The Devil Wears Prada: A Novel; by Lauren Weisberger.

On one hand the book, and the film as well, portrays the stress a would be young writer goes through by finding a job in high pressure fashion industry that she is totally oblivious to, her inevitable transformation from casual (that is, really casual, not fashinable chic imitation of causal that is carefully constructed and is a masquerade really) student-intellectual lack of style to a sophisticated perfectly made up and styled persona with heels and accessories, and her coming to understand why her extraordinarily demanding boss is actually so much respected and revered in the industry.

And on the other hand they both accuse the highly stressed protagonist of neglecting her personal life, her friends and family and love, while she is so stressed and busy she is unable to eat lunch for a year and often not a dinner either, and always feeling guilty.

The book is slightly more gritty, in that the horror of the boss is not mitigated; the film shows her human side.

One could reasonably point out that the stress of the protagonist and the consequent neglect of her personal life, indeed of her own health, is something every person goes through as a rookie in any high-profile career, or even a low profile career in a high profile profession. Think a young lawyer, a doctor, a business executive post MBA, a military person, a scientist, anyone in any of these or a dozen other fields. Most of them are unable to pay as much attention to their friends as before they started the career, sometimes until they arrive, sometimes ever.

Mostly though they find enormous and unquestioning social support - as long as they are male, and sometimes even if they are women. However, those fields are not seen as ridiculous, by anyone ever. Nor is fashion in reality, in fact it is an unseen dictator in reality in west, especially US. It is only in writing or film that they can show it ridiculed - but few other than (male) academicians can afford to really thumb their noses at it, especially so in US, if they have any urban career to speak of.

So why is the book and the film so close to our subconcious, so successful? The reason actually is that they show an inverted picture, perhaps the book was written doing this subconsciously and then again perhaps not, perhaps there was a silent prayer that the people will get it.

It is neither the boss nor the young rookie in the industry who are either ridiculous or vilains - it is the dominationof women of US, of west, and now attempted domination of women in the rest of the world, by the whole fashion industry that is at once ridiculous and a villain (and if you think no one can be both, think again - think of the goose stepping troops and their leaders) - and the victims are not the friends and lovers and family who are the victims, much less of the obsessed career women; a career is a career, even if it is a woman, only others expect more, and that includes anyone and everyone who is in contact.

The victims of the fashion industry are women in general who are affected by the corporate diktats no matter what their lives, and even more so the young girls who are affected far worse. As long ago as '91 these effects have been documented, and they are not new, but the stranglehold still is very much in place.

The film shows an inverted picture with a villainous boss and an intelligent but a little pressured, a little fashion-seduced rookie. In truth if the writer or the film maker had tried to portray the reality as it is neither would see the light of the day.

And this is why they are both wildfire popular - because they touch nerves.