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My Hollywood
This is the story of two women whose lives entwine and unfold behind the glittery surface of Hollywood.
Claire, a composer and a new mother, comes to LA so her husband can follow his passion for writing television comedy. Suddenly the marriage—once a genuine 50/50 arrangement—changes. Lola, a fifty-two-year-old mother of five who is working in America to pay for her own children’s higher education back in the Philippines, becomes their nanny. Lola stabilizes the rocky household and soon other parents try to lure her away. What she sacrifices to stay with Claire and “Williamo” remains her own closely guarded secret.
Claire, a composer and a new mother, comes to LA so her husband can follow his passion for writing television comedy. Suddenly the marriage—once a genuine 50/50 arrangement—changes. Lola, a fifty-two-year-old mother of five who is working in America to pay for her own children’s higher education back in the Philippines, becomes their nanny. Lola stabilizes the rocky household and soon other parents try to lure her away. What she sacrifices to stay with Claire and “Williamo” remains her own closely guarded secret.
384 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2010
71 people are currently reading
1526 people want to read
About the author
Mona Simpson
36 books411 followersMona Simpson was born in Green Bay, Wisconsin, then moved to Los Angeles as a young teenager. Her father was a recent immigrant from Syria and her mother was the daughter of a mink farmer and the first person in her family to attend college. Simpson went to Berkeley, where she studied poetry. She worked as a journalist before moving to New York to attend Columbia’s MFA program. During graduate school, she published her first short stories in Ploughshares, The Iowa Review and Mademoiselle. She stayed in New York and worked as an editor at The Paris Review for five years while finishing her first novel, Anywhere But Here. After that, she wrote The Lost Father, A Regular Guy and Off Keck Road.
Her work has been awarded several prizes: A Whiting Prize, A Guggenheim, a grant from the NEA, a Hodder Fellowship from Princeton University, a Lila Wallace Readers Digest Prize, a Chicago Tribune Heartland Prize, Pen Faulkner finalist, and most recently a Literature Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
She worked ten years on My Hollywood. “It’s the book that took me too long because it meant to much to me,” she says.
Mona lives in Santa Monica with her two children and Bartelby the dog.
For more about upcoming readings and events, visit Mona's website http://www.monasimpson.com
and her Facebook author page http://www.facebook.com/pages/Mona-Si...
Her work has been awarded several prizes: A Whiting Prize, A Guggenheim, a grant from the NEA, a Hodder Fellowship from Princeton University, a Lila Wallace Readers Digest Prize, a Chicago Tribune Heartland Prize, Pen Faulkner finalist, and most recently a Literature Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
She worked ten years on My Hollywood. “It’s the book that took me too long because it meant to much to me,” she says.
Mona lives in Santa Monica with her two children and Bartelby the dog.
For more about upcoming readings and events, visit Mona's website http://www.monasimpson.com
and her Facebook author page http://www.facebook.com/pages/Mona-Si...
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 299 reviews
May 21, 2013
This book was hard to stick with. The writing is good, but the plot is elusive. The characters are not shallow, but I never really felt that connected. The writing is poetic, but it is too soft, and becomes like a watercolor that is blurry and pale. This novel needs more than washes of color that allude to things like weather and buildings, nuances of expressions rather than full frontal portraits. I found it convoluted and jumpy.
The point of view goes back and forth between the two main characters-- a woman named Claire and a her nanny, a Filipino woman named Lola. Claire is a composer. Her husband works too much. She has mixed feelings about being a mother, a wife, and an artist. She also has issues with bowel leakage, which is only partly why she doesn't want to have sex with her husband anymore.
Claire's counterpoint is Lola, who is a grandmother in her fifties. There are some similarities between the women. Claire's husband works all the time, so she never sees him. Lola has not seen her husband in years. Claire chooses not to be with her child all the time, which is what Lola is doing by being a nanny. Lola's primary focus is earning and sending money home, which sounds heroic, but she is paying for college bills and house repairs. Her husband has a white collar job, it is not a situation where great sacrifices are warranted, but why Lola is willing and able to live this quest is never explored. She is not as depressed about things as Claire, whose internal articulations of inadequacy and self-doubt fill page after depressing page.
The problem with this book is that there is no real problem. Claire is too weak a character to represent the struggle of an artist. She is too well off to represent the challenge of life as a working mother. Her life is her life, and while she is very sympathetically portrayed, I don't root for her, or worry for her, or even really care too much about her. Lola is not much better. She can always go back home. I began to wonder if she was just as depressed and unhappy as Claire, but too realistic and hardworking to express it.
I kept trying to get into this book, but did not even finish it. This is unusual for me, but I had to return it to the library and was decided I had had enough.
The point of view goes back and forth between the two main characters-- a woman named Claire and a her nanny, a Filipino woman named Lola. Claire is a composer. Her husband works too much. She has mixed feelings about being a mother, a wife, and an artist. She also has issues with bowel leakage, which is only partly why she doesn't want to have sex with her husband anymore.
Claire's counterpoint is Lola, who is a grandmother in her fifties. There are some similarities between the women. Claire's husband works all the time, so she never sees him. Lola has not seen her husband in years. Claire chooses not to be with her child all the time, which is what Lola is doing by being a nanny. Lola's primary focus is earning and sending money home, which sounds heroic, but she is paying for college bills and house repairs. Her husband has a white collar job, it is not a situation where great sacrifices are warranted, but why Lola is willing and able to live this quest is never explored. She is not as depressed about things as Claire, whose internal articulations of inadequacy and self-doubt fill page after depressing page.
The problem with this book is that there is no real problem. Claire is too weak a character to represent the struggle of an artist. She is too well off to represent the challenge of life as a working mother. Her life is her life, and while she is very sympathetically portrayed, I don't root for her, or worry for her, or even really care too much about her. Lola is not much better. She can always go back home. I began to wonder if she was just as depressed and unhappy as Claire, but too realistic and hardworking to express it.
I kept trying to get into this book, but did not even finish it. This is unusual for me, but I had to return it to the library and was decided I had had enough.
September 27, 2010
My Hollywood is a soulful, insightful journey through the worlds of motherhood and caregiving in "Hollywood," (which is really Santa Monica, CA). Told alternately from the points of view of a Filipina nanny (Lola) and the young mother she works for (Claire), the story takes place during the 1990s, a time and place I know well, and the tone always rings true. The novel delves deeply into the psyches of these two women and centers primarily around Lola's experience as she balances her competing desires for status in the nanny world and goal of sending her own children in the Phillipines to school, with her love for the children she provides care for. Claire is a composer, ambivalently married to a TV comedy writer, and torn between her own creative work and the bewildering world of contemporary motherhood. Simpson provides a sometimes startling portrait of these two intimately intertwined lives, while peopling the novel with a supporting network of caregivers, privileged Santa Monica families and their children, and other characters. She layers in surprising insights into the role status plays for both parents and caregivers. Simpson took years to write this book and completed a great deal of research into immigration, professional caregiving and cultural studies, and it shows, especially through the voice of Lola, who is a revelation and the book's true heart. A somewhat challenging read in terms of cadence and pacing, but well worth it - you have to trust and release yourself to Simpson's somewhat disjointed narrative rhythms, I think, to get the full payoff. Ultimately, a very successful novel, more ambitious that her others, and well worth staying with.
October 10, 2010
On their first date, Paul and Claire have already divvied the responsibilities of keeping their careers and managing a child: The former as a TV comedy write; the latter as a classical composer.
"50/50," Paul tells her -- which in retrospect becomes the laughable math of a man who will spend 14 hours day with other writers, trying to create comedy. A sound stage where he looks more at home than when he is at home, and a steady stream Diet Coke coursing through his bladder. Claire's not exactly hitting her quota, either, with deadlines for commissions to write, and milk to make. Not to mention she feels like a misfit among her mommy peers.
Enter Lola, a Filipina nanny charged with watching their baby William. Lola is trying to earn as much cash as possible to send back to her family in the Philippines. She wants better lives for her children, stresses on education, followed by career, all shrouded in virginity. So she mails money, mails money, mails money, subsisting on a single luxury: A cup of coffee a day.
"My Hollywood" is Mona Simpson's juxtaposition of these two cultures: The Santa Monica wives with their absent husbands, diamond earring envy, and play groups. A posse that compares nanny salaries divided by duties, and plant "your kid might be autistic" seeds.
Lola, meanwhile, is one of the leaders of a group of immigrant women who watch the children, and sometimes reluctantly iron shirts. They have a similar "keeping-up-with" mentality, knowing what each nanny makes and what she has to do for the check. There is job jockeying, and gossip about the employer families. Here they have a special insight, as the behind-the-scenesters who empty laundry hampers and are privy to the misplaced bank statements and love letters.
In another corner: Helen and Jeff are the best couple friends of Claire and Paul, and a sort of measuring stick. Jeff is in a similar industry as Paul, and is more successful; Helen wants to make babies, and seems to be up to her sexual organs in red hot romance with her husband. Lola watches their son Bing on the weekends, and does it so well that they dangle dollar signs in front of her in an effort to steal Lola's permanent services. She can't be swayed. Emotionally, she has big love for little Williamo; Rationally, she multiples those dollar signs to determine just how much money she has given up to remain loyal to the tot.
Claire struggles with finding balance between composing and mothering, and is allotted just two phone calls per day to her husband while he is at work. He is, however, always at work. She understands that his work is more financially lucrative, and her art -- her one true love -- suffers under second billing.
Writing-wise, this book is a curiosity. Simpson does a bang up job of separating the voices of her dueling protagonists. Lola maintains an accent so strong that Williamo slips into it on the playground. But Claire's voice is the trickier mimic. It's not always easy to know what she is thinking about, and the decoder ring is pages from a reveal. For instance, she briefly mentions throwing her underwear away. It takes to the end of the chapter to figure out that she is incontinent. Sometimes entire paragraphs include a set of unrelated sentences. This requires very careful reading, and a willingness to wait for answers, rather than tossing out "WTF's" willy-nilly. It's a style that takes a little getting used to, moreso than Lola's fragmented English. Sometimes it is a senseless frustration with little reward. Sometimes it feels like a technique that should be stolen, attempted and honed.
Idea-wise, there are plenty of conversational cues for all sorts of gin-soaked book club sorts, starting with the similarities and differences between the employees and the employers; Lola's emotional commitment to the children, verses being a signature on a check to her own family and the way that plays against Claire's love of making music, and stilted emotional connection to her son; The way Lola is treated as a possession that can be passed off to another family; What happens when you fail at what you love to do.
In one scene, Claire has just received a terrible review in the New York Times, the newspaper of record for everyone within her social scene. She treads lightly, knowing they all know. But when she meets up with Helen, her friend doesn't even address it. Claire keeps waiting for her to say something. Meanwhile, Helen has just had a miscarriage. Yet Claire continues to obsess over her friend saying nothing about the review. Their grief is probably similar, but Claire cannot jack herself from her own gravitational pull long enough to empathize.
The best paragraphs of the story follow: Claire begins cutting and arranging flowers. Baking. Looking for the thing that might be her thing, now that she has had a public failing with her actual thing. The idea that she has used up her music allowance, it won't regenerate. She'll have to find a new identity.
Plot-wise, this book is a bit of a snooze. So much of it is repetitious day-to-day, and coupled with Simpson's style, there is often not enough of a reward to justify it. And there are too many characters on the periphery. In most cases, they would be ignorable, but they continue to crop up throughout the novel, so they must be kept track of. Aside from a handful of moments, this book was just not at all enjoyable.
"50/50," Paul tells her -- which in retrospect becomes the laughable math of a man who will spend 14 hours day with other writers, trying to create comedy. A sound stage where he looks more at home than when he is at home, and a steady stream Diet Coke coursing through his bladder. Claire's not exactly hitting her quota, either, with deadlines for commissions to write, and milk to make. Not to mention she feels like a misfit among her mommy peers.
Enter Lola, a Filipina nanny charged with watching their baby William. Lola is trying to earn as much cash as possible to send back to her family in the Philippines. She wants better lives for her children, stresses on education, followed by career, all shrouded in virginity. So she mails money, mails money, mails money, subsisting on a single luxury: A cup of coffee a day.
"My Hollywood" is Mona Simpson's juxtaposition of these two cultures: The Santa Monica wives with their absent husbands, diamond earring envy, and play groups. A posse that compares nanny salaries divided by duties, and plant "your kid might be autistic" seeds.
Lola, meanwhile, is one of the leaders of a group of immigrant women who watch the children, and sometimes reluctantly iron shirts. They have a similar "keeping-up-with" mentality, knowing what each nanny makes and what she has to do for the check. There is job jockeying, and gossip about the employer families. Here they have a special insight, as the behind-the-scenesters who empty laundry hampers and are privy to the misplaced bank statements and love letters.
In another corner: Helen and Jeff are the best couple friends of Claire and Paul, and a sort of measuring stick. Jeff is in a similar industry as Paul, and is more successful; Helen wants to make babies, and seems to be up to her sexual organs in red hot romance with her husband. Lola watches their son Bing on the weekends, and does it so well that they dangle dollar signs in front of her in an effort to steal Lola's permanent services. She can't be swayed. Emotionally, she has big love for little Williamo; Rationally, she multiples those dollar signs to determine just how much money she has given up to remain loyal to the tot.
Claire struggles with finding balance between composing and mothering, and is allotted just two phone calls per day to her husband while he is at work. He is, however, always at work. She understands that his work is more financially lucrative, and her art -- her one true love -- suffers under second billing.
Writing-wise, this book is a curiosity. Simpson does a bang up job of separating the voices of her dueling protagonists. Lola maintains an accent so strong that Williamo slips into it on the playground. But Claire's voice is the trickier mimic. It's not always easy to know what she is thinking about, and the decoder ring is pages from a reveal. For instance, she briefly mentions throwing her underwear away. It takes to the end of the chapter to figure out that she is incontinent. Sometimes entire paragraphs include a set of unrelated sentences. This requires very careful reading, and a willingness to wait for answers, rather than tossing out "WTF's" willy-nilly. It's a style that takes a little getting used to, moreso than Lola's fragmented English. Sometimes it is a senseless frustration with little reward. Sometimes it feels like a technique that should be stolen, attempted and honed.
Idea-wise, there are plenty of conversational cues for all sorts of gin-soaked book club sorts, starting with the similarities and differences between the employees and the employers; Lola's emotional commitment to the children, verses being a signature on a check to her own family and the way that plays against Claire's love of making music, and stilted emotional connection to her son; The way Lola is treated as a possession that can be passed off to another family; What happens when you fail at what you love to do.
In one scene, Claire has just received a terrible review in the New York Times, the newspaper of record for everyone within her social scene. She treads lightly, knowing they all know. But when she meets up with Helen, her friend doesn't even address it. Claire keeps waiting for her to say something. Meanwhile, Helen has just had a miscarriage. Yet Claire continues to obsess over her friend saying nothing about the review. Their grief is probably similar, but Claire cannot jack herself from her own gravitational pull long enough to empathize.
The best paragraphs of the story follow: Claire begins cutting and arranging flowers. Baking. Looking for the thing that might be her thing, now that she has had a public failing with her actual thing. The idea that she has used up her music allowance, it won't regenerate. She'll have to find a new identity.
Plot-wise, this book is a bit of a snooze. So much of it is repetitious day-to-day, and coupled with Simpson's style, there is often not enough of a reward to justify it. And there are too many characters on the periphery. In most cases, they would be ignorable, but they continue to crop up throughout the novel, so they must be kept track of. Aside from a handful of moments, this book was just not at all enjoyable.
February 20, 2013
Parenthood, I often write on greeting cards to new parents, is an exercise in failure. When you’re finished tiptoeing through the tulips with the Snugli strapped to your chest, take your addle-brained self to a quiet room and steel yourself against the mistakes you are about to make. Acknowledge right then and there from the Comfort Grand Swivel Glider that many – if not most – of the actions you will take in association with this helpless miniature human are likely to be wrong-headed, brash, ill-advised, potentially hazardous, publicly embarrassing and may necessitate costly talk therapy later in the child’s life. There, you said it. Don’t you feel better? Now you can get back to the business of doing the best you can.
Claire, the (anti)heroine of Mona Simpsons “My Hollywood” would have done well to recite this mantra a time or two. Her feelings of inadequacy as a mother are paralyzing. Her once promising career as a composer has stalled. The sincere adoration of her husband is little consolation, as he spends the greater part of each day (and night) in the writers’ room of a successful sitcom. Her ship is stuck between the rock of the stay-at-home moms, to whom parenting seems so effortless and rewarding, and the hard place of the career moms, who sail in and out of the lives of their children as they litigate, deliver babies and shoot films. Everyone in this scenario, by the way, has a nanny. This is, after all, Hollywood. And their mastery of the art of delegation is like a foreign language to Claire.
Enter Wanda Luwanza, known simply as “Lola” (because who has time for entire names), one of an army of Filipinas who have left their families and careers and husbands at home to earn hard currency in America diapering, wiping, sous-chefing, playgrounding, laundry-folding, crumb-sweeping and free overtiming (in addition to, occasionally, professionally averting the eyes and closing the ears). She cares for – and comes to really care for – the excitable little boy she calls Williamo, and increasingly also for his mother, Claire. She is really, really good at what she does. So good, in fact, that a hotshot director’s wife tries to ply her away from Claire with a lucrative offer. It’s a tough call for a domestic like Lola: on the one hand, more cash in less time to fulfill the dreams of her family on the other side of the globe; on the other, troubled Williamo and hapless Claire.
Mona Simpson tells her story by inhabiting both mother and nanny, alternating chapters and voices. Claire’s pieces whisper with disappointment and melancholy. “Marriage hadn’t changed me. Having a child did. I was a dandelion blown.” The writing is like Claire, beautiful and sad, peppered with musical metaphors and arty twists. There is a touch of whimsy to her, notwithstanding all the grief (which does tend to grate…). When the maestro conducting her symphony asks her for notes, she thinks – but doesn’t dare say – that it should sound “like a country piano teacher humming to himself, with his hands in the pockets of an old sweater walking down a lane of trees.” Why doesn’t she just say that to the stuck-up conductor?! Why doesn’t she ever stand up for herself? It’s enough to make a reader scream SNAP OUT OF IT to the printed page.
Lola, by contrast, is clearly the adult in the room. Her voice, despite all pidgin imperfections (which I found sounded remarkably authentic), has such clarity of purpose, such eyes-on-the-prize determination masterfully evoked by the terse, but definite tone Simpson gives Lola. Describing a friend’s employer who wants to baptize her child against the father’s wishes, Lola wonders: “But how much does Sue really want? Like another blouse she saw? I have always been careful to want one thing only.” In Simpson’s world, Lola even gets some laughs (a lot more than Claire gets, and her husband is a sitcom writer), like when another babysitter suggests that her charge might one day have a yacht of her own, she quips: “Babysitters. Even if they are in America one week from a swamp in the jungle, they know what is a yacht.” Lola has a fully functioning moral compass and a sense of pride in her past and her present. Sadly for her employers, she keeps most of her insight to herself.
I am not going to lie to you. This is a tough read. Like I said earlier, somebody needs to get Claire a Red Bull and a Mel Brooks album. And for anyone who has had the good fortune to be on the receiving end of a Filipina’s care, you probably didn’t really need this much information on her inner life. The mere thought of her being half a world away from her own family as she cared so tenderly for yours had you sticking your fingers in your ears and singling la-la-la. You did not, shame be on your head, even consider that under that smiling, round-faced façade there could be such introspection, such clear understanding of her circumstances and your own, such depth of feeling – and reading this book makes you (ok, me) rather uncomfortable. That notwithstanding, I am glad I made it to the end. I respect how Mona Simpson imagined the resolution, how the place each character ends up is both so unexpected and so apt. I love her as a wordsmith. I hear her unspoken message loud and clear: Be careful what you wish for…
Claire, the (anti)heroine of Mona Simpsons “My Hollywood” would have done well to recite this mantra a time or two. Her feelings of inadequacy as a mother are paralyzing. Her once promising career as a composer has stalled. The sincere adoration of her husband is little consolation, as he spends the greater part of each day (and night) in the writers’ room of a successful sitcom. Her ship is stuck between the rock of the stay-at-home moms, to whom parenting seems so effortless and rewarding, and the hard place of the career moms, who sail in and out of the lives of their children as they litigate, deliver babies and shoot films. Everyone in this scenario, by the way, has a nanny. This is, after all, Hollywood. And their mastery of the art of delegation is like a foreign language to Claire.
Enter Wanda Luwanza, known simply as “Lola” (because who has time for entire names), one of an army of Filipinas who have left their families and careers and husbands at home to earn hard currency in America diapering, wiping, sous-chefing, playgrounding, laundry-folding, crumb-sweeping and free overtiming (in addition to, occasionally, professionally averting the eyes and closing the ears). She cares for – and comes to really care for – the excitable little boy she calls Williamo, and increasingly also for his mother, Claire. She is really, really good at what she does. So good, in fact, that a hotshot director’s wife tries to ply her away from Claire with a lucrative offer. It’s a tough call for a domestic like Lola: on the one hand, more cash in less time to fulfill the dreams of her family on the other side of the globe; on the other, troubled Williamo and hapless Claire.
Mona Simpson tells her story by inhabiting both mother and nanny, alternating chapters and voices. Claire’s pieces whisper with disappointment and melancholy. “Marriage hadn’t changed me. Having a child did. I was a dandelion blown.” The writing is like Claire, beautiful and sad, peppered with musical metaphors and arty twists. There is a touch of whimsy to her, notwithstanding all the grief (which does tend to grate…). When the maestro conducting her symphony asks her for notes, she thinks – but doesn’t dare say – that it should sound “like a country piano teacher humming to himself, with his hands in the pockets of an old sweater walking down a lane of trees.” Why doesn’t she just say that to the stuck-up conductor?! Why doesn’t she ever stand up for herself? It’s enough to make a reader scream SNAP OUT OF IT to the printed page.
Lola, by contrast, is clearly the adult in the room. Her voice, despite all pidgin imperfections (which I found sounded remarkably authentic), has such clarity of purpose, such eyes-on-the-prize determination masterfully evoked by the terse, but definite tone Simpson gives Lola. Describing a friend’s employer who wants to baptize her child against the father’s wishes, Lola wonders: “But how much does Sue really want? Like another blouse she saw? I have always been careful to want one thing only.” In Simpson’s world, Lola even gets some laughs (a lot more than Claire gets, and her husband is a sitcom writer), like when another babysitter suggests that her charge might one day have a yacht of her own, she quips: “Babysitters. Even if they are in America one week from a swamp in the jungle, they know what is a yacht.” Lola has a fully functioning moral compass and a sense of pride in her past and her present. Sadly for her employers, she keeps most of her insight to herself.
I am not going to lie to you. This is a tough read. Like I said earlier, somebody needs to get Claire a Red Bull and a Mel Brooks album. And for anyone who has had the good fortune to be on the receiving end of a Filipina’s care, you probably didn’t really need this much information on her inner life. The mere thought of her being half a world away from her own family as she cared so tenderly for yours had you sticking your fingers in your ears and singling la-la-la. You did not, shame be on your head, even consider that under that smiling, round-faced façade there could be such introspection, such clear understanding of her circumstances and your own, such depth of feeling – and reading this book makes you (ok, me) rather uncomfortable. That notwithstanding, I am glad I made it to the end. I respect how Mona Simpson imagined the resolution, how the place each character ends up is both so unexpected and so apt. I love her as a wordsmith. I hear her unspoken message loud and clear: Be careful what you wish for…
November 2, 2010
This amazing novel devoured me as I devoured it. I was confined to bed, recovering from a virus but finally able to read; the perfect excuse to do what I spend most of my time doing anyway, but in this case purely for my own enjoyment.
There was so much to enjoy. Claire, new mother, wife of an aspiring TV writer, herself a composer, is quite simply adrift and overwhelmed by motherhood. Surrounded by the kinds of mothers you find in books such as The Nanny Diaries, Claire is a unique character who doesn't fit in.
Lola, who becomes Claire's nanny, is a Filipina with five children of her own back home. Her views on motherhood are in a certain way more like the other mothers in Claire's neighborhood. She works in America with the sole purpose of sending money back to the Philippines so her children can be educated and become successful adults. Despite herself, she becomes emotionally involved with her American charges, fulfilling all the nurturing impulses she had never been able to give to her own children.
This is an excruciatingly emotional book and that is what makes it so compelling. But it is also savvy with its snarky look at West Los Angeles society and its sensitive look at nanny culture. Yes, there is such a thing, comparable to the upstairs/downstairs conventions in British fiction. Mona Simpson's creation of the underbelly of immigrant life legal and illegal in modern Los Angeles, with its customs, it views on American life, its dangers and solidarities, is a feat in itself, alternately horrific and hilarious.
For several years in the first decade of the 21st century, I was a tutor in LA. Week after week, I entered homes just like the ones in My Hollywood and tried to help kids with their math and language arts. I observed mothers who had plenty of money but barely a moment to actually nurture their children. In back hallways and kitchens, I passed by the housekeepers and nannies who kept these women's homes in some kind of order. I worked with children whose attention was so fixated on the parents they rarely saw that math facts and "critical thinking" (the postmodern conception of reading comprehension) had absolutely no relevance to their lives. Because of these experiences, I know that Mona Simpson is telling the truth in her novel.
I am saying this because some reviews I have read express doubts about the veracity of the tale. Readers, you can trust Mona Simpson here. This is the real deal.
October 7, 2010
I wasn't always crazy about the writing style--found it unnecessarily obscure in parts, but I did really like the characterization of Claire and Lola in counterpoint. The lives of privileged stay-at-home mothers compared to their nannies, was well-done, avoiding too much stereotyping, except when that is the point! It really made me think about the way we treat babysitters and immigrant workers. Unfortunately, many of the characters are really hard to like, especially among the mothers. Slowly we come to appreciate Claire, and sympathize with her mistakes.
What made me really like the book was the way the marriage between Claire and Paul changed after they had children. It very closely resembled the challenges of marriages very close to home! I thought the theme of the submission of women, whether to their husbands or to their employers, especially relevant. It was quite obvious there was not that much difference between the mothers and the nannies, except the nannies could get fired and replaced, while the mothers would merely get ignored (or cheated on). Claire's struggle to maintain her sense of self, and her identity as an artist with important work to be done, competes with her desire to be a great mom and make up for her husband's absence with his work. The overall feeling that when a couple has a child, everything changes for the wife, while more or less nothing changes for the husband (except less sex and a more unhappy spouse), seems very common. A very sensitive and thoughtful book for what could be a cliched topic.
What made me really like the book was the way the marriage between Claire and Paul changed after they had children. It very closely resembled the challenges of marriages very close to home! I thought the theme of the submission of women, whether to their husbands or to their employers, especially relevant. It was quite obvious there was not that much difference between the mothers and the nannies, except the nannies could get fired and replaced, while the mothers would merely get ignored (or cheated on). Claire's struggle to maintain her sense of self, and her identity as an artist with important work to be done, competes with her desire to be a great mom and make up for her husband's absence with his work. The overall feeling that when a couple has a child, everything changes for the wife, while more or less nothing changes for the husband (except less sex and a more unhappy spouse), seems very common. A very sensitive and thoughtful book for what could be a cliched topic.
October 26, 2010
Novel. Deals with similar issues as Kathryn Stockett's The Help. Juxtaposes the voices of a 30-something mother of one (a son) and the Filipino grandmother nanny who cares for her child during the week. The nanny has a family of her own, with a husband, children and grandchildren back in the Philippines but works in the States to earn $$ to send back to her family so they can get a good education. A good education is of ultimate importance to her. Her values compared with the values of the American family are clearly different. After her time with the one family, nanny has subsequent jobs with two other families.
In the end, I thought this would be a better book than it actually was, so I can't say I really recommend it. I feel like it could easily become a big hit and a best-seller, a la The Help, but I cannot say that I connected very well with any of the characters. Perhaps more distasteful to me, however, was the generally dystopian outlook of the entire story. In that way, it reminded me a bit of Revolutionary Road. In fact, as I was lying in bed last night, I got to thinking that one could very easily come up with a thesis of, "Mona Simpson's My Hollywood has a dystopian outlook on American modern life and, more particularly, family life and marriage," and the paper would just about write itself. A possible outline:
A. Nanny's family itself is separated for over 30 years. Result? Won't give this away, but it's not good.
B. First family (30-something parents and 1 son) – husband works way too much, wife feels unfulfilled, child suffers. Result? Won't give this away, but also not good.
C. Friends of first family – husband has affairs, wife has miscarriages, wife over-throws herself into domestic life, personal beautifying, etc.
D. All the other nannies and their families – a font of pertinent material here; depending upon how much you want to get into it, you'd get a good many pages out of this
D. Second family (Judith):
1. Single mom has child w/o a father
a. Financial problems
b. Child's developmental problems
2. Judith's subsequent relationship & marriage with new man; many probs ensue:
a. Strains in the Judith/nanny relationship
b. More work for nanny
c. Less $$ for nanny
d. Child suffers
e. Nanny "encouraged" to leave
E. Mother of First Family – raised her child as a single mom (so she never grew up with a good sense of a normal family) – today still has a long-term partner of 30 years, with whom she cannot even live b/c then they wouldn't get along
In the end, I thought this would be a better book than it actually was, so I can't say I really recommend it. I feel like it could easily become a big hit and a best-seller, a la The Help, but I cannot say that I connected very well with any of the characters. Perhaps more distasteful to me, however, was the generally dystopian outlook of the entire story. In that way, it reminded me a bit of Revolutionary Road. In fact, as I was lying in bed last night, I got to thinking that one could very easily come up with a thesis of, "Mona Simpson's My Hollywood has a dystopian outlook on American modern life and, more particularly, family life and marriage," and the paper would just about write itself. A possible outline:
A. Nanny's family itself is separated for over 30 years. Result? Won't give this away, but it's not good.
B. First family (30-something parents and 1 son) – husband works way too much, wife feels unfulfilled, child suffers. Result? Won't give this away, but also not good.
C. Friends of first family – husband has affairs, wife has miscarriages, wife over-throws herself into domestic life, personal beautifying, etc.
D. All the other nannies and their families – a font of pertinent material here; depending upon how much you want to get into it, you'd get a good many pages out of this
D. Second family (Judith):
1. Single mom has child w/o a father
a. Financial problems
b. Child's developmental problems
2. Judith's subsequent relationship & marriage with new man; many probs ensue:
a. Strains in the Judith/nanny relationship
b. More work for nanny
c. Less $$ for nanny
d. Child suffers
e. Nanny "encouraged" to leave
E. Mother of First Family – raised her child as a single mom (so she never grew up with a good sense of a normal family) – today still has a long-term partner of 30 years, with whom she cannot even live b/c then they wouldn't get along
January 1, 2015
I had many problems with this novel.
First and foremost I could not stand Claire, the mother. I know we are supposed to like Lola more than Claire and that Claire's redemption is part of the whole plot, however, I found Claire to be narcissistic and boring. She was an imbecile who should never have had children.
Second, as someone familiar with Los Angeles, I found the picture of Los Angeles that the author presented to be stereotypical and shallow. Los Angles is a very complex city with many layers and yet all the author did was promote the stereotypes of superficiality, excess, image conscious, self involved inhabitants. I know many people in Los Angeles that live without a nanny and would never hire one if they could not afford it just to keep up an image. There wasn't a likable mother in this book.
The biggest problem for me though was the idea that the nannies have any power to negotiate salary, days off etc. is insane. The unfortunate reality is that there are so many illegal aliens ready to be a nanny that many are abused - working long long hours for little to no pay, on call at all times, expected to be the nanny, cook, housekeeper. A friend of mine calculated what her friend's nanny was being paid when she divided the pay by the hours worked. She was paying this woman about $6 an hour. My friend pointed out the inequity and was told that she paid the going rate and she her nanny was lucky to have a job. To which my friend replied "just because it is the norm, doesn't make it right." Sadly, many nannies in Southern Cal are taken advantage of because of the overwhelming number of people desperate for a job.
Overall, I disliked this novel.
November 26, 2013
Almost 50 years have passed since Betty Friedan published "The Feminine Mystique," but just last month we ran this headline in The Post: "Working mothers not necessarily harmful to children's development." How's that for reassuring when you're running off to a conference with mashed banana on your blouse? Loaded pistols in the nursery aren't necessarily harmful either, but good grief, lady, why take that risk! And by the way, what's for dinner?
Plenty of feminists have noted that, having failed to keep women barefoot and pregnant, we've switched to another crippling strategy: waving them off to work with a purse full of guilt and apprehension, encouraging them to worry they're not good mothers or competent employees. Men have similar worries, of course, but that just means they're great dads and conscientious workers. Besides, we're all thoroughly modern, liberated partners now, so any anxieties mom might be feeling are entirely in her imagination. Glass ceiling? No, no, that's a Tiffany skylight.
Especially in a high-powered town like Washington, we're unsettled about the economics of parenting and the politics of child care -- who should do it, who should want to do it and what it's worth to us. Not much, according to recent data: about $11 an hour, usually without health insurance. It's more lucrative to take care of a couple's car than their child. Who knows what else Mary Poppins is swallowing with that spoonful of sugar just to get through the day.
My favorite novel last year, Lorrie Moore's "A Gate at the Stairs," had a lot to say about the strange tensions of parenting and child care, but it didn't focus on the issue as intensely as an engaging new novel by Mona Simpson -- her first since 2000 -- called "My Hollywood." It takes place in the late 1990s, when mothers have already been working for decades. Anyone still moaning about gender inequality sounds shrill or incompetent because women can have it all! In fact, they've got to: Take care of the house, raise the kids, work full time and feel grateful when their modern husbands condescend to clear the table.
The story, which is vaguely autobiographical, is partially narrated by a successful composer named Claire, who finds parenting nothing like what she imagined. "I assumed I'd have children and work," she says. "He, the putative he, would work a little less and I'd work a little less and the kid would have long hair, paint-spattered overalls, and be, in general, a barrel of monkeys." Sitting home alone with her baby, she recalls that on their very first date, the man she eventually married understood exactly the child-care arrangement she wanted: "With a woman who worked, it'd have to be fifty-fifty. . . . Of course."
Fifty-fifty. Of course. How easily we can all agree on that equitable division of labor. And yet how exactly does that work once the stork drops down an actual, screaming, pooping baby? Claire's husband, Paul, is a TV comedy writer -- a high-income but precarious job that keeps him at the network late every night. (Simpson was once married to Richard Appel, a writer on "The Simpsons," who named Homer's mom after her.) When Claire complains that her music requires hours of quiet, uninterrupted time, Paul has an easy remedy (he always has an easy remedy):
"Just give him to a babysitter and get to work."
"But he cries," Claire says.
"Then let him cry."
The success of this absorbing novel rests on Simpson's ability to make that well-worn marital argument just as uncomfortable and perplexing as it was when you were having it with your own spouse. The tyranny of La Leche fanatics, the reduction of one's career to a hobby, and the futile competition with tight-tummied moms who always have Ziploc bags of organic apple slices -- all the withering insecurities of motherhood are captured here in Claire's stream-of-conversation patter, a mixture of acerbic wit and nervous despair from a smart woman who can't figure out how she can write music and care for a child without growing shrewish and unpleasant.
Simpson is particularly astute with the depressing logic of dad's need to work late at the office. "My Hollywood" never demonizes Paul or even subjects him to particularly harsh satire. The point, after all, is that he's perfectly normal -- devoted, charming and great with children. And, anyway, Claire thinks he's right: He's the breadwinner, he has important meetings to attend and tough deadlines to meet. In the end, it's a game of marital chicken, and the spouse with the flexible, stay-at-home job always yields first. "He proved able to live with my regular disappointment," Claire confesses with the irritation that will eventually consume her. "I could, apparently, live with his working whenever the hell he wanted."
What really invigorates this novel, though, is the way it alternates between Claire's chapters and chapters narrated by Lola, her 50-year-old Filipino nanny. I was worried early on that Lola would be a Southeast Asian version of the Magical Negro, who exists merely to help some self-absorbed white person reach enlightenment. But she's entirely her own wonderful, troubled character, and her relationship with Claire remains complex and unresolved. In lightly fractured English, Lola describes the constant pressure to send more money back to her own children while farming out her affections to high-income Americans who speak of her as one of the family (like a kindly aunt you can fire at will). "We are status symbols," she jokes with her fellow nannies, "like a BMW." She comes to play a crucial role in Claire's life and the life of Claire's rambunctious son, but she never forgets that "raising children, it is all the same story -- they grow above you. And you are no longer needed. They have a name for that here -- obsolete. Things outlive their use, even people."
Through Lola and her friends, we're introduced to a tight network of immigrant child-care workers, women charged with the ultimate responsibilities but subjected to casual humiliations, plied with lavish compliments and stung by racist assumptions, exhorted to stay except when they're being threatened with deportation. They're an agile, wary group, these nannies, sometimes servants, sometimes teachers, stand-in mothers and pinch-hitting maids. It's a poignant vision of the upstairs-downstairs structure that persists in our officially classless society.
Some of the best chapters here, in Lola's voice, stand alone as powerful short stories; indeed, parts of this novel have already appeared in Harper's, the Atlantic, "The Best American Short Stories" and on "This American Life." Simpson may seem focused on the peculiar troubles of the rich and their servants, but with her incisive portrayal of the frustrations felt by working parents, "My Hollywood" could easily be "Our Country."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/...
Plenty of feminists have noted that, having failed to keep women barefoot and pregnant, we've switched to another crippling strategy: waving them off to work with a purse full of guilt and apprehension, encouraging them to worry they're not good mothers or competent employees. Men have similar worries, of course, but that just means they're great dads and conscientious workers. Besides, we're all thoroughly modern, liberated partners now, so any anxieties mom might be feeling are entirely in her imagination. Glass ceiling? No, no, that's a Tiffany skylight.
Especially in a high-powered town like Washington, we're unsettled about the economics of parenting and the politics of child care -- who should do it, who should want to do it and what it's worth to us. Not much, according to recent data: about $11 an hour, usually without health insurance. It's more lucrative to take care of a couple's car than their child. Who knows what else Mary Poppins is swallowing with that spoonful of sugar just to get through the day.
My favorite novel last year, Lorrie Moore's "A Gate at the Stairs," had a lot to say about the strange tensions of parenting and child care, but it didn't focus on the issue as intensely as an engaging new novel by Mona Simpson -- her first since 2000 -- called "My Hollywood." It takes place in the late 1990s, when mothers have already been working for decades. Anyone still moaning about gender inequality sounds shrill or incompetent because women can have it all! In fact, they've got to: Take care of the house, raise the kids, work full time and feel grateful when their modern husbands condescend to clear the table.
The story, which is vaguely autobiographical, is partially narrated by a successful composer named Claire, who finds parenting nothing like what she imagined. "I assumed I'd have children and work," she says. "He, the putative he, would work a little less and I'd work a little less and the kid would have long hair, paint-spattered overalls, and be, in general, a barrel of monkeys." Sitting home alone with her baby, she recalls that on their very first date, the man she eventually married understood exactly the child-care arrangement she wanted: "With a woman who worked, it'd have to be fifty-fifty. . . . Of course."
Fifty-fifty. Of course. How easily we can all agree on that equitable division of labor. And yet how exactly does that work once the stork drops down an actual, screaming, pooping baby? Claire's husband, Paul, is a TV comedy writer -- a high-income but precarious job that keeps him at the network late every night. (Simpson was once married to Richard Appel, a writer on "The Simpsons," who named Homer's mom after her.) When Claire complains that her music requires hours of quiet, uninterrupted time, Paul has an easy remedy (he always has an easy remedy):
"Just give him to a babysitter and get to work."
"But he cries," Claire says.
"Then let him cry."
The success of this absorbing novel rests on Simpson's ability to make that well-worn marital argument just as uncomfortable and perplexing as it was when you were having it with your own spouse. The tyranny of La Leche fanatics, the reduction of one's career to a hobby, and the futile competition with tight-tummied moms who always have Ziploc bags of organic apple slices -- all the withering insecurities of motherhood are captured here in Claire's stream-of-conversation patter, a mixture of acerbic wit and nervous despair from a smart woman who can't figure out how she can write music and care for a child without growing shrewish and unpleasant.
Simpson is particularly astute with the depressing logic of dad's need to work late at the office. "My Hollywood" never demonizes Paul or even subjects him to particularly harsh satire. The point, after all, is that he's perfectly normal -- devoted, charming and great with children. And, anyway, Claire thinks he's right: He's the breadwinner, he has important meetings to attend and tough deadlines to meet. In the end, it's a game of marital chicken, and the spouse with the flexible, stay-at-home job always yields first. "He proved able to live with my regular disappointment," Claire confesses with the irritation that will eventually consume her. "I could, apparently, live with his working whenever the hell he wanted."
What really invigorates this novel, though, is the way it alternates between Claire's chapters and chapters narrated by Lola, her 50-year-old Filipino nanny. I was worried early on that Lola would be a Southeast Asian version of the Magical Negro, who exists merely to help some self-absorbed white person reach enlightenment. But she's entirely her own wonderful, troubled character, and her relationship with Claire remains complex and unresolved. In lightly fractured English, Lola describes the constant pressure to send more money back to her own children while farming out her affections to high-income Americans who speak of her as one of the family (like a kindly aunt you can fire at will). "We are status symbols," she jokes with her fellow nannies, "like a BMW." She comes to play a crucial role in Claire's life and the life of Claire's rambunctious son, but she never forgets that "raising children, it is all the same story -- they grow above you. And you are no longer needed. They have a name for that here -- obsolete. Things outlive their use, even people."
Through Lola and her friends, we're introduced to a tight network of immigrant child-care workers, women charged with the ultimate responsibilities but subjected to casual humiliations, plied with lavish compliments and stung by racist assumptions, exhorted to stay except when they're being threatened with deportation. They're an agile, wary group, these nannies, sometimes servants, sometimes teachers, stand-in mothers and pinch-hitting maids. It's a poignant vision of the upstairs-downstairs structure that persists in our officially classless society.
Some of the best chapters here, in Lola's voice, stand alone as powerful short stories; indeed, parts of this novel have already appeared in Harper's, the Atlantic, "The Best American Short Stories" and on "This American Life." Simpson may seem focused on the peculiar troubles of the rich and their servants, but with her incisive portrayal of the frustrations felt by working parents, "My Hollywood" could easily be "Our Country."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/...
October 5, 2011
I don't know why I bothered with this book. I didn't like the previous book I read from this same author, but it came up, so whatever. I was blah on this book too. I don't know why. The topic is okay, but just how it's written, it just doesn't do it for me. This book is about two different women's life in Los Angeles. One is your typical "Hollywood" mother. She and her husband moved out west so he could get a low level job writing for a TV show before he becomes the toast of town. They have a son and since both parents work, they hire a nanny or whatever and the other perspective is from hers. She is an older women from the Philippines who has taken care of kids all her life and sends money back home. The nanny talked about places I actually know! And can definitely appreciate that since she is Pilipino, she knows a lot of people and mentions Eagle Rock a lot, which is where I grew up and can honestly say that we joking call it "Little Manila" because on what a culture it is there. Obviously, throughout their time together, while they couldn't relate to each other at all, they definitely appreciated each other as the women really didn't want to hire a nanny and was pretty respectful of her while most of the women she is friends with are not. So typical. There was nothing new here and the prose just kind of annoyed me.
March 28, 2012
I really enjoyed this book. Kind of a modern day, across the country version of The Help. Really pulls back the layers on so many topics from classism, racism,etc, all under the guise of what it means to be a mother, a wife, a friend. I love stories that explore cultures other than my own, and because so many west coast nannies are Fillipinas, Asians, Hispanic, I got a different angle! And this is not glamour-filled Hollywood. This is striving-to-be-someone and not quite making it Hollywood. A sort of middle class Hollywood that we don't see often.
February 22, 2015
This is one of those books that is hard to rate. The mother characters are not very likeable, so in some respects the book is painful. It is an interesting look at the lives of immigrant women (often professionals in their own countries), working as domestic help in LA (they call them babysitters in the book). Negotiations, finding positions, what they are leaving behind in their country, the love for the children they care for. 2.5
January 13, 2020
A bit sad.
March 10, 2023
I couldn't figure out the purpose for writing this story. It did not hold my interest. I couldn't relate to the characters.
October 12, 2010
So far so good. "My Hollywood" is the story of two women: (1) a composer-turned-mother who struggles with modern motherhood and (2) her son's nanny. Certainly as a mother who has had her own struggles with her identity as a woman/mother, I appreciate the book's themes and exploration of motherhood a great deal. The author has a deft touch and an interesting style. I read the first page of the book a couple of months ago and didn't like her style -- it felt too clipped. (Read the first page to see what I mean.) But her style is growing on me, and I now appreciate the witty observations she makes seemingly in passing. I get the distinct sense that I would find the author annoying in person, particularly if this is how she talks, but her writing is ok! More than okay.
--
It just gets more and more interesting. I'm loving the book, and I was curious to learn more about Mona Simpson, the author. So, I Googled her, and the wikipedia entry is very interesting:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mona_Sim...
Mona Simpson is Steve Jobs' younger sister, but she was raised by their biological parents, and he was raised by adoptive parents. Also, Mona Simpson's husband is a writer for the tv show The Simpsons, and he named Homer's mom "Mona" after his wife.
She's a good writer in her own right, forget about the famous connections.
Also, who knew that Steve Jobs was half Syrian and that he was adopted by a Mountain View family, who MOVED TO LOS ALTOS BECAUSE MV schools sucked. ;)
--
I love-love-loved this book. In particular it spoke to me as a mother who is often conflicted about how much time I spend with my children and the time I don't spend with my children in order to pursue other interests. So, I would certainly recommend this to other women with children, but I feel like it is unfair of me to prescribe this book to so narrow an audience. This is an excellent book, and it would appeal to a broader group, since it is simply a keenly felt, well-written book. Here are some favorite lines I highlighted:
Re: hiring nannies: "You can never be too proud this kind of work. There is a rush to get you--but only to do what they would never do themselves."
"Not everything wrapped is a gift."
"'I told my nine-year-old if he didn't make his bed, I'd dock his allowance,' said the woman with the fringed pants. 'So now I'm making beds for a nickel a day.'"
Re: helping the nanny: "Aunts, cousins, distant relatives, even dead parents stepped from inside trees and ghosted up with open hands. All the money we had was not enough, all the money we'd ever have. I'd wanted to save her. But Lola refused to be one person."
"Will would grow up on the peripheries. I didn't work in a straight line, anyway. I had to sink into parts of myself I didn't know. That took the opposite of force."
"To him, there is no difference. But Claire, she could not live with someone who minded. She minds too much herself."
"For us, it took years to go from being one kind of family to another. First we were a family that had what it needed--schooling, lessons, eyeglasses--and then, no longer. A bicycle stolen did not mean we could purchase another."
"We have an easy time, this baby and I. A baby really is the beginning of the world. If you slow down, you too will grow. With my own, I was too tired from the births."
"With my kids, I had my husband and our neighborhood association. The job of even a baby, it is really too big for one person only."
"I called Paul in the middle of that long curved night. Sorry for waking you. The rind of hardness that grew later was for that I'm sorry that I said. But by then, I'd begun to collect stones."
"I had on a new dress... but it didn't make my torso shiver the way I imagined a new dress could."
"We were animals from different parts of the world that only in this modern time would be in the same cage."
"'Well, you know what Beethoven's mother said about marriage,' Harv told me. '"A little joy and then a chain of sorrows."'"
"I was married, I remembered, but I'd spun my ring on the floor one night, and it fell down a heating grate."
I was also mesmerized by a couple of set pieces -- at "playclub," but in particular at a party thrown by a Hollywood executive. The conversations and observations during that party were amazing.
Read this book!
--
It just gets more and more interesting. I'm loving the book, and I was curious to learn more about Mona Simpson, the author. So, I Googled her, and the wikipedia entry is very interesting:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mona_Sim...
Mona Simpson is Steve Jobs' younger sister, but she was raised by their biological parents, and he was raised by adoptive parents. Also, Mona Simpson's husband is a writer for the tv show The Simpsons, and he named Homer's mom "Mona" after his wife.
She's a good writer in her own right, forget about the famous connections.
Also, who knew that Steve Jobs was half Syrian and that he was adopted by a Mountain View family, who MOVED TO LOS ALTOS BECAUSE MV schools sucked. ;)
--
I love-love-loved this book. In particular it spoke to me as a mother who is often conflicted about how much time I spend with my children and the time I don't spend with my children in order to pursue other interests. So, I would certainly recommend this to other women with children, but I feel like it is unfair of me to prescribe this book to so narrow an audience. This is an excellent book, and it would appeal to a broader group, since it is simply a keenly felt, well-written book. Here are some favorite lines I highlighted:
Re: hiring nannies: "You can never be too proud this kind of work. There is a rush to get you--but only to do what they would never do themselves."
"Not everything wrapped is a gift."
"'I told my nine-year-old if he didn't make his bed, I'd dock his allowance,' said the woman with the fringed pants. 'So now I'm making beds for a nickel a day.'"
Re: helping the nanny: "Aunts, cousins, distant relatives, even dead parents stepped from inside trees and ghosted up with open hands. All the money we had was not enough, all the money we'd ever have. I'd wanted to save her. But Lola refused to be one person."
"Will would grow up on the peripheries. I didn't work in a straight line, anyway. I had to sink into parts of myself I didn't know. That took the opposite of force."
"To him, there is no difference. But Claire, she could not live with someone who minded. She minds too much herself."
"For us, it took years to go from being one kind of family to another. First we were a family that had what it needed--schooling, lessons, eyeglasses--and then, no longer. A bicycle stolen did not mean we could purchase another."
"We have an easy time, this baby and I. A baby really is the beginning of the world. If you slow down, you too will grow. With my own, I was too tired from the births."
"With my kids, I had my husband and our neighborhood association. The job of even a baby, it is really too big for one person only."
"I called Paul in the middle of that long curved night. Sorry for waking you. The rind of hardness that grew later was for that I'm sorry that I said. But by then, I'd begun to collect stones."
"I had on a new dress... but it didn't make my torso shiver the way I imagined a new dress could."
"We were animals from different parts of the world that only in this modern time would be in the same cage."
"'Well, you know what Beethoven's mother said about marriage,' Harv told me. '"A little joy and then a chain of sorrows."'"
"I was married, I remembered, but I'd spun my ring on the floor one night, and it fell down a heating grate."
I was also mesmerized by a couple of set pieces -- at "playclub," but in particular at a party thrown by a Hollywood executive. The conversations and observations during that party were amazing.
Read this book!
November 24, 2017
"My mother cried, but then a star danced, and under that.I was born".
August 15, 2011
The Good Stuff
Characters are very realistic
Makes you think about the life of a Nanny
Very honest
some nice dry humor
The Not so Good Stuff
I disliked pretty much all of the characters.
Couldn't understand the decisions the characters made or have any understanding of the worlds they are from
Quite depressing
Writing style seemed to be almost fragmented, which left me lost and confused
Uncomfortable to read at times, as some of the thoughts the characters mention bring back my thoughts while I was suffering postpartum depression with my 1st son
Just wasn't my thing, I don't like to give a DNF but in this case I was tempted too, no insult to the author at all, it just wasn't the type of story I enjoy. Have a feeling though that my sister in law will love this so I will pass it on to her & add her comments to my review when she is done
Her characters while honest, have some unlikeable qualities and manner of speech. For example Lola uses the term retardeds and has some racist commentary
Quotes/Passages
"Was he lacking because he wouldn't take off the extra hours, or was I for not appreciating what he did in fact give. The unanswerable riddle of our marriage."
"My problem was the lack of a sister. Or Mother. One tends not to emulate the mentally ill."
"No one will bomb Hollywood. Even Muslims, they like to watch movies."
Who should/shouldn't read
Those with similar tastes to mine, will not enjoy
Those who enjoy something a little more cerebral and honest will enjoy -- yup Holly I think this one is for you
2 Dewey's (Based on MY enjoyment of the story, not on the talents of the author)
I received this from Random House in exchange for an honest review -- sorry guys, just ended up not being my thing
Characters are very realistic
Makes you think about the life of a Nanny
Very honest
some nice dry humor
The Not so Good Stuff
I disliked pretty much all of the characters.
Couldn't understand the decisions the characters made or have any understanding of the worlds they are from
Quite depressing
Writing style seemed to be almost fragmented, which left me lost and confused
Uncomfortable to read at times, as some of the thoughts the characters mention bring back my thoughts while I was suffering postpartum depression with my 1st son
Just wasn't my thing, I don't like to give a DNF but in this case I was tempted too, no insult to the author at all, it just wasn't the type of story I enjoy. Have a feeling though that my sister in law will love this so I will pass it on to her & add her comments to my review when she is done
Her characters while honest, have some unlikeable qualities and manner of speech. For example Lola uses the term retardeds and has some racist commentary
Quotes/Passages
"Was he lacking because he wouldn't take off the extra hours, or was I for not appreciating what he did in fact give. The unanswerable riddle of our marriage."
"My problem was the lack of a sister. Or Mother. One tends not to emulate the mentally ill."
"No one will bomb Hollywood. Even Muslims, they like to watch movies."
Who should/shouldn't read
Those with similar tastes to mine, will not enjoy
Those who enjoy something a little more cerebral and honest will enjoy -- yup Holly I think this one is for you
2 Dewey's (Based on MY enjoyment of the story, not on the talents of the author)
I received this from Random House in exchange for an honest review -- sorry guys, just ended up not being my thing
April 12, 2012
************Spoiler Alert!!*********************
I have no idea why anyone would rate this book with more than 2 stars.
I've been reading this one for a bit--it's a 16+ hour audio, for one thing. But mostly because I dreaded getting into the car and turning it on. Why didn't I stop? Because I bought it--and I don't waste money.
I defy these other reviewers to prove to me why they think it's so much like "The Help." Just because a story has a maid in it does not "The Help" make. Sure, Lola had struggles. Sure, she was taken for granted. And that, my friends, is where the similarities end. Oh, there were women in it too. Perhaps THAT'S where the similarities end.
The characters were mostly underdeveloped and unlikeable. The writing was choppy and unfinished, in a way. Clair was the worst of all, by the way. If I had to listen to her complain about her absent, loveless, clueless husband for one more page, I would have driven myself into the lake.
I was hopelessly drifting along (not in the lake) when suddenly, Lola was "chopped." Then it got good for a minute. But the fact is, the book was 'hella redundant and had a little tied-in-a-bow ending.
Blech. Blech. How could you people give it more than 2 stars?
I have no idea why anyone would rate this book with more than 2 stars.
I've been reading this one for a bit--it's a 16+ hour audio, for one thing. But mostly because I dreaded getting into the car and turning it on. Why didn't I stop? Because I bought it--and I don't waste money.
I defy these other reviewers to prove to me why they think it's so much like "The Help." Just because a story has a maid in it does not "The Help" make. Sure, Lola had struggles. Sure, she was taken for granted. And that, my friends, is where the similarities end. Oh, there were women in it too. Perhaps THAT'S where the similarities end.
The characters were mostly underdeveloped and unlikeable. The writing was choppy and unfinished, in a way. Clair was the worst of all, by the way. If I had to listen to her complain about her absent, loveless, clueless husband for one more page, I would have driven myself into the lake.
I was hopelessly drifting along (not in the lake) when suddenly, Lola was "chopped." Then it got good for a minute. But the fact is, the book was 'hella redundant and had a little tied-in-a-bow ending.
Blech. Blech. How could you people give it more than 2 stars?
September 29, 2010
The thing that really affected my opinion of this book--which is about a Hollywood community of rich folks and their often Filipina nannies, alternately narrated by a nanny and a mother--was its style. Simpson is a literate and intelligent writer, but I found that there were, for lack of a better term, gaps. Thoughts would be finished and another picked up, and I felt that I was missing something, that something necessary had not been written in between. This made it harder to connect to the story as much as I would have liked to--I couldn't quite get a linear narrative for any character of any culture. I do feel, however, that Simpson did an excellent job of portraying the tensions of a life in which mothers give up care of their children to others, and the others have to give up attention to their own children and families to attend to their charges. Which reminds me: one thing that I felt was particularly missing were more interactions between Lola (the nanny) and William (her charge), particularly in the beginning of the novel--she makes a pretty important decision that is based on her regard for him, but I didn't quite feel the regard.
December 4, 2010
I was annoyed with the protagonist of this book, Claire. On the outside, I have so much in common with her. But on the inside I felt myself identifying more and more with Lola, the nanny. In the end I found Claire's "too cool to be a mom" attitude, her narcissistic and almost sickly attachment to her career, and her resentment of her child and husband not very believable. I think that's the way that people expect women who are career-oriented to feel about the family/work dichotomy. They expect feelings of resentment, they expect this disappointment in the prosaic, mundane activities associated with motherhood. But Claire is just too one-dimensional to be authentic. Her jealousy of the other moms, her need for validation in her "art" and somewhat fictional career, and her constant resentment/guilt over her feelings towards her child all conspire to make this read more like Desperate Housewives and less like the realities of 21st century motherhood.
May 13, 2014
Since everyone says that this book is so much like The Help, I avoided it. I didn't like The Help but this book (which I listened to) I really enjoyed! Bhama Roget, who narrated the book, did an incredible job, especially with the voice of Filipina Lola. It was fascinating view into the lives of the folks who hire nannies and even more so, the lives of those nannies. Though I don't know if Lola's experience is typical, it felt genuine. As someone who has lived with people for the Phillipines, it really rang true to me and actually helped me understand them better. All in all, it was quite a satisfying read.
August 11, 2010
I thought I'd really be drawn to this book, considering my relationship with our children's caregiver and my role as a working mom. But it just didn't draw me in. It seemed a little obvious and cloying. It also read more like a (kind of dull) memoir than fiction.
January 17, 2016
I think this was a very well-written book, but I had a hard time relating to the characters or their situation. I want to read others by this author, though, as many friends whose opinions I respect laud her work.
May 18, 2019
I found the stories of different takes on what people find important to them interesting . I think a lot of truth in this book and true of a lot of people making a lot of money and having someone else raise their children
May 17, 2020
The one thing that bothered me was that Lola had lots of grammar issues but a very advanced and specific vocabulary... like a native speaker. Using accents is a tricky thing in writing, and for me it was sometimes a problem cause I could feel the writer in it.
September 18, 2010
While reading this disjointed mess, I kept checking the cover to make sure this really was written by Mona Simpson....
August 22, 2010
DO NOT, I repeat, DO NOT waste your money on this book. So bad I had to stop reading it (which I rarely do). Inane plot, unlikeable characters, uncompelling story. Terrible dreck.
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January 18, 2013Cath Greenman rec
Read
January 2, 2020Could not stand the characters; life is too short.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 2, 2018
I really liked this one. At first, I didn't know what to think, because the synopsis did not describe the book accurately at all. This is the story of Lola and Claire and follows them over several years in LA from the time Lola is hired as the nanny for Claire's son. The point of view alternates between the two women, with Lola's story being the more interesting one. Lola is funny, kind, loving and a great friend. You really empathize with her and want her, and the children she cares for, to be happy. Her interactions with the people she works for, their kids and the other nannies were really entertaining, sometimes tinged with a little bit of sadness, because of how some of the parents treated the nannies as disposable, once they no longer wanted to pay them. It was also a little sad to realize that there really are a lot of women like Lola, who come to the U.S. to earn a better living than they can in their home country, to provide for their own kids, only to be separated from their kids for the majority of their lives. Lola's husband and kids were ghosts from her past, even though they were very much alive; they weren't really real to her anymore, just words on the pages of the letters and cards that they exchanged over the years.
I believe we are supposed to care and root for Claire, but most of the time I found her annoying. She wasn't happy with her life, her marriage or her child, but she didn't do much about it. She hired Lola since she couldn't handle being a mother and wanted more free time so she could return to her work as a musician and composer, but she didn't take advantage of that free time. Sometimes she worked, but a lot of times she just napped; everything she did just seemed half-assed. Even when she was justifiably upset with husband, which was most of the time, she would fuss, but not do much else. Her existence was one long empty threat, never amounting to much of anything. If Claire had been written more sympathetically, this would matter, but in the end, I just wanted her portions of the story to be over, so I could continue with the story of Lola.
Sometimes the tone of the book was a bit off; maybe that was just the way the narrator read it, but I half expected something really sinister to happen, only for nothing to happen at all. Also, it was hard to follow the narrative thread at times. A character, usually Claire, would remark on something that either happened in the past, before the timeline of the book, or in the future, without a lot of context or follow through, which was confusing. Since not much ever came from these asides, nor did they add much to what was happening, they were unnecessary.
Glad that the ending of he book wasn't what I expected; Lola ended up happy, with the life that she wanted, even though it wasn't the one she thought she wanted in the beginning. It is hard to say whether Claire ended up happy or not; her story just sort of ended, but perhaps that is fitting, since Claire just kind of "was" throughout the book.
I believe we are supposed to care and root for Claire, but most of the time I found her annoying. She wasn't happy with her life, her marriage or her child, but she didn't do much about it. She hired Lola since she couldn't handle being a mother and wanted more free time so she could return to her work as a musician and composer, but she didn't take advantage of that free time. Sometimes she worked, but a lot of times she just napped; everything she did just seemed half-assed. Even when she was justifiably upset with husband, which was most of the time, she would fuss, but not do much else. Her existence was one long empty threat, never amounting to much of anything. If Claire had been written more sympathetically, this would matter, but in the end, I just wanted her portions of the story to be over, so I could continue with the story of Lola.
Sometimes the tone of the book was a bit off; maybe that was just the way the narrator read it, but I half expected something really sinister to happen, only for nothing to happen at all. Also, it was hard to follow the narrative thread at times. A character, usually Claire, would remark on something that either happened in the past, before the timeline of the book, or in the future, without a lot of context or follow through, which was confusing. Since not much ever came from these asides, nor did they add much to what was happening, they were unnecessary.
Glad that the ending of he book wasn't what I expected; Lola ended up happy, with the life that she wanted, even though it wasn't the one she thought she wanted in the beginning. It is hard to say whether Claire ended up happy or not; her story just sort of ended, but perhaps that is fitting, since Claire just kind of "was" throughout the book.
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