Prompt Response- -Book Controversies

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.  

Smoking Gun. (2006). A million little lies: Exposing James Frey’s fiction addiction. Retrieved from http://www.thesmokinggun.com/documents/celebrity/million-little-lies