Chasing Harry Winston; Lauren Weisberger, Harper, Rs 195
There is no nice way of saying this. The book to borrow words from its own pages, is “deadly boring”, “irritatingly verbose” and a complete no-brainer. The only bright spot is the cover that has a parrot-green high-heeled shoe with a diamond ring. Chasing Harry Winston is a painful enterprise. Lauren Weisberger should have stopped when she became famous thanks to her earlier The Devil Wears Prada. Even there the fame is almost entirely Meryl Streep’s.
Cutting to the chase, this story is about “Three best friends. Two resolutions. One year to pull it off”. So says the synopsis. Emmy, Adriana and Leigh want to change their lives. Emmy vows to find a man on every continent for some no-strings fun, Adriana wants to hook herself a man who will put a five-carat diamond on her finger and Leigh remains undecided about what her resolution is. The men are all either “Impishly cute”, “delectable”,” muscled”, or “casually rumpled” and sometimes “utterly scrumptious”. When it is not men it is a pet parrot. Three whole tedious pages are devoted to the makeover of a pet parrot called Otis.
Obviously, whoever has marketed the book has had to use a lot of tricks. On the cover page, right on top, in big bold letters is “The Devil Wears Prada”. You almost miss the much smaller line that reads, “From the best selling author of”. The name of this book figures on the side, almost like an afterthought. Even the dubious words of praise on the back and the inside pages from journals like Company and Heat, are not for this one , but for …Prada.
A final word. The print is painfully small. You could well go blind before you finish the book; that is if you have not already died of boredom.
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