Mona Simpson is best known for her critically acclaimed debut novel Anywhere But Here (1986), which was adapted into a film starring Susan Sarandon and Natalie Portman. She is also the author of The Lost Father (1992), A Regular Guy (1996), and Off Keck Road (2000).
The Story: Claire and Paul, recent Los Angeles transplants, moved to the area to further Paul's career as a sitcom writer. But Claire, a composer and stay-at-home mom, is overwhelmed by the demands of motherhood and dissatisfied with her stagnant work life. To give his wife time to work on her music, Paul hires Lola, a sensible, full-time nanny who sends most of her earnings back to the Philippines to help her family. Narrated by both Claire and Lola, My Hollywood reveals some hard truths about wives, nannies, children, and the complexity of the modern American family.
Knopf. 384 pages. $26.95. ISBN: 9780307273529
Entertainment Weekly
"The two women narrate alternating chapters, and the contrast in their voices is a double-Dutch game of masterful writing. ... A character as rich as Lola won't easily fade from anyone's mind." Missy Schwartz
Miami Herald
"There's a delightful, ironic upstairs/downstairs tone to much of My Hollywood, with each side clueless about the other. ... There is plenty of humor to be found in such cultural misunderstandings, but Simpson also reveals the casual prejudices that define the tricky relationship between employers and employees." Connie Ogle
Minneapolis Star Tribune
"[T]he author does the wondrous work of making the subculture of Filipina nannies painfully real and moving and funny, and making Lola's story, rendered in a beautifully quirky and utterly believable broken English, say far more about love and motherhood--and Claire--than Claire herself ever could." Ellen Akins
NY Times Book Review
"[In this] compassionate fictional exploration of this global relationship, Simpson assesses the human cost that the child-care bargain exacts on the amah, on her employer and on the children of both. ... Subtly, almost dispassionately, Simpson works her habitual magic, showing how love travels, ownerless and unbidden, among children who need adults, and adults who need children." Liesl Schillinger
San Francisco Chronicle
"[O]ne the most insightful books in years about contemporary American life. ...Lola is marvelously drawn." Gregory Leon Miller
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
"We're lucky to have Lola, not only to help Claire around the house and with William but also to save the novel from a moody passivity that feels as if it will eventually implode. ... [Simpson's] unusual prose style in My Hollywood is a melange--half stream of consciousness, half indirect observations--but ultimately the language captures the way her narrators render their worlds." Sharon Dilworth
Philadelphia Inquirer
"[M]ay I call this a simply dreadful book? ... Claire's passivity overwhelms, and Lola's righteousness annoys." Abby Frucht
Critical Summary
With the publication of novels like Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus's The Nanny Diaries (2002) and Kathryn Stockett's The Help ( Selection ), there is no shortage of books about women and their domestic employees. Even so, Simpson's pragmatic and delightfully observant nanny Lola shines in this story of contemporary child rearing. Critics did find Claire, with her privileged lifestyle and chronic self-doubt, a slightly less compelling character. And, in stark contrast to all other critics, the Philadelphia Inquirer reviewer found the novel disorganized, repetitive, and filled with exasperating characters. While a few readers may not find My Hollywood to their liking, most should find it an entertaining and heartfelt addition to Simpson's body of work.