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Ms. Hansen has written a book about her
experiences as an 18-year-old from Cottage Grove, Oregon working as a nanny in Hollywood.
She succeeds in writing some scenes where people interact, where dialog occurs and
potentially humorous situations arise. Her vacation with Rhea and Danny Perlman in
particular comes to mind.
Unfortunately, there are not enough such moments. I
wish she had sought an editor’s firm hand and guidance before the book was
published.
“I need to stop…judging our employers. I still refuse to fully
embrace my mother’s little saying about walking in other people’s shoes, washing their
socks…Well, maybe she does have a point. I really don’t have any way of knowing why
people act the way they do.”
This pretty much sums up the book’s biggest
problem. Ms. Hansen rarely overcomes this inability to understand the people around her.
She constantly compares everything in Hollywood with the way things were done in Cottage
Grove. She doesn’t seem to realize how parochial she sounds. She needed someone to
challenge her assumptions and her version of events.
I also wish she’d
included more observations about the house (how many rooms, what kind of features) and
the people (what kind of clothes, activities, whether or not they voted) and write with
a more dispassionate perspective. Instead we’re left with a story that feels incomplete
and one-sided. Which is a shame, because it seems like the situation could have made for
a terrific book.
