Rating  - Great Read
I just loved this book! I thought that the writing was brilliant. Towards the end though it did get repetitive about just how bad her boss was. I wanted to say, "Okay, I get it already!" It was a bit much. But all in all, I really enjoyed it and would highly recommend it.
Rating  - Almost tossed it in the recycling bin but finished it
Okay, so I was just looking for something to read during my lunch hour, and it seemed to fit the bill. Thing is, most of the action is just the main character running errands for her mean boss; there really isn't much of a plot. The storyline is predictable, and nothing surprising really happens. I think I was just as bored as the main character seems to be.
Besides the story itself, I just hate that the author uses negative stereotypes of Southerners. First of all, she doesn't even get the accent right; her description in chapter six of Mr. Tomlinson's secretary's "deep southern drawl" reads like this: "How mah I hep ya tuhday?" (97). I don't know what kind of accent that's supposed to be, but it's not southern. Secondly, she thinks all Southerners are "rednecks." The three main examples come from Chapter 14: " 'I guess you're right,' I sighed, still refusing to accept that my Friday night was to be spent in a formal gown at the Met, greeting wealthy-but-still-rednecks from Georgia and North and South Carolina..." (306); " 'I want my Andy to look just as sophisticated as all the big-money Carolina rednecks she'll be serving tonight like a common waitress' "(315); "I knew it wasn't going to be a trendy New York crowd, but I was expecting them to look like something out of 'Dallas'; instead, they looked like a dressier version of the cast from 'Deliverance' " (325). Why the need to make every person who lives in the southern United States into a "redneck"? And why is every other accent in the book (English, Australian, French) charming but a southern accent means you're out of "Deliverance"? Thumbs down, Weisberger. You need a real-world education; start by traveling outside of New York!
Rating - A must have.
If you loved the movie, you'll love this book. It takes different turns and keeps you interested. I loved loved loved this book!
Rating  - Personal slaves and 6 shades of mascara
"Devil Wears Prada" is quite an enjoyable book, if you have all time in the world in your hand. Very realistic and hilarious. Very good for learning about fashion and the glamour world.
Now about the subject matter, well, if this person Miranda Priestly actually exists in real life (in a different name of course), as claimed, I wonder what she thinks about looking at her own true self in public mirror. She is unfair, unkind, mean, vile, domineering and tyrannical. She never even pours herself a glass of water, and her slaves wait her on hands and knees. In 432 pages of the book, Miranda Priestly violated at least 400 basic human rights. However, the big question is, where her fame plus existence would be, if hundreds of Runway employees didn't support. So why none of them ever bothered reporting her to the Human Rights Commission. Why did they let her have her way like this and let it go on for so long? Is this the idea of capitalism? And particularly, why somebody who wants to write as a profession would take a job as a personal slave? What kind of a boss forbids her assistants to eat or use the toilet and get away with it? Even in USA?
Throughout the book, these personal slaves arranged her trips, fetched her food, served her demands, took her car to garage, picked up her dirty laundry, ordered for her desired goodies, her designer dress and makeup and accessories; but wait a minute, I'm confused, Miranda Priestly is an editor, right? She is not a fashion model herself. A fashion magazine is supposed to work on the fashion models, right? She is an icon in the fashion world, but does not pose herself on magazine covers, right? They are supposed to care for what models wear and use, right? So why does everybody work their butt off to cover this editor in diamonds?
And what's with this materialistic concept of life-style? Since when painting face in 20 layers of make-up or 6 different shades of mascara or having more supplies+instructions than a NASA scientist needs or brand names written all over the body is a huge achievement in life or maybe the ultimate goal of life for these privileged people? These makeup Gestapos and fashion Nazis. Hmmm, think of the remote regions in the third world where obtaining little bit of food or medicine only once a week is a regular way of life.
To be honest, no matter what the author's intention was, I COULDN'T really bring myself to feel empathy for Andrea. She gets her personal chauffer and limo ride anywhere she goes, she doesn't even need to use public transportations. If one thinks her life is arduous, try to live and work in Bangladesh or Pakistan or India, you will see what an "arduous everyday life" means.
Every time she is out on the street running an important errand for Miranda (especially she knows very well how Miranda gets impatient and pissed), still she (Andrea) is either taking time smoking cigarettes or talking on the phone with her boyfriend or girlfriend! Are those absolutely "life-and-death" necessity during working hours? Not to mention her home-front, her family and boyfriend and girlfriend, who tried to jeopardize her career and kill her ambitions and bring her down to their trailer-trash level in every opportunity they got.
In my opinion the author babbled way too much constantly and unnecessarily. Here is an example, Miranda asked Andrea to come to the party at 4pm on page 305. Party starts at 7pm the same evening. Page 320, 321, 322...... we are still not at the party! Party finally starts on page 325! Imagine! 3 hours, 20 pages! Furthermore, she wasted plenty of pages on this Lily the whorish alcoholic troublemaker fiasco, as if it is Lily's biography! That was an annoying distraction from the main focus of the story line. She is a screw-up and drowned in booze and no match for Andrea's level, so why going on and on about Lily and fattening the book? Especially, the book should have ended at page 412. Chapters 18 and 19 (page 413-432) were completely useless, pointless and ridiculous. Those pages seemed like somebody else added them later, or the author doesn't know where to stop.
Ultimately what came out of this whole thing? Has Andy learned something out of it? This entire ordeal ended up in nothing. She eventually went back to her trailer-trash life, to become a fat Jewish mom in dirty clothes and having a half-blind wet-blanket husband and a bunch of screaming snotty babies. Maybe that's good enough for her.
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