Everyone Worth Knowing

 

 By Lauren Weisberger

Bette Robinson is a young woman who is bored by her job working at a Manhattan banking business. Finally she reaches her breaking point and impulsively quits her job. Afterward, she kind of drifts for awhile until her Uncle Will gets her an interview with an up and coming public relations firm run by Kelly, the one who coined the title of the book: 'So how do you know all these people?'

She [Kelly] just laughed. 'I have an office full of people whose job it is to know everyone  worth knowing.'

 Kelly's business, as described by Bette's Uncle Will: "Darling, she does a lot more than just plan parties. She chitchats with club owners and trades on gossip she has about other people's clients to the columnists so they'll write good things about her own clients and sends gifts to celebrities to convince them to attend her events so the press will as well—all the while looking very pretty when she goes out every night. Yes, the more I think about it, the more I'd like to see you in event-planning."

Bette does become an event planner and finds she has a knack for the job. It's very intense and complicated, requiring massive coordinating and planning and contacts with VIPs and their clients. At first it is a bit overwhelming but Bette powers through. She becomes involved with one of the VIP celebrities, Philip Weston, but their relationship is mostly just for show. She meets another man that she finds very appealing but this man, Sammy, seems aloof and possibly already involved with another woman.

As she grows in competence, Bette finds satisfaction in her ability to handle everything her new job requires of her. But it turns out to be a 24/7 job and her social life falls apart when all her spare time is taken up by the work. She realizes that no job is more important than the people in your life. She is losing touch with friends and family because her life is being consumed by her job.

This was an interesting story, a look behind the scenes of a successful PR business.  Besides the two love interests, Bette also has to cope with misleading stories about herself showing up in the gossip pages due to her connection to Philip Weston.

The book is rather long, my copy was 367 pages which seems to be par for the course these days. Too long, in my opinion. Still overall I enjoyed the story.

Here is a review by Kirkus Reviews.

The Devil Wears Prada

By Lauren Weisberger

This novel is generally thought to be a roman a clef about
Vogue editor Anna Wintour, although the author denies this.
But since she worked there as an intern, she is being
disingenuous. It's obviously based on Vogue and Wintour,
which was an eyeopener for me; I never knew there could be
such selfish, oblivious and unreasonable bosses. Must be one
of the consequences of having the kind of power Wintour (or
as she is called in the book, Miranda Priestly) does.
You know, as much as the reader is supposed to despise
Priestly and sympathize with poor, put upon Andrea, I
couldn't help feel that Andrea was being unfair to her boss.
I mean, some of the stuff Andrea pulls in her quest to get
even without getting fired are disgusting. Let's face it,
Andrea is in a position that literally millions of
girls would die for. She is the personal assistant to one of
the most important fashion editors in the world! So it means
she has to deal with an unreasonable and demanding boss ...
so what?! It's worth it! But this is something that Andrea
never realizes and neither did Weisberger, I guess.
I liked this book for its inside look at the world of high
fashion and the very rich. A revelation to one who is as
careless about and uninterested in fashion as I. It was a
good read.

Review from The Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2003/sep/28/fiction.features.