Reading with Oprah

by Rooney, Kathleen

• ISBN13: 9781557288738
• ISBN10: 1557288739
• Edition: 2nd
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2008-04-01
• Publisher: Univ of Arkansas Pr

Summary

Adored by its fans, deplored by its critics, Oprah's Book Club has been at the center of arguments about cultural authority and literary taste since it began in 1996. Reading with Oprah explores the club's revolutionary fusion of books, television, and commerce and tells the engaging and in-depth story of the OBC phenomenon. Kathleen Rooney combines extensive research with a dynamic voice to reveal the club's far-reaching cultural impact and its role as crucible for the clash between "high" and "low" literary taste. Comprehensive and up-to-date, the book covers the club from its inception in 1996, through the Jonathan Franzen contretemps, the surprising suspension in 2002, and, after the club's return in 2003, the progression from "great books" to memoir. New material includes an extensive look at the James Frey scandal and Oprah's turn to contemporary fiction, including The Road and Middlesex. Through close examination of Winfrey's picks and personal interviews with book club authors and readers, Rooney demonstrates how the club that Barbara Kingsolver calls "one of the best possible uses of a television set" has, according to Wally Lamb, "gotten people of all ages to read, to read more, and to read widely."

Author Biography

Kathleen Rooney is a founding editor of Rose Metal Press and the author of the upcoming University of Arkansas Press title Live Nude Girl. She lives in Chicago

Table of Contents

Preface to New Edition	p. ix
Preface: End of Story?	p. xi
The Stories of Oprah: Oprah's Book Club and American Literary Culture	p. 1
Jonathan Franzen Versus Oprah Winfrey: Disses, Disinvitations, and Disingenuousness	p. 33
Raise Your Hand if You Haven't Done All the Reading: The Novels of OBC	p. 67
Formatted to Fit Your Screen: The Flattening Effects of Television on the Books of OBC	p. 109
Is This It?: The End of Oprah's Book Club as We Know It	p. 163
Everything Old is New Again: Oprah's Book Club Returns with the Classics	p. 185
Based on a True Story: Oprah's Foray into the Risky Field of Creative Nonfiction	p. 213
Epilogue	p. 241
List of Oprah's Books	p. 257
Bibliography	p. 261
Index	p. 273
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