Book review - The Devil Wears Prada

Before I get to the final bits of The Great European Adventure 2007, I'm just going to have a few words about this book which I read on the trip. I hated this book, in fact I believe that if I read the book prior to seeing the movie, I would have refused to watch the movie. Similar to my feelings about the Da Vinci Code. So why did I hate this book? It's because it failed on the ultimate level - none of the people to whom we're supposed to sympathise did anything to make me want to care for them.

1. Okay, Andy works for the boss from hell. But so does Emily and all Andy does is ridicule how Emily puts Miranda on a pedestal. Well, if Miranda has the ability to make or break someone's career in that branch of publishing, then it would be in Emily's best interests to not get on Miranda's bad side - Andy does state that the sole reason why she hangs around is that Miranda's former PA is now an EDITOR. In addition, Andy sure doesn't do herself (or the readers) any favours by swanning around the office thinking about how foolish everyone else is for wanting to work in fashion. I don't know about you, but I'd sure hate if I were working with someone who didn't bother to hide how much better than me they might think they are.

2. Andy's friends are unsympathetic to both her situation and, by extension, to me. They all complain to varying degrees that Andy's been ditching them for her work. Her work is her livelihood - if she didn't do what is expected of her, she'd be fired and then she really wouldn't be able to see them. Two particular parts really annoyed me.

1. Andy's Best Friend (whatever her name is) gets angry that Andy keeps hanging up the phone when she's hunting for an apartment. I don't know what fantasy world she's living in, but if Best Friend thinks people who work in offices can just sit around and make personal phone calls, she's dreaming. Best Friend then follows that up by getting drunk and not being able to move in because she's got a hangover. Real mature.
   

1. Andy's boyfriend expresses his annoyance at being unable to spend time with her by taking on more responsibility at work and then chews Andy out when she fails to spot best friend's spiral into alcoholism. You know what my friends did when I had my boss from hell? THEY TRIED TO FIND ME REPLACEMENT JOBS. Boyfriend could take a page out of their books. As for the alcohol, okay if she'd been around more, Andy could have spotted that. But Best Friend is (allegedly) a smart person and an adult - Andy is not responsible for her behaviour. And if he saw it coming, er....couldn't he have stepped in or had a word to her earlier?

In terms of writing style, this is miles ahead of the Da Vinci Code. However, you can write the most perfect book prose-wise but if the contents fail to elicit the right emotions from the audience, you may as well write something just as stupid as Da Vinci Code. The tone is meant to represent Andy's snarky look at fashion publishing and while it starts off entertainingly sarcastic, after a while I just found her bitchiness about her co-workers obsession with fashion and beauty to be smug superiority commentary.

Honestly, having read it now, I don't see what all the hullabaloo was about when it was first published. If it was an expose on the supposed ridiculous demands of a so-called fashion editor, since I can't see which parts are fact or fiction, I guess it works. But as an exercise on how to write a book where we are supposed to feel bad for the protagonist for all that she's put through, it's a complete failure. Quite frankly, this was an annoying book on many levels. The movie might have only got 6.5/10 here, but that's a masterpiece compared to this dross.

If you're interested in fashion, go watch the movie. If you want a bitchy expose book, go read The Nanny Diaries. I don't recommend this book to anyone. I almost feel sorry for the person who picked it off the desk in Florence where I advertised it as being *free* for anyone.