THE PERFECT NANNY by Leila Slimani

Myriam, has returned to work as a lawyer for the usual reason: her two small children have totally usurped her life.  Now she has gone to the opposite extreme, in which she works late hours, as does her husband Paul, who is a music producer.  The title character is Louise, whose job as their nanny is her life.  She lives alone in a small Paris apartment where the shower no longer works.  She spends so little time there, though, that it doesn’t really matter, as she has established herself as vital to her employers. She is more than a nanny; she cooks and cleans and organizes way beyond the point of mere fastidiousness.  Eventually Paul and Myriam come to the conclusion that Louise may be wired a little too tightly, but they have become so dependent on her that they procrastinate taking any action.  I kept expecting some sort of twist that never materialized.  After finishing the novel, I had to reread the beginning, in which the children have been murdered in rather grisly fashion, and the nanny is hanging on by a thread after having slashed her own wrists.  The rest of the novel is an absorbing backstory, primarily Louise’s, and I do have one question.  I don’t know how much it costs to hire a full time nanny in the U.S., but we learn at the beginning that all of Myriam’s salary will be used to pay Louise, but Paul considers the tradeoff to be worthwhile if it will make Myriam happy.  My question is why, if Louise is making as much money as an attorney, has she not been able to pay off some of her late husband’s debts?  I wasn’t sure if the debts were contributing to Louise’s mental deterioration or if her mental state rendered her too immobile to make strides toward resolving her financial problems.  In any case, I would not recommend this book for working mothers.