Genre Fiction

Author Lauren Weisberger has a new novel – Chasing Harry Winston (May 2008) – topping the lists. Being her third novel, and the only whose scandals I have not yet devoured, it seems an appropriate time to review her first two: The Devil Wears Prada (2003) and Everyone Worth Knowing (2005).

If you have not yet read the best-selling debut novel, or seen the 2006 top-grossing film of the same name, here’s a one sentence summary: Editor-nerd Andrea finds herself lost, yet intrigued, by the fast-moving, label-loving, back-stabbing world of magazine publishing. It’s a good watch, and a better read. In fact, I loved the book so much so, that I bought Weisberger’s second novel the day it was released.

So did hundreds of other people, but then they told their friends not to bother. Sales from the first two weeks of Everyone Worth Knowing made it an instant bestseller; but, with nasty reviews it quickly tapered off. It’s story follows Bette as she quits her job in search of something more, and stumbles her way into working at a popular New York City PR firm … and in the headlines of the gossip columns.

Critics can be harsh, especially when your previous works sets such high expectations. I quite enjoyed reading both of Weisberger’s little-girl-meets-big-city stories, but I remember more details from The Devil Wears Prada.

Chasing Harry Winston is about three best girlfriends who, despite living an enviable, socialite life, want change so much that two of them make a pact to alter their lives drastically over the course of one year. It’s a tale of “Three best friends. Two resolutions. One year to pull it off.�

The plot of her third novel certainly has notes of the previous two, but if Weisberger feels at home creating chick lit for the businesswoman, then I warmly welcome her books that allow me to live vicariously through her socializing, hard-working characters.