Do Try to Speak as We Do: The Diary of an American Au Pair

by Marjorie Leet Ford

Book Overview

It seems like the perfect job: au pair to an upper middle class English family. The husband is a member of Parliament, British children are known to be well-behaved and the wife's English accent sounds charming on the transatlantic phone. So Melissa is off to England with visions in her head of tennis parties and tea on the lawn. Instead, she finds backbreaking duties, an employer impossible to please, too many opportunities for disaster in the usage...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0312268661
• ISBN13: 9780312268664
• Release Date: March 2001
• Publisher: Thomas Dunne Books
• Length: 320 Pages
• Weight: 1.05 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 5.7" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

Do try to speak as we do

What fun, what fun. Originally this novel was published under the title "Do Try to Speak as We Do" which is much more wonderful, but I have a hunch that the commercial success of "The Nanny Diaries" inspired the publisher to make a few changes. Regardless, this a great book. The situations in which poor Melissa finds herself are quite wonderful. Recently fired and unsure about her fiance, Melissa takes a job as the au pair for the most horrendous woman ever (she truly is a deliciously evil boss). The inevitable culture clashes are but one small part of this complex story, told with a clever turn of phrase. This novel is more of a buildingsroman (sorry, a term left over from high school english classes...refers to a coming of age story-my apologies to all my excellent teachers if I've remembered that incorrectly, it's not their fault *smile*) than anecdotal cultural and child rearing story (although there's plenty of that, too). Melissa, because of or in spite of her often horrendous living conditions (the tortures of bath time alone have made me SO appreciative of my hot water heater), finds herself during her year abroad. Jolly good show!!

A good read and you learn a little about life in the UK, too

Many of the other reviewers are off base on this one. This is an enjoyable "chick lit" read and you actually learn something as well. While there is a little bit of the typical focus of this genre on the boyfriend/marriage chase, the reader also learns quite a bit about how the landed class live in the UK. I preferred the author's empathy to her charges over the high level of disdain for everyone that is the hallmark of the Nanny Diaries. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and think that the next time I go to the UK I will have a little more appreciation for the country and its people.

A Truly Literary Novel

"Diary of an American Au Pair" has a way of drawing you in. Once I started it, I couldn't stop. In between eating and sleeping and the other necessary details of life, all I wanted to do was savor this book. And "savor" is the right word. Marjorie's book is rich in the details of English Gardens, European cooking, Scottish houses so old they have names, and other interesting faucets of European life. In "Diary of An American Au Pair", the ordinary details of day to day life are fleshed out in an extraordinary way. The characters in this book are quite multi-dimensional too,and you will find yourself thinking about them long after you have finished reading the book. If you would like to read a real book written about real (but complex & interesting) people, this book is for you. It is much more than just a "woman's book". It is a book for those of us who like to "feel"--as well as think--our way through fiction. My only complaint about "Diary of An American Au Pair" is that it had to end.

I loved this book!

What a great premise: Melissa has just been fired from her job as an ad agency copywriter, and her upcoming wedding has been indefinitely "postponed." In this moment of extreme vulnerability, she takes a job as a nanny in England, working for some tony Scots-Brits. The Haig-Ereildouns. Although the kids are sweet and Mr. H-E is a kindhearted soul, Mrs. H-E turns out to be the employer from hell, an Anglo Mommie Dearest. I was given this book as a gift because for most of my life I've been an Anglophile. After reading "Do Try to Speak as We Do," I'm not an anglophile any more. Melissa exposes an appalling WASPs' nest of snobbery among the Brits. But I definitely am a Melissa-phile. She's utterly charming. Her diary is alternately moving, biting, funny, sarcastic and sweet. Somehow she manages to unearth a bit of humanity even in the most unlikeable people. I was completely engrossed in Melissa's adventures working for the Employer from Hell, and would recommend this book to anyone who likes fines writing, beautifully drawn characters---and who thinks they like the English.

A funnny clash of cultures

The San Francisco ad agency let Melissa go. Feeling despondent, Melissa reconsiders her engagement and decides to end it. Thus, she feels as if she has failed in both her professional and personal lives. Needing a change, Melissa accepts a job as an Au Pair to the family of a Scottish member of the English Parliament. Melissa knows she has three children to care for, ranging in age from three to eleven, but still expects to enjoy the social life of a parliamentarian. However, culture shock stuns Melissa especially as defined by her employer's wife, who demands no Americanization of her three children and rationing of hot water and even seemingly the sun. Will Melissa last six months or will this be strike three? DO TRY TO SPEAK AS WE DO will surprise readers who give this debut novel a chance. The story line is often amusing and at times acrimonious as Melissa feels more like a downstairs drudge who envies Cinderella's pre-princess role. Readers observe the radical differences between the American and British cultures through Melissa's relative perceptions. Anyone who enjoys a contemporary humorous modern tale will find that Marjorie Leet Ford debuts with a triumphant social commentary.Harriet Klausner