[ book tip by Hannah Geismar ] The Devil Wears Prada is a about a young girl who gets a job as a personal assistant for the editor in chief of a famous magazine. The boss turns out to be a complete bitch and the book goes on to tell the story of how much the girl hates her boss and how much the boss deserves it. It might not sound like a very exciting tale, but the fact that The Devil Wears Prada turns out to be very hard to put down is the proof that Lauren Weisberger has cooked up something that rises above the average chick-lit story: her portrait of the editor in chief corrupted by her own power is razor sharp and she manages to expose the decadence and absurdity of the fashion world in a very entertaining way with just the right mix of fashion, humor and behind-the-scenes gossip.

Lauren Weisberger used to work at Vogue, which makes it very hard not to see the book as a knife - possibly a chainsaw - in the back of her own former boss: Anna Wintour. There might not be a lot to say for stabbing someone in the back, but there's always something to be said for getting back at someone who made your life hell. The Devil Wears Prada is not the book of the century, but personally I appreciate the fact that Weisberger had the guts to write it - and thus spell out the question most of us have to ask ourselves at some point: 'How much shit am I prepared to put up with for the sake of my career?'

The Devil Wears Prada is the perfect vacation book, but it might not give you a lot of motivation to go back to work once vacation is over. So if you find yourself quitting your job, wanting to get back at people who treated you badly or simply in the mood for an even darker tale of bitchiness, try to dig up the Michael Lehmann film Heathers from 1989. It answers the one essential question:

'Heather, why are you being such a mega bitch?'
'Because I can!'

Available in French as Le Diable s'habille en Prada, Editions Pocket, 2005.
Available in German as "Der Teufel trägt Prada", Goldmann, 2003.

[ book info ] Weisberger, Lauren: THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA. Broadway Books, New York, 2003 .