the book, especially herself and Lyn. Finally, although it very well could be a completely true story, it definitely seemed like there were some things that must have been embellished.
June 7, 2011
Exceptionally written.
This is one of those true stories that you can find yourself getting lost in. You relate easily to the character, even if you've never been through half the stuff she's been through, which makes it very easy to read. The honesty, passion and reality of this book makes it a real winner.
This is one of those true stories that you can find yourself getting lost in. You relate easily to the character, even if you've never been through half the stuff she's been through, which makes it very easy to read. The honesty, passion and reality of this book makes it a real winner.
January 15, 2015
This was an interesting read of a woman's experiences coming out and her first lesbian relationship that are different from my own. Parts of the book were very sexually explicit, which I think was supposed to add to the feeling of the novel, but at times were cringy and embarrassing. I found the one way emails to Michele's friend very laborious and started to skip those towards the end.
May 20, 2011
It's not high art, but this story of a married woman falling for her au pair had such a fairy tale ending I was left tearing up with happiness.
December 21, 2011
Beautiful book cos i can relate to some of the things experienced by Michelle. Wow I am glad I read this book.
December 26, 2011
Extremely candid story
August 24, 2012
seductively well written ... looking forward to Michele's next book!
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August 6, 2013Poor M. from good to worse
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews