I'll admit I'm secretly scared to write anything bad about Oprah. With her illustrious status and far-reaching power-- expansive if not actually omnipotent-- it feels a little like blasphemy in today’s world. When books have her circular seal of approval I admit I am intrigued. But my latest novellic adventure led me down the road of, well, The Road by Cormac McCarthy, a selection from Oprah’s book club."Destined to be his masterpiece," quoted the book jacket, the cover proudly bequeathed with the seal of Oprah like a shining badge of honor as it sat on the polished, well-lit book store display. I was ever so hopeful. I took The Road on the road as I boarded my flight to Chicago on Saturday.The book had a grim start. The middle was quick-paced, but choppy and morose. And then it ended; bleak and speculative. The writing was highly stylized and somewhat perplexing-- apostrophes came and went and grammatical structure became askew. But the story—the tragic tale of a father and son wandering a post-apocalyptic wasteland motivated by love and love alone was... um... totally-depressing-and-anti-climatic-and-totally-overrated-andfrustratingandsupersad. There. I said it. I didn't like the book. Oprah, you and I didn’t see eye to on this one.
A book not on any list or in any club of which I am aware is Claire Marvel by John Burnham Schwartz. Grandma Beth found it at the dollar store, devoured it, and let me borrow it. Now this tragic love story with its mesmerizing language is beautiful and unexpected and brave. It's sad too, and slow, but it's the kind of sad great love stories are made of and the kind of slow you appreciate because the writing is so striking. Reading it I felt like I was involved wholly in art; experiencing firsthand the talent of a skilled craftsman of words-- a painter of imagery, a sculptor of intrigue-- not just reading a story.
So I work through my list of summer reading a little more skeptical now of the Oprah approval and, as ever, a little more jealous of authors who put it all out there—bleakness and beauty, book clubs and dollar bins and blog plugs—for the consumption of the masses... and Oprah… and me.
6 comments:
PLEASE write a book. Have you ever considered it? It would most definitely get my seal.
PS - little man Luc loves when I am on your blog "dog dog!" he loves Cody.
I read a book from her Club - She's Come Undone, by Wally Lamb, and I did not like it at all.
The Lovely Bones by Alice Seibold and Suite Francaise by Irene Nem (not going to spell it all because it will be wrong) are much better books. I also highly recommend The Dogs of Bable by Carolyn Parjhurst - probably one of my fave books ever.
Yeah, I am not the biggest fan of the books she picks out either. Did you read the Glass Castle also found by Grandma?
I watched Oprah a lot after Z was born, but after a while, she (O, not Z) was bothering me. I was finally done with her after I watched the episode when she had on the creator/CEO of Jimmy Choo shoes, and she was describing how she was in Milan, and "I was driving around town - well, not really, my *driver* was driving - and I saw Jimmy Choo shoes in the window and said, 'Stop! I must have them!'" I thought, did you *have* to make it clear that you are OPRAH and don't drive your own car?!?! How much smaller can I feel in your presence?!?! Seriously.
Sorry, that had nothing to do with books. But I'm glad for your review of The Road because I was beginning to get curious, what with all the hype and all!
Laura: G-ma did recommend The Glass Castle and I'm totally into it. Did you read it?
Mel: I liked She's Come Undone well enough and I really liked The Lovely Bones... I'm totally checking out The Dogs of Bable. Thanks for the rec!
I quit taking O's suggestions on books shortly after the Johnathon Franzen debacle, where she chose his book "the corrections" for her book club and then he bashed her readers. After that Oprah started picking books that you feel some out-there, melodramatic literary analyst told her to pick because they would have some merit in the future. I like books that have merit in the here and now. Loved Lovely Bones (the scene with the younger brother asking his sister to leave Dad alone, heartwrenthcing). Loved Glass House, also suggested by Gma (the scene on the GW Bridge, so funny). Liked She's Come Undone. My newest pick is The History of Love by Nicole Krauss (sobbed at the end, and then picked it up right after finishing and started the whole thing again. I haven't done that since reading Pride and Prejudice for the first time). Love it Laurel, keep it coming.
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