Publisher's Weekly Review
In this excellent study of an exceptional media phenomenon, Farr, chair of the English Department at the College of St. Catherine, argues that Oprah's book club was a truly significant cultural event. In succinct, stylish prose, Farr describes a "uniquely American Culture War" at the heart of the high-brow versus middle-brow controversy. Farr elegantly summarizes the book club's genesis, its capacity to generate massive sales and the literary content of Oprah's picks. She praises Oprah's democratic, "bottom up" style of teaching, which enabled the least educated readers to try books they might never otherwise have read. She points out how Toni Morrison's crucial presence on the show enabled reflective literary discussions to reach millions, despite the supposed vulgarity of the televisual format. Farr also demonstrates how Oprah's fiction choices forged a link in the public mind between social responsibility and literature, particularly regarding race. In an engaging personal voice that draws on the theories of a range of cultural critics, Farr considers the meaning of middlebrow literature, the history of the novel, immigration and literacy, class, self-improvement and democracy in America and how Oprah mapped a new public space in which a "conversation with books" became possible for millions of viewers normally excluded from the rarefied world of scholarship. (Nov.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Choice Review
As the titles of these two books suggest, they are remarkably similar. Published almost simultaneously, both describe the huge cultural phenomenon that was Oprah Winfrey's Book Club. Both assess the effects of the club on American culture in general and American readers in particular. Both begin at the same point, Oprah's announcement on April 4, 2002, that she was canceling the club; both take refuge in her June 2003 announcement that she was resurrecting OBC with a new focus on classic novels by authors no longer living. Both explore the impact of the book club on America's "culture wars"--the debate over culture and capitalism. An oversimplified version of this debate: highbrows disdain anything that sells well and assume that it must be artistically inferior and appropriate only for lowbrows. On this last point, both books discuss at length Oprah's choice of Jonathan Franzen's The Corrections (2001) as an OBC selection, a choice she reversed a few weeks later after Franzen publicly expressed concern that his selection might compromise his place in "the high-art literary tradition." But though they are similar, the books are different enough to make each worthwhile and rewarding on its own. Whereas Farr (College of St. Catherine) is almost exclusively positive in her evaluation of OBC, Rooney (Emerson College) is critical and devotes significant attention to the club's weaknesses. Rooney explores at length the effects of the television format on the whole experience of reading and the concomitant attempts of Winfrey herself to reduce complex novels to self-help manuals. Moreover, Rooney focuses on OBC as a media phenomenon. Farr concentrates on the club's readers; for her, Winfrey's reductionism is not a problem because individual readers respond so positively to it. Finally, Rooney's vocabulary and academic references make her book the more scholarly of the two. Farr's study is more personal, she does a better job of establishing criteria by which to evaluate the novels of the book club. Thus she offers a more effective demonstration of the huge role that the club has played in breaking down readers' reliance on cultural authorities to tell them what is good. The books are equally valuable. ^BSumming Up: Highly recommended. All levels. J. L. Culross Eastern Kentucky University
