Although celebrity book
clubs are popular and encourage reading, they can be misleading to the public
because of personal bias towards authors. Book selections are not always based
on facts or researched thoroughly. According to Alpert, one of the key appeals
of nonfiction is that "people are enjoying a good story while at the same
time learning about real events, people, or places" (2006, 29). Readers
want to read something surprising and familiar in a memoir or biography; they
expect juicy details. Author James Frey included all the highs and lows of
being a recovering addict though he definitely crossed the line by lying about
his troubled past and using the tragedy of innocent people to amplify the
narrative of his story. I never read the biography and could tell from the
Smoking Gun website article the events seemed too elaborate to be true. Readers
were insulted because Frey manipulated his story and it lost its relatable and
authentic message.
Talk-show host Oprah
Winfrey and her staff were at fault as well for not checking for any background
information to support the statements in the book before discussing the novel
on television. I know she invited Frey
back on her show again to discuss the book’s inaccuracies though she did not
focus on her responsibilities regarding the selection methods of her book club
choices. The publisher should have done their research as well and promoted the
memoir as a work of fiction for its inaccuracies. As Alpert notes in her
article, "verifiable references and authenticity are critical both to the
integrity of the narrative and to establish trust with the reader" (2006,
29). Before A Million Little Pieces came out James Frey was not nationally
known and because he was on Oprah, his book sold millions of copies. He stood
out because in 2005 he was the only “contemporary author” Oprah selected, as compared to “three William
Faulkner novels that year, and books by John Steinbeck, Pearl Buck, Gabriel
Garcia Marquez, Leo Tolstoy, and Carson McCullers in the two prior years”.
Furthermore this pick was “unexpected since it overflows with vulgar and
graphic language, marking Oprah’s abrupt and bracing return to the selection of
contemporary authors after more than three years of choosing classics (and
propelling those titles, often for months at a time, to the top of bestseller
lists nationwide)” (Smoking Gun, 2006, 2).
My library still has a
copy of this work in the nonfiction/Substance Abuse section. Because it is
controversial readers will want to know what the book is about. The point of
Oprah's Book Club is to create a discussion about social and emotional topics
that arise in the news media from time to time. Her personal selection of books
influences many readers because she is relatable and intelligent on television
but it is biased. Readers should not have to depend on celebrities to make
their book choices for them; they have their own individual appeals. Libraries
do not include all popular titles; however, these institutions favor all
genres. Books are selected by the community's needs. Patrons have a say regarding
what books they want at the library.
References
Alpert, A. (2006). Incorporating nonfiction into
readers' advisory services. Reference
& User Services Quarterly, 46(1), 25-32.
