Many of Oprah Winfrey’s book club picks are iffy at best, but her latest choices (she’s naming two books this time) could scarcely be better. Unlike her previously named authors – some of whom have gone from obscurity to best-seller – the scribe who penned both of her new selections will have nothing to gain.
Oprah Picks Dickens
In his day, Charles Dickens was the literary equivalent of a rock star, an Elton John without the sequins. People were caught up in his serialized stories like today’s viewers of telenovellas and raced to get the latest newspaper for the monthly installment. Who was knocked off? Who survived? It was 19th century Dancing with the Stars.
Oprah is recommending that her viewers take up A Tale of Two Cities and Great Expectations, and while it is hard to disagree with her choices, I personally would have placed David Copperfield ahead of Cities. Dickens himself counted Copperfield as his favorite, and is largely biographical.
That being said, the novels are world’s apart from most of her offerings, which tend to feature down-trodden women pulling themselves up by their bootstraps. Inspiring – at least some of them – but hardly great literature. There are so many great writers who could benefit from her hammer-wielding endorsement, while many have been wasted on tales such as Gwyn Hyman Rubio’s Icy Sparks, a one-trick pony novel that rates as many Dislikes as Likes on the Amazon chart.
Granted, I’ll likely be inundated later with unread copies of the Dickens “Oprah Edition.” His 19th century writing isn’t for everyone, but once the differences in the English languages of then and now are bridged, there are few books I recommend as highly.
Oprah is listening to me at last!
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