SubscribeEveryone at one time or another in their lives has had a boss that they despise. In many cases, the feeling is pretty mutual between the poor, disgruntled, employee, and the much higher paid, vindictive, boss. Some of you out there reading this might be thinking that right now, your boss is actually Satan himself. Whatever is going on at your office, it can’t be worse than what happens in this book.
This fiction book tells the story of Andrea, who recently got out of college, and wanted nothing more than to write for The New Yorker Magazine. Instead, she takes a job at a fashion magazine called Runway, and it takes over her life. She becomes a “second assistant” to a very high powered, very scary woman named Miranda Priestly, who just might actually be insane.
Andrea is under extreme stress for the entire duration of this job, which lasts almost a year. She has to carry around a cell phone, which she must answer whenever it rings. It doesn’t matter if it rings after hours or on weekends, or early in the morning when she was kept at work the night before incredibly late. She isn’t allowed to use the bathroom unless the other assistant is in the office, in case Miranda wants something. She hardly ever gets to eat, almost never gets to sleep, and spends less and less time with her family, her best friend, and her beloved boyfriend, straining all of those relationships.
Much of the “work” Andrea gets to do seems to involve getting Miranda coffee, or gathering her dry cleaning. Not what she wanted to be doing at all. If she can hold out for a year, Andrea might just be able to turn this job into the one she wanted at The New Yorker, and this is what keeps her going. Miranda just might decide to use her powers for good and help Andrea get that job, instead of using her powers for evil, and making the grown women who work for her cry every day.
Andrea soon finds out that even though everyone she works with is an adult, they function much more like the social groups found in Junior High Schools everywhere. What you wear, how you wear it, and what size its in are all noted, and used to judge your worth. So is who you are seen hanging out with or talking to. What you eat is also examined to the point of obsession.
The book is really funny! Andrea never gives up, never quite turns into these stunted unhappy people, (but does seem to come close a few times), and always has a sarcastic view of the idiocy that surrounds her every day. So many things that Miranda expected her employees, especially Andrea, to do and to put up with are just outrageous, and I couldn’t put the book down, wanting to see what she was going to demand next. At the end of the book Andrea is faced with a choice that will determine what path she takes for the rest of her life.
Its a quick read, and I liked it, even though it contains much more references to fashion than I can even recognize. Someone told me once that this book was fiction, but based on actual events, and the names were changed so the author would not get sued. I don’t have any proof of that claim. I will say it made the book that much more interesting to read for me, as I wondered just how much was real and how much was fiction.
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