Watermark Books and Cafe

"My New American Life" by Francine Prose 

Francine Prose has already written more than 26 books. Maybe it’s her name. In her new novel, “My New American Life," twenty-six-year-old Lulu, a recent émigré from Tirana Albania, answers a Craigslist ad and  becomes “nanny” to Zeke, a high school senior. Mr. Stanley, Zeke's father, works on Wall Street and is rarely home. Zeke’s mother, in a fit of madness, fled the previous Christmas Eve.   

Life in the suburbs gets interesting when on the same day she gets her “legal papers,” some Albanians in a Black Lexus Suburban pull up in front of the Stanley’s house and ask Lulu to hide a gun. Her search for a hiding place gives Prose, a social satirist, license to guide us through a young woman’s most intimate possessions and what they indicate about class, power and comfort. No surprise: the safest place for the gun is in Lulu’s underwear drawer!   

Prose's sharp social satire observes Lulu's new American life largely on the surface, where, let’s face it, most of us really live. With characters as diverse as immigration lawyers, an awkward teen boy, scary and mysterious Albanian “brothers," Prose writes a breezy story with brevity and smarts enough to appeal to both the discriminating reader, and someone looking for an entertaining and suspenseful whodunit.   

Review by Sarah Bagby