Tuesday, August 21, 2007

The Devil Wears Prada by Lauren Weisberger

This is the first of my three books for the Book to Movie challenge. I went ahead and read it early because of some new rules posted on the challenge. I also decided that I would compare the books to the movies as part of the fun of this one.

I actually saw the movie for this one last summer. It is pretty unusual for me to see a movie and then read the book. I normally read the book first. Well, anyway, I loved the movie when I saw it. Meryl Streep was wonderful as Miranda, the she-devil boss of the title, and Anne Hathaway did a good job as Andy, the suffering junior assistant. After reading the book, I realized that there were some significant plot changes in the movie. I liked them when I saw the movie, but ended up liking the book much better. In the movie, Miranda is somewhat redeemed and shown as more humane by the end. In the book, there's no such redemption. She's a she-devil from start to finish, which I think is much truer to the character.

I ended up liking the book much better than the movie. It was told in first person by And, and I got a much better sense of her thoughts that way. I also liked that the book did not wrap the whole thing up with a somewhat contrived happy ending. Miranda was still awful, and Andy had to deal with the consequences of some of her decisions while she worked for Miranda. In the movie, Andy cheated on her boyfriend, but, in the book, it was much more of a moral decision for her and did not progress beyond a kiss at a party. That felt more in keeping with the character. I think the movie had Andy lose a bit if herself to Miranda, but she ended up stronger in the book.

Overall, I really liked the book. It was well-written with some great dialogue. This was not a book I'd normally select to read which is the great thing about this challenge. I forced myself to pick books that were not "safe" picks. I'd love to know what other people thought of the book.

6 comments:

Cath said...

You finished your first one already! Well done. I'm thinking of signing up for the RIP II challenge so I'd better get started soon if I want to finish both...

BookGal said...

cath - I'm not sure about the RIP challenge. I don't like scary things. Thanks for visiting.

Kathleen said...

I did actually say not to start till September but it doesn't matter, it's all for fun anyways!

Great review.

BookGal said...

Callista - Oops ... sorry. I guess reading comprehension is not one of my skills this week.

Kathleen said...

Okay you've been added to the review list.

soleil said...

i read the book before i even knew they were making a movie of it. my sister lent it to me and i loved it. it was laugh out loud funny. the things that miranda had andy do. . .
i liked the thing with the scarves in the book. of course it wasn't in the movie though. i definitely thought this was one of the better book to movie adaptations. and meryl streep rocked the part of miranda.