The Devil Wears Prada by Lauren Weisberger

April 8, 2008
Book suggested by Stacy, meeting hosted by Carol M.

Stacy gave us an excellent review of the author’s background (a PA native), and gave us some great insight as to how the author’s personal story paralleled that of the book’s main character, Andrea Sachs. She even showed us a photograph of the author’s previous boss who was clearly used as a model for Miranda Priestly. Those were interesting and entertaining facts, and we appreciated Stacy’s efforts in digging up that information.

As interesting as that was though, most of us did not like this book. We found it to be monotonous, and redundant. Miranda’s personality flaws were evident early in the book, and most of us thought there was no need to repeat that over and over with so many examples. A couple of us thought the book could have been wrapped up in 100 pages instead of > 300. At least two of us did not finish the book. We thought there were some unfinished story lines too (whatever happened to Christian, and Lily’s alcoholism?).

We were glad that Andrea eventually broke away from Miranda. Though some of us thought she was unprofessional in the way she handled her departure, others thought it was great. We did like when Andrea remained true to herself, and thought she was genuine. We liked when she gave treats to the unfortunate people that she passed when she went to the coffee shop.

Some of us saw the movie, and we were split on whether we liked the movie or the book more. But we did agree that it was good to read a book that is more appealing to a younger audience since we’ve recently read a number of books that provided some nostalgia for the more mature members of our group. We thought the acknowledgement in the beginning of the book was amusing, but the rest of the book was not that funny.

We strayed from discussing the book a little bit and talked about some personal experiences with our former bosses. We discussed whether or not it was better to work for a male or female, and it was agreed that gender is ususally irrelevant if the boss is supportive. One interesting anecdote conveyed the idea that it can be very valuable to wait at least a year and then thank a boss, (or anyone else) for what they’ve done for you. It means so much that way because such a simple gesture can let someone know how they had a permanent impact on you.

Lauren Weisberger's website: http://www.laurenweisberger.com/