Oprah is back with a vengeance! Apparently, she isn’t going to let some skinny white biznatch take over her role as book club queen (No, not me, Kelly Ripa). That and who takes reading tips from a Soap Star, who once she learns to read ought to pick up Acting for Dummies? Deviating from her previously normal picks, which touched on the uplifting topics of child abuse, domestic violence and pretty much anything that involves a baseball bat and black eyes, Oprah’s new Book Club is coming out with a classy first pick, East of Eden by John Stienbeck. This book has been one of my favorites since I picked it up two summers ago and has remained at the top of the list, even though I chased it with Tess of the D’Urbervilles and Jude the Obscure, subsequently causing me to contemplate suicide for the next three weeks. Setting a new tone for her book club revived, Oprah is going old school, back to the older authors too often ignored in favor of Harry Potter, John Grisham or Danielle Steele. This return to the roots and foundation of literature is to be commended and no matter what literature snobs begin to say (me included) Oprah is making the right move. All too often people will read a book, like Harry Potter, which makes them excited about reading and as they hungrily snarl away devouring this book they dig deeper and deeper and then stop, stuck and their minds remain rutted in the best selling tripe, never moving forward. But our minds, as Woody Allen points out, like relationships and Sharks must keep moving or else die. Some books are stepping stones and some books are the pinnacle, Oprah is using her immense and cult like power to move minds, to challenge readers to make them look to the pinnacles instead of stopping on the steps. This is better than using her powers for arsenic laced kool-aid, which was an imminent danger in my mind for quite sometime. Despite all the garbage she gets, it is people like Oprah who never stop expecting the best from us, who challenge us to be better in that non-superior kind of way that really make a difference.
"A sinister cabal of superior writers."
Article comments
1 - Michelle
What a beautiful little manifesto! I'd sign this right away;-)
2 - Phillip Winn
I have very mixed feelings about Oprah. First of all, I'm a man, and some people dismiss my thoughts on Oprah as a result, which I think is a mistake, but what do I know? After all, I'm a man... and so on.
Second of all, she has the goofiest weirdo spiritualist whack-jobs on her show occasionally, and said fruit loops spend an hour saying very simple things they read from Ben Franklin's almanacs wrapped in New Age terms. It wears on me.
But she often has marvelous guests and covers great topics. I have often said that I would enjoy Oprah's show if it wasn't for Oprah herself. She'll have a great guest and then she won't shut up and let the guest talk. It's awful. Especially when she starts saying something ignorant that either has nothing to do with the guest or sometimes even directly contradicts him (though Oprah obviously doesn't realize it). What's the guest to do? He or she is on Oprah's turf, so they generally just nod and smile.
I think it makes Oprah look ignorant, but oh well. I guess that's her shtick. Not reading the books, not researching the guest, etc, obviously works for her. I think she comes across as ignorant.
My wife jokes that Oprah has never met a guest she doesn't agree with wholeheartedly. Today: Evangelical Christian Bible-Thumpers. Tomorrow: Athiests For Shiva. And Oprah loves them both profoundly, stating that each has changed her life.
Argh! And yet still I catch the show on Tivo sometimes. A recent show on diabetes and heart disease, for example, was excellent overall.
3 - Phillip Winn
Oh, and I meant to say that she also tends to pick pretty good books for her club, both before and now. Bravo for her!
4 - Murphy
You know, I liked that Oprah did contemporary books. Because it's good to give credit to the time we are in now.
But then, those classics are so damn good! I haven't read East of Eden specifically, but I have never been let down by choosing books considered classics.
I think that maybe she should switch off.
Who would that hurt?
5 - Murphy
You know, I liked that Oprah did contemporary books. Because it's good to give credit to the time we are in now.
But then, those classics are so damn good! I haven't read East of Eden specifically, but I have never been let down by choosing books considered classics.
I think that maybe she should switch off.
Who would that hurt?
6 - Lyz
I have often been dissapointed by classics (ahem Bleak House). We will see how Oprah does with the classics, if she just goes for the standards or digs deeper for the lesser known gems such as The Heart is a Lonely Hunter. Should be interesting.
Oh and I totally Oprah is a spaz and it scares me that if she started a religion millions of middle aged women would convert and drink her kool aid.
7 - The Theory
i am quite pleased with Oprah's pick.
and i like watching her show occationally. she seems so outgoing and real and friendly. only god knows if she's like that off stage, but one can pretend! hah.
peace.
8 - Lyz
Well she is a smart cookie, I hear she won a national debate tournament in high school.
9 - Jerry
Oprah is not the savior of the literary world. She has every publishing company, self-serving writer, and pseudo-literature-snob (including those who don't know how to spell Steinbeck) kowtowed to her pathetically corporate label. While Oprah has gotten millions of mindless and muumuued housewives to pick up books without pictures of celebrities, the literary world has become more a competition to please Saint Oprah (and thereby publishing companies) than an endeavor to create good art. Steinbeck must be rolling in his grave. And while you may diss Harry Potter, I must say that that now-pimple-faced wizard is one of the few good things in commercial literature nowadays. For the first time in my life-time, kids are excited about reading. Potter-author Rowling may be the gateway for millions of young people to actually pick up a Steinbeck novel of their own accord and not because someone like Oprah tells them so. Who cares about the housewives?