Oprah’s Book Club: Enlighten This

We don’t have a lot to say about Oprah’s latest choice for her book club. It’s not that we have anything against “waking up to a new, enlightened mind-set” or even “seeking a more loving self and a more loving planet” but, let’s face it, Eckhart Tolle, author of The Power of Now and, more recently, A New Earth, can’t really fill the literary footsteps he’ll be treading as part of this club.

C’mon: Gabriel García Márquez, Cormac MacCarthy, Ken Follett, Toni Morrison, Wally Lamb, Maya Angelou… and Eckhart Tolle? See what I’m saying? I’m not even sure we’re talking about the same planet, never mind the same league.

Still, a lot of people will care about Oprah and Eckhart’s New Earth Web Event. I’m just not so sure why they’d bother stacking it with the really great literature -- and even the kinda questionable literature that was still nonetheless literature -- Oprah has included in her book club in the past. Please, Oprah: next time? Give us a real book.

On The Road with Oprah

We told you it was coming, and now it’s here. Amid a great rush of fanfare, Oprah has made her choice. The author is brilliant and celebrated and the book in question was adored by both critics and readers when it was released last fall, but the story of a father and son coming to grips with each other and life in a post-apocalyptic America still seems an odd choice for Oprah. Says Popmatters:

What seems to have been a nuclear winter has settled over the world, leaving little in its wake. There are references to the immediate aftermath, when “the roads were peopled with refugees shrouded ... creedless shells of men tottering down the causeways like migrants in a feverland ... The frailty of everything revealed at last.” By the time The Road is set, however, even those years are a distant memory, the only people the father and son come across are best avoided, desperate creatures with little left to eat but each other.

The California Literary Review seemed almost to go into raptures stretching for the right -- and sufficient -- praise for the book:

Post apocalyptic novels are a dark, bleak and often illuminating genre that are highlighted by titles that include The Day of the Triffids, A Canticle for Leibowitz, Eternity Road, On The Beach and Galapagos. J.G. Ballard carved out a large section of this wasted landscape with The Crystal World, The Drowning World, The Burning World and The Wind From Nowhere. But among all of these fine works and dozens more I’ve read, none compares, holds a candle to or rings such gloomy, bleak chords as does Cormac McCarthy’s The Road; all accomplished with an economy of words that is beautiful in its execution.

And I love this line from the same review. How could you not? “I read this book in one take late at night and immediately headed downstairs to kick up the fire and drink some bourbon. I was cold, chilled emotionally, stunned, awe-struck by McCarthy’s words.”

But on Oprah’s Web site, the motivation for choosing The Road becomes more clear. Not only is it a wonderful book, it’s one that invites conversation and even discussion, like the kind Oprah asks for on her book club Web site. “What do you think destroyed the world? How far would you go to protect your child? What is the difference between ‘good guys’ and ‘bad guys’? Share your thoughts with others on the message board.”

Though his first novel, The Orchard Keeper, was published in 1965, McCarthy, 73, is perhaps best known for 1992’s All the Pretty Horses. And the book did very well on its own, long before the release of the movie based on the work came out in 2000 starring Matt Damon, Henry Thomas and Penelope Cruz.

McCarthy is notoriously private and has only rarely granted interviews. An interview with the writer is promised, however. It will be interesting to see how the interaction between the Chicago media maven and the reclusive literary giant unfolds.

Stop the Presses: Oprah Will Choose

Everyone’s talking about it. Forbes. AP. The Charlotte Observer. It must be a big hairy deal.

Windy City multimedia maven Oprah Winfrey will make a new selection for her book club. On Wednesday. And, apparently, the world is holding it’s breath.

A new Oprah book club pick will be announced Wednesday on her television talk show, the same day Winfrey hosts the author of her current selection, Academy Award-winning actor Sidney Poitier.

More details when she actually, you know, chooses.

And while we’re talking about Oprah, people who care about such things will be interested to learn that a former intern to Oprah’s production company has been named Miss USA. It’s kind of too bad for her. The headlines have gotten skewed. Instead of blasting “Rachel Smith Wins Miss USA” media outlets like ABC are saying “Ex-Oprah Intern Crowned Miss USA.” Funny old world, when the biggest part of a story about a pageant winner is which media mogul she doesn’t work for anymore.

Details are here.