Amazon.co.uk Review
It's a killer title:
The Devil Wears Prada. And it's killer material: author Lauren Weisberger did a stint as assistant to Anna Wintour, the all-powerful editor of
Vogue magazine. Now she's written a book, and this is its theme: narrator Andrea Sachs goes to work for Miranda Priestly, the all-powerful editor of
Runway magazine. It turns out Miranda is quite the bossyboots. That's pretty much the extent of the novel, but it's plenty. Miranda's behaviour is so insanely over-the-top that it's a gas to see what she'll do next, and to try to guess which incidents were culled from the real-life antics of the woman who's been called Anna "Nuclear" Wintour. For instance, when Miranda goes to Paris for the collections, Andrea receives a call back at the New York office (where, incidentally, she's not allowed to leave her desk to eat or go to the bathroom, lest her boss should call). Miranda bellows over the line: "I am standing in the pouring rain on the
rue de Rivoli and my driver has vanished. Vanished! Find him immediately!"
This kind of thing is delicious fun to read about, though not as well written as its obvious antecedent, The Nanny Diaries. And therein lies the essential problem of the book. Andrea's goal in life is to work for The New Yorker--she's only sticking it out with Miranda for a job recommendation. But author Weisberger is such an inept, ungrammatical writer, you're positively rooting for her fictional alter ego not to get anywhere near The New Yorker. Still, Weisberger has certainly one-upped Me Times Three author Alix Witchel, whose magazine-world novel never gave us the inside dope that was the book's whole raison d'être. For the most part, The Devil Wears Prada focuses on the outrageous Miranda Priestly, and she's an irresistible spectacle. --Claire Dederer, Amazon.com
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Review
'This little gem mixes Sex and the City charm with dry New York wit.' REAL 'Sassy, insightful and sooo Sex and The City, you'll be rushing to the bookshop for your copy like it's a half price Prada sale.' COMPANY 'Not since the heyday of Sex and the City has a story so caught the imagination of ladies who lunch.' HARPERS & QUEEN 'The most fun we've had in ages.' HEAT 'Delicious!a great insight into the world of magazines and fashion.' RED 'Perfect reading in the bath with a flute of champagne.' EVENING STANDARD 'A fabulous book you won't put down.' THE SUN 'A fun read.' DAILY EXPRESS 'A rattling read.' GOOD HOUSEKEEPING 'Laugh out loud at this fictional fash editor's outrageous shenanigans.' ELLE GIRL 'An entertaining read.' GUARDIAN from the media coverage on acquisition: 'Lauren Weisberger! recently sold the rights to a first novel called The Devil Wears Prada about the glamorous but demeaning life of an editorial assistant. At a time when The Nanny Diaries, a gossipy roman a clef, is a bestseller, Ms Weisberger's proposal drew bids from half a dozen publishers!.' New York Times May 2002 'Fashionistas will be paying attention to The Devil Wears Prada.' Independent on Sunday July 2002
A junior assistantship to the editor of the world's top fashion magazine ("The job a million girls would die for") provides endless fodder for a one-note but on-the-money kiss-and-tell debut. Andy, or, as her boss from hell calls her: "Ahn-dre-ah," harbors dreams of writing for The New Yorker, but her luck runs out-or runs high, depending on your priorities-when her first job interview lands her at Runway magazine, beholden to Miranda Priestly, "solely responsible for anticipating her needs and accommodating them." Intelligent, sarcastic and without a smidgen of interest in fashion, Andrea quickly learns the Runway culture, from the necessity of being tall, emaciated, slavish, and half-naked in winter to the perks of town cars, shopping bags filled with designer duds, and the promise of any job after one year of servitude. A few weeks of dealing with the insensitive, sadistic and imperious Miranda leave our heroine on the verge of abdicating, but before long she's joining her colleagues in "the classic Runway Paranoid Turnaround . . . scrambling to negate whatever blasphemy is uttered" about the divine Miranda." Outside of work, Andrea has a perfectly nice socially conscious boyfriend from her college days at Brown, a best-friend-slash-roommate with a drinking problem who's getting her doctorate at Columbia, a loving family in Connecticut, and no time for any of them as she races to retrieve Miranda's French bulldog puppy from the vet, hire a nanny for her children, make 12 trips in stiletto heels to Starbucks for her coffee in between sorting her dirty dry cleaning. It's only a 14-hour day! Ultimately, of course, everything explodes, and in the end, of course, righteousness prevails. Weisberger writes with humor and authority, but her plot circles like a whirlpool-and by the time Andrea's ready to face some hard choices, it's difficult to care. Her exhaustion is contagious. (N.B: Weisberger, this season's buzz of the town, was an assistant to Vogue editrix Anna Wintour-read: Miranda Priestly-giving this putative roman-a-clef an added splash of juice.) (Kirkus Reviews)
--This text refers to the
Paperback
edition.
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