The Devil Wears Prada
Lauren Weisberger, 2003
Romance Graphic novels & humourContemporary fiction
A literature graduate takes a job at a fashion magazine and finds her real duties are coffee, impossible errands, and surviving a boss who never raises her voice. A witty, satirical office grind, fast and funny, with ambition and unease humming under the gossip and impossible errands.
Feels like humor, unease and curiosity. About power, ambition and society.
Who it’s for
You may enjoy this if you like workplace satire, fashion-magazine detail, and a narrator who is ambitious and often uneasy. The humour comes from coffee runs and impossible errands, so if you want romance at the centre, the magazine grind dominates.
Why read it
It gives you a sharp, funny look at what a glamorous job can cost, and why the person who never shouts can be the most frightening in the room.
A page from the book
What four years of literature actually qualify you to do.
With Madelaine curled up on the passenger seat, I lit another cigarette and rubbed my freezing bare feet so my toes could resume gripping the clutch and brake pedal. Clutch, gas, shift, release clutch, I chanted, trying to ignore the dog’s pitiful howls every time I accelerated. She alternated between crying, whining, and snorting. By the time we reached Miranda’s building, the pup was nearly hysterical. I tried to soothe her, but she could sense my insincerity—and besides, I had no free hands with which to offer a reassuring pat or nuzzle. So this was what four years of diagramming and deconstructing books, plays, short stories, and poems were for: a chance to comfort a small, white, batlike bulldog while trying not to demolish someone else’s really, really expensive car. Sweet life. Just as I had always dreamed. Lauren Weisberger.Weisberger worked as an assistant to Anna Wintour at Vogue before writing this novel; she has always called it fiction, and readers have rarely believed her.
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Questions readers ask
- Is The Devil Wears Prada for me?
- You may enjoy this if you like workplace satire, fashion-magazine detail, and a narrator who is ambitious and often uneasy. The humour comes from coffee runs and impossible errands, so if you want romance at the centre, the magazine grind dominates.
- What is The Devil Wears Prada like?
- A witty, satirical office grind, fast and funny, with ambition and unease humming under the gossip and impossible errands. Feels like humor, unease and curiosity. About power, ambition and society.
- What should I read after The Devil Wears Prada?
- If you liked The Devil Wears Prada, try The Nanny Diaries (Emma McLaughlin), Confessions of a Shopaholic (Sophie Kinsella) and Bossypants (Tina Fey).
A taste of the feed
A job interview where neither person will say the word job.
This is the only part of the Interview that resembles a professional exchange. We will dance around certain words, such as “nanny” and “child care,” because they would be distasteful and we will never, ever, actually acknowledge that we are talking about my working for her. This is the Holy Covenant of the Mother/Nanny relationship: this is a pleasure—not a job. We are merely “getting to know each other,” much as how I imagine a John and a call girl must make the deal, while trying not to kill the mood.
The Nanny Diaries · Emma McLaughlin
Three years into a career, still certain someone will notice you're faking it.
Of course, I still know nothing about finance. People at the bus stop know more about finance than me. Schoolchildren know more than me. I’ve been doing this job for three years now, and I’m still expecting someone to catch me out.
Confessions of a Shopaholic · Sophie Kinsella
What happens when the world demands a polished exterior and a stoic silence?
Some people say, “Never let them see you cry.” I say, if you’re so mad you could just cry, then cry. It terrifies everyone.
Bossypants · Tina Fey
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