The Devil Wears Prada

The Devil Wears Prada, by Lauren Weisberger

What started as an Anne Hathway interest combined with my constant driving back and forth between home and Ann Arbor to cause me to resort to my second audio book for this blog. Read by Rachel Leigh Cook, The Devil Wears Prada kept my long hours in the car lively enough that I didn’t mind the amount of time behind the wheel that is putting a serious dent in my wallet.

Andrea Sachs is an aspiring writer fresh out of Northwestern University looking for some type of big break in New York City that will result in a job at The New Yorker. After very few positive responses, Elias Clark Publishing hires Andrea for a job as an assistant to the editor-in-chief of prestigious fashion magazine Runway, Miranda Priestly. Landing a job that a million girls would kill for, Andrea finds it’s not as glamorous as her co-workers are forcing themselves to believe. After a week of intense training with first assistant Emily, Andrea thinks she has everything under control until Miranda comes back to town and Andrea’s life, as she knows it, is changed. She is running impossible errands on demanding timelines, which causes her to alienate her family and friends for the job, resulting in strain on her relationship with English teacher boyfriend Alex (me?) and almost missing that her graduate student roommate Lily is gradually becoming an alcoholic. Andrea becomes enwrapped in the fashion industry she previously had no interest in to reach her goal. One year at Runway with Miranda and she could pretty much have her pick of any job, including her spot at The New Yorker. But how much was it worth? Andrea is running errands, fetching clothes and Starbucks, picking up Miranda’s dog from the groomer’s and even locating a pre-published version of the latest Harry Potter book for Miranda’s twin daughters. One year, it’s just one year. Or will this job have more of an effect than Andrea originally plans?

It’s impossible for me not to compare this book to the movie. Personally, and maybe because I saw it before the audio book, I like the movie better. Granted, Anne Hathaway is a major factor in this comparison, but there are minute plot and character differences between the book and movie that I think work better in the movie version (not to mention that the movie includes the Stanley Tucci character missing from the book). In the book, Emily is more of a helping figure for Andrea and Miranda is simply mean on purpose (making Andrea get an impossible lunch, knowing that she already has lunch plans elsewhere, calling people by the wrong names, and leaving out details over the phone just to make her assistants work harder). I think that Andrea in the book is less of a dynamic character than Andrea in the movie. I never really saw a character shift in the book. Andrea at the beginning seems to be Andrea at the end, the only difference being that when she finally is given an impossible task, she seems to quit because it’s too hard when she was previously able to accomplish everything. In the movie, Andrea’s character is changing. She is good at her job and her priorities are changing, but when she realizes that she could end up as Miranda, this is not how she wants to lead her life and chooses to leave. Also, in the movie, Miranda ends up being okay and giving a reference for Andrea’s new job for a newspaper, while in the book Andrea is hired because of a common link with someone who hates Miranda as much as she does. Not that impressive. I know it’s not really fair, but I’d rather watch the movie.

Rachel Leigh Cook does a good job at reading Weisberg’s novel, which is possibly based off of some real life experiences as a personal assistant. Cook does some voices in a good way that adds variety without being obnoxiously theatrical. She was a good reader and I can recommend her version of the audio book for those of us who are constantly driving back and forth and need something to fill the time constantly driving by mile markers that tick by like seconds. It’s nice to reach your destination and feel some sense of accomplishment rather than just whining about leg cramps and poor air conditioning.

“The habit of reading is the only enjoyment in which there is no alloy; it lasts when all other pleasures fade.”
- Anthony Trollope