52 pages • 1 hour read
Leïla SlimaniThe Perfect Nanny
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2016A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
IntroductionChapter Summaries & Analyses
Introduction Summary
Content Warning: This section of the guide contains discussions of murder/infanticide and death by suicide, as well as racist and sexist dialogue.
The book starts with a graphic depiction of a crime scene—the Massé Family’s apartment in the 10th arrondissement (district) of Paris, France. Police are investigating the scene. The first line immediately reveals the death of Adam Massé, the infant son of Paul and Myriam Massé. Adam’s older sister, Mila, “was still alive when the ambulance arrived. She’d fought like a wild animal” (1).
In the Introduction, the crime has just happened, and emergency medical personnel are on the scene. They treat the mother, Myriam Massé, who is in shock, administering a tranquilizer when she fights them. The medics also reluctantly save “the other one” (2), referring to Louise, the killer. After Louise attacked Adam and Mila, she attempted to die by suicide. Louise survives, but Mila dies.
Introduction Analysis
The introduction to The Perfect Nanny is shocking with its graphic depiction of a crime scene. It also turns the entire structure of the typical thriller novel on its head by immediately revealing the crime, the perpetrator, and the victims. The reader knows right away that “the baby is dead” (1) and that “Mila will be too, soon” (3). Many crime or thriller narratives use an element of mystery to create tension and suspense. But The Perfect Nanny is the opposite of a “whodunit” narrative (a story about a murder in which the identity of the murderer is not revealed until the end). There is just one big question left open: why? Why did “the perfect nanny,” Louise, kill the children in her care and then attempt to end her own life? This is a question that the book explores but never definitively answers.
The narrative that follows reveals how a perfect storm of class tensions, economic hardships, and mental health struggles help lead to the murder—without ever providing a concrete explanation for Louise’s motivation. The Introduction sets up the reader for an exploration of themes like racism and classism by calling Louise “the other one” (2). This introduces the concept of “Otherness” or “The Other,” which refers to the way people classify, alienate, and disenfranchise others by constructing them as being different. Often, “otherness” is used to disempower marginalized groups, like immigrants or people of color. Just as she does with the typical thriller structure, Slimani turns the concept of “The Other” on its head: In this case, “The Other” is a white woman, born in France, who speaks perfect French.
The grotesque introduction is especially jarring given the book’s title: The Perfect Nanny. This harsh juxtaposition sets up the question to be explored: How was this the perfect nanny? The narrative that ensues will help the reader understand how Louise could have, at one point, been seen as the “perfect” nanny. Louise’s paradoxical character showcases the danger of assumptions, especially those rooted in racism and classism.
The book’s contextualization is noteworthy because the story itself is inspired by true events that took place in New York City, when Yoselyn Ortega, a caregiver born in the Dominican Republic, killed the children in her care. In Slimani’s book, the setting is Paris, France, and the nanny is a native white woman. Asked about her motivation for this, Slimani explains: “Too many times in cinema or in novels, you have the cliché that the rich person is white, and the poor person is black or Arab or an immigrant, and I think that the reality of our society is much more complex” (Silman, Anna, The Perfect Nanny Author on the Dark Side of Motherhood, The Cut).
