Main character: Andrea Sachs – in her early 20’s; wants to be a writer for the New Yorker, and lands a job as a junior assistant to this bitch magazine editor, Miranda Priestly. She puts up with all her crap, thinking that perhaps Miranda might give her a good recommendation to the New Yorker after she has paid her dues. I think I like the character of Andrea’s best friend Lily the best – she’s such a free spirit (although that characteristic gets her in trouble). Andrea almost gives up the most important things in her life for this job, and of course needs to decide whether it’s worth it or not…. Kind of chick lit, but at least there was a good moral to the story. A fairly easy read, too. I borrowed this from mom. Lent it to Shel. Did she ever read it, and did she like it? :-)

4.0 Stars
I loved the movie adaptation and so I randomly decided to read the book. I went it with low expectations (I rarely read “chicken lit” but ended up pleasantly surprised. I had a really good time reading this and I would certainly reread.

Reading this from the French countryside in a quiet village with 100 people, no shops and surrounded by pastures and forest, it felt like reading about another planet with completely different species. But that would all be fine, if this story wasn't as boring and repetitive. Or if the main character wasn't so incredibly annoying. Apart from a lot of complaining about all the stupid things she has to do at work there was just not that much happening.

Just skip the book and watch the movie.

I really wasn't that into this book. There were some parts of the book that were great, but mostly it was a VERY slow read and pretty hard to get into.

I think that it didn't help that I had watched the movie multiple times and LOVED it. I had high expectations for this book and it did not deliver!

The movie by the same name is NOT this book. The movie is okay, but after reading this, I like the movie much better. I think Hollywood did two things right that I sorely missed in this book. One was, to me, a big deal. They made Andrea likable. In the movie her character was one that you could feel for and could develop sympathy for. I couldn't find that in this book. The second thing Hollywood did better was that they knew how to end the movie so that it made sense. So this is one of those books where the movie is better....by far.

Not a single character in this book was interesting. They were all self centered and constantly played the "me me me" card. I don't mind if a host of characters play that card, but I missed the balance here. There was no tension in that arena. I honestly didn't know if I could finish this one. I was going to go with 2 stars, but I think I just talked myself into 1.

Книгата е абсолютно клише. Забавна е, без да е особено задълбочена към героите, най-вече към Ана Уинтур, пардон - дяволът Миранда Пристли.

Авторката подхожда с убеждението, че всичко трябва да е цветя и рози, а работохолизмът е осмият смъртен грях. Навремето, когато я четох, ме хвана в остър момент с въпроса “Струва ли си?”. Да се отдадеш като аскет-фанатик на успех в името на успеха, да пренебрегнеш всичко останало, да позволиш на нарастващите с бясно темпо обороти да те изгълтат? Не си струва. И тук детският бунт на главната героиня получава аплодисментите ми. Друг е въпросът, че тя е толкова a priori изплашена и неподготвена за света, в който попада по погрешка заради притегателния му външен блясък, че напълно блокира ума си и за полезните неща, които може да научи и за хората, които може да опознае.

Лорън е написала роман за голямото “Не” в големия град. Уловката е, че човек понякога по-лесно разбира какво не иска, отколкото какво иска. И не винаги е нужно да заплаща високата цена на това “Не”, преди достигне до заветното “Да”. Вероятно по тази причина книгата ще остане единствената прилична в кариерата на писателката - всичко останало е типичен американски чиклит, трудно поносим дори и за плажа.

Don't let this two star rating deter you from reading this book. It was not for me but it may be for you. Here is what went wrong for me:

I have watched this movie many, many times. It is a comfort movie for me. I watch it when I am sick. I watch it when I am sad. I also watch it when I am happy and when I am healthy! (You get the idea...I have seen it a lot!) I think having watched the movie multiple times and loving it is what caused the book to disappoint me. Turns out, the movie kept the basic idea of the book but changed it enough to make me appreciate the storyline the movie tells over the book. My absolute favorite character in the movie is Emily Blunt's portrayal of Emily -- so great! The Emily in the book, in my mind, did not live up to the movie version of Emily. The other main issue was Andrea herself. I know she is supposed to be treating her friends badly but in the movie I felt she was able to do this and still remain likable. This book version of Andrea was not likeable in my opinion. Then there were small things, like Alex playing a much smaller role in the book and how Andrea interacts with Christian.

I think if I had done this in reverse and read the book first I may have had a different opinion of this book but I suppose I will never know. In this case, I couldn't help but compare the book to the movie and I found myself disappointed. I will still try a different Weisberger book at some point in the future.

Lauren Weisberger
The Devil Wears Prada
2006, Anchor
432 pages
Book bought in: Moab, Utah – USA

In this review, the book has not been compared to the movie; I wanted to review the book in itself.

As a horribly unfashionable person myself (at least, that’s what I believe, as Prada does nothing for me and I can’t for the life of me walk in heels, oh, and I like my hips), picking up The Devil Wears Prada with all of its fashion stereotypes meant indulging in a guilty pleasure.

Andy, a freshly graduated aspiring writer, ends up landing an unlikely job as junior assistent to Miranda Priestly, fashion editor and bitch extraordinaire. I say unlikely, because Andy doesn’t care about fashion; she hopes one year as Miranda’s assistant will open the doors to her future as a writer for The New Yorker, a magazine the polar opposite of Miranda’s Runway magazine.

While taking on the most ridiculous tasks (from drycleaning to coffeeruns to more coffeeruns because the other coffee had slightly cooled off), Andy tries to keep herself afloat in the superficial pool that is the fashion industry according to Miranda, trying not to let everything take its toll on her personal life – though inevitably, Andy’s carreer does wreak havoc in certain relationships.

Although Andy might have done herself a favour if she’d put up an ‘Whatever, it’s temporary, I’ll just suck it up’ attitude instead of allowing herself to rage on the inside, Miranda really is a foul woman and I sympathised with Andy.

I couldn’t quite muster up any sympathy for her boyfriend Alex or her best friend Lily, as I found both of them to be the selfish ones, as opposed to Andy.

This book is satirical to the max, definitely what I longed for when I started the first page (re: fashion stereotypes), though I somehow feel cheated.

Here I was, a naive unfashionable person, and having finished this book I somehow seem to know a whole lot more about Prada and Manolo’s than I really care for.

Weisberger, with her no-mercy descriptions of her various shallow characters, wants me to be repulsed by the fashion industry and its rather ridiculous standards, but in the meantime she is effectively trying to seduce me into admiring, and perhaps even desiring this pair of Jimmy Choo’s. I remember completely drooling over eleborate descriptions of Andy’s make-up case, sponsored by Runway. What? Why? That wasn’t supposed to happen. This was supposed to be... satire, mocking the fear of eating three calories more, stuff like that.

...I feel dirty. Quite possibly, a little cheap too.

Lauren Weisberger: Choo’s your alliance.

3/5.
January 26th 2008.

So you know that boss that just seems impossible to please no matter what you do? Well, they have nothing on Miranda Priestly. Andrea just so happens to get the infamous "a million girls would die for" job as an assistant to "Runway" editor Miranda. As glamorous as that sounds it is nothing but a nightmare!

This is seriously a Laugh Out Loud book of impossible tasks. I love how normal Andrea is compared to everyone else but she is the odd one out. Her narration is exactly the kind of things I would imagine saying to my boss (If she were a dragon lady). This look into the fashion industry is hilarious and a bit cringe worthy. It's fun and fabulous!

Another book I picked up at the airport bookstore, and was glad I did. The story was something I could easily relate to.

As everyone knows, the book is almost always better than the movie. But there are a small number of books that are not as good as the movie. I keep a rolling list on my profile page (I think about this question more than a person should) but they generally fall into three categories: great books turned into all-time masterpiece-level movies, solid books turned into great movies, and flawed books turned into good movies. You can probably guess why I’m bringing this list up here.

I saw the movie when it came out. Meryl Streep was so good that I can’t visualize Miranda as anyone else. Seems the movie followed the book fairly well, but the book bored me whereas the movie was so much fun.

Since only this book in the trilogy was produced as a movie, I’m curious if the other two will read better done I won’t have a basis of comparison.