Karen Yampolsky

This book is a fictionalized account of Sassy and Jane magazine founder and editor Jane Pratt's life, in the same vein as The Devil Wears Prada. The main character is Jill White, the editor and founder of Cheeky (Sassy) magazine and Jill (Jane) magazine. The author was Jane's assistant for nine years and it is widely rumored that Jane Pratt was the ghostwriter for this book.

I grew up reading Sassy and also read Jane for a while before it got lame so it was really fun reading this book. All the celebrity names have been fictionalized of course, but it is really easy to figure out who they really are. Serena Sax is Courteney Cox and Rory Bellmore is Drew Barrymore for example.

I highly recommend this book for fans of Sassy and/or Jane.… (mais)

I was amused at this story of a magazine editor and what happens when a senior in her publishing house decides to change the magazine she founded and called after herself. Apparently based on happenings in "Jane" magazine and written by the former PA to it's editor, rumour abound about where truth and fiction separate, there are veiled references to a variety of celebrities and if you know enough about them they're thin veils (I had to have some of the references pointed out but I'm just not into that sort of thing)

I found the heroine, Jill White, a little too perfect and a bit to unbelievable, she never seemed to do wrong, just have wrong done to her, but then again it is written in first person. However it's enjoyable in a kind of train-wreckish way, the outcome is telegraphed by the first chapter. Still I enjoyed it and did want to know what happened next and while it's not great it's not the worst of it's kind.… (mais)

Falling out of fashion is a Roman a Clef by the longtime assitant to Jane Magaine editor, Jane Pratt. I liked this book because I felt like I finally got the real story behind why Jane "left" the magazine industry.

I would recommend this book to anyone who was a fan of either one of the now defunct Jane or Sassy magazines. Yamplonsky's book gives a true behind the scenes account of what lead to the demise of Jane Magazine. There has been some speculation that Jane herself wrote the book, and although I don't believe this to be true, I can see why some might. The book lambasts those who brought on the end of Jane and paints Jane herself as the flawed feminist hero we all so want her to be.

If you were never a devoted fan of Jane or Sassy, I don't think that this book will really hold your interest. Without the voyeur aspect of Jane's live, it's just another fluffy chick-lit-ish novel.… (mais)