Because She Can

THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA meets the publishing industry. Claire Truman is engaged to her college crush, but her romantic fantasies pale in the face of the reality of her overworked fiancé. At the same time, her friendship with a burgeoning male author holds more attraction than she'd like to admit. Claire's prestigious publishing job is highly stressful and unavoidably ugly--she works for Vivian Grant, an abusive, raging, smut-drawn diva, who issues unreasonable demands at all hours. Lynde Houck drapes words with sarcasm, delivers sentences with wit, and puts fabulous oomph and humor into Grant's temper tantrums. Houck's performance shows her ability to switch emotions rapidly as she strips the veneer of glamour from Claire's world. S.W. (c) AudioFile 2007, Portland, Maine

September 11, 2006
The not–Anna Wintour character in this much-hyped my-boss-is-famously-unpleasant roman à clef is not–Judith Regan—or, to be positive, is Vivian Grant of Grant Books, "the most hotheaded, ruthless woman" in publishing. She physically and verbally abuses her staff, is having an affair with a married New York City official (who dresses in drag) and has made a "fortune by producing tabloid-inspired blockbusters." And though up-and-coming literary fiction editor Claire Truman has heard all the gossip, she takes a job as an editor at Grant Books and quickly discovers Vivian lives up to her reputation as a foul-mouthed, über-demanding, tantrum-throwing tyrant. Claire tries to maintain some semblance of a life (she's engaged to dreamboat Randall Cox, who went from big man on campus to big man at Goldman Sachs, even though she's really in love with Luke Mayville, a sensitive writer/unrecognized genius), but vicious Vivian keeps her within spitting (and swearing) distance 27 hours a day. Clark, who worked at Regan Books, nails the dark side of the vulgar, spiteful boss archetype, and though the plot is as shopworn as the characters, those in the Page Six and Lloyd Grove set will appreciate this devilish read.

Mary Birdsong is the perfect narrator for this comic romp around the New York publishing scene. When boss-from-hell Vivian Grant begins to have speech patterns reminiscent of Claire Truman's future mother-in-law, listeners are all but doubled over with laughter. Claire, the young protagonist, is unsure of herself, sounding peppy and innocent one minute, nervous and chiding herself the next. Musical interludes add their own comic twist. There's good material for Birdsong to work with. Clark meshes literary history (entitling chapters after classics: The Bell Jar and The Sound and the Fury) with memorable sound bites from a high-tech lifestyle. The full book might be overkill, but this abridged version can't help but delight anyone who's ever fantasized about working in New York or brushed up against social climbers. R.R. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award (c) AudioFile 2007, Portland, Maine