At first, I thought about posting something questioning whether Oprah’s Book Club was good or bad for Literary Fiction. I thought I’d mention something about the early selections being overly sentimental. I thought I might mention something about the Frey incident, how she was initially taken in, but, in fairness, how she ultimately took both Frey as well as Nan Talese to task. Or I might even question why in the world it should be Oprah who wields such power to sell books—the “who died and made her the book god, angle.” But then I came to my senses and realized how stupid the question truly is.
I have a ten year old at home who reads every day and has for the past three years. For the most part, in the beginning, I didn’t care what he read as long as he was reading. I thought of it sort of like I thought of teaching him to play golf. Just swing the club, hit the ball, chase it, hit it again. It’s not so much about where the ball goes as it is about making contact. He was reading; he was making contact; it was good. Lately, I’ve begun to steer him toward better books—last spring he read Tom Sawyer so that this summer and fall he could read The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. To Kill a Mockingbird will be next. He’s making better contact.
In many ways, I see Oprah and Oprah’s Book Club as a parallel to me and my son—not that Oprah sees the Book Club members as her children needing guidance . . . or, does she? But my point here is very simple: if Oprah can do something that happens to result in people reading admittedly good to great books, not to mention the boost she provides the publishing industry, then, well, it’s stupid to consider that as being bad. In fact, more power to her.
Her book club is now in it’s twelfth year (with a bit of time off in 2002-3 when she found herself unable to keep up with the demands of reading too many selections per year) and yesterday’s pick was, I believe, the 62nd. If we assume her followers have now read 61 books over the twelve years, that’s five books a year more than many of the members were reading before. And look at the selections. How can it be bad for anyone to read East of Eden, One Hundred Years of Solitude, Anna Karenina, Love in the Time of Cholera, The Good Earth, Middlesex, The Sound and the Fury? Simple answer: it can’t!
And now, her first 2008 selection since January was announced yesterday. It’s The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski. Already a runaway bestseller with over 300,000 in print, Ecco immediately announced that they would be going back for another 750,000 copies. Hooray for Oprah!
September 21st, 2008 at 2:44 pm
I am delighted with your comments about Oprah’s Book Club, and I agree heartily. At first I was put off, as you were, by the plebeian and obviously commercial aspects of the club, but as you point out, many people are reading books that they would not have read otherwise. And David Wroblewsky’s “The Story of Edgar Sawtelle” is a superb piece of literary fiction. I loved it, and was frankly thrilled when I heard Oprah had selected it. Wroblewsky is a fine writer, and “Edgar Sawtelle” may well become a modern masterpiece.