Sorry, Lauren Weisberger: Another former Condé Nast assistant has broken your record for the most transparently vindictive roman á clef of all time. Book editors around town recently began receiving copies of Falling Out Of Fashion, a chick-lit novel by Karen Yampolsky, the longtime executive assistant to Jane Pratt. To say the book is thinly fictionalized would imply there was some degree of invention involved in writing it. In fact, virtually the only elements of Pratt's life that didn't make it into the book are the names of her real-life antagonists and any details that might have made them seem sympathetic or made her seem even partly to blame for her own downfall.

Compare: In real life, Pratt started a magazine called Sassy, which folded; moved on to start one called Jane, which got acquired by Condé Nast; was forced out, only to save face by claiming she'd quit; was replaced by Brandon Holley of Elle Girl; and landed a gig on satellite radio.

In the book, Jill White starts a magazine called Cheeky, which folds; moves on to start one called Jill, which gets acquired by Nestor Publications; is forced out, only to save face by claiming she quit; is replaced by Bryce Bradford of Jeunne Fille; and lands a gig on satellite radio.

The only thing less than imaginative than the story is the cover art, which is all but photocopied from The Devil Wears Prada.

Predictably, the figures responsible for Pratt's ouster—Condé Nast chairman Si Newhouse and former Fairchild CEO Mary Berner—receive unflattering fictional treatment. More surprisingly, Holley, who only came on the scene after Pratt was fired, is also roundly mocked. "I started to think no one would be dumb enough to take my job," narrates White. "But someone was." Bradford is also slammed for "trying so hard to look cool and approachable" in an ad campaign with the tagline "She's Totally Jill." (In real life, the campaign was tagged "She's So Jane.")

When the proposal for Falling Out Of Fashion first circulated, its intense (if skewed) verisimilitude sparked rumors that Yampolsky, who had virtually no prior writing experience, was taking dictation from Pratt herself. Asked about it by the New York Post, she denied being Pratt's cat's paw, but the publication of the finished book, due out in May, may revive such speculation. Even details from Pratt's personal life, such as her miscarriage and her fling with Drew Barrymore (whose fictional avatar is a former Hollywood "wild child" named Rory Bellmore) made it into the book.

Yampolsky's dedication to reality only goes so far, however: In the book, Jill is a "huge hit," and it goes out of business shortly after White is fired. In real life, Jane was never terribly successful in the first place, and it's still bumping along.