fake books - Gawker

posts about #fakebooks more →
Oprah Winfrey's Liars Club

Your version of Internet Explorer is not supported. Please upgrade to the most recent version in order to view comments.

Dsmvwl Admin Promote to frontpage Approve user Ban user ×

averyreade
12/29/08

In reply to Oprah Winfrey's Liars Club
Don't forget Tom Cruise's enthusiastic love declarations for Katie Holmes...
Reply

averyreade was starred averyreade was unstarred

BullfightsOnAcid
12/29/08

In reply to Oprah Winfrey's Liars Club
about a young man in a concentration camp who was thrown an apple a day (to keep Dr. Mengele away)

I don't think I've ever laughed so hard at the Holocaust since Hogan's Heroes.
Reply

BullfightsOnAcid was starred BullfightsOnAcid was unstarred

Hydroceph
12/29/08

@BullfightsOnAcid: Yeah, Richard's totally gonna burn for that one.
Reply

Hydroceph was starred Hydroceph was unstarred

bigleggedwoman
12/29/08

In reply to Oprah Winfrey's Liars Club
There's an Oprah born every minute.
Reply

bigleggedwoman was starred bigleggedwoman was unstarred

Andy Matter
12/29/08

In reply to Oprah Winfrey's Liars Club
It's not that hard to fool Oprah. Just ask Stedman.
Reply

Andy Matter was starred Andy Matter was unstarred

BullfightsOnAcid
12/29/08

@Andy Matter: [uk]
Reply

BullfightsOnAcid was starred BullfightsOnAcid was unstarred

Hydroceph
12/29/08

@Andy Matter: I thought he was the beard.
Reply

Hydroceph was starred Hydroceph was unstarred

IndianSlipper
12/29/08

In reply to Oprah Winfrey's Liars Club
Don't forgot that other liar, Wiesel. Dude totally didn't have it hard in the camps.
Reply

IndianSlipper was starred IndianSlipper was unstarred

JinxyMcDeath
12/29/08

@IndianSlipper: Not funny.
Reply

JinxyMcDeath was starred JinxyMcDeath was unstarred

Baroness
12/29/08

In reply to Oprah Winfrey's Liars Club
I hesitate to say this, as she might send her Dark Helicopters (of Empathy!) to bedevil my tower, but it's inescapable:

Oprah has horrible, horrible taste in books.

She's a sucker for moving, uplifting tales, weepies that always have to teach some moral lesson. This is pretty much the opposite of any first-rate work of literature or art, or in any case quite beside the point. She has no time for quality of prose, or ambiguity; the books she favors are really TV movies in another form.

She likes the "high-concept" Hollywood pitch of them, but "books" seems to add some sort of classy legitimacy for the outlandish, sentimental, and often false dreck she's peddling.

I don't think it's cynical or intentional, and I'm sure there have been exceptions. But she really needs to wake up to avoid embarrassments like these.
Reply

Baroness was starred Baroness was unstarred

Hydroceph
12/29/08

@Baroness: Dark Helicopters of Empathy. Love it.
Reply

Hydroceph was starred Hydroceph was unstarred

DesirooForYou
12/29/08

@Baroness: I have to totally disagree with this comment. It is true that she has had some sappy, bad books but she also has had some GREAT ones, like the Heart is a Lonely Hunter (Awesome), As I Lay Dying, and Middlesex. And you forget, putting her stamp on a book actually gets people to READ.
Reply

DesirooForYou was starred DesirooForYou was unstarred

Zorica
12/29/08

@DesirooForYou: Jonathan Franzen's The Corrections was also an Oprah book, at least for awhile. That's one of my favorite Oprah stories, actually. Franzen apparently agrees with Baroness, and asked that he be de-selected. He didn't want the stickers on his book either, or at least that's what the book store guy told me. Maybe he was just trying to seal the sale, seeing as the copy I was buying DID have the sticker and I have to say, knowing that would piss Franzen off made me that much happier to have that particular copy. That, and I'd already heard the book was funny. Which it was.
Reply

Zorica was starred Zorica was unstarred

Baroness
12/29/08

@DesirooForYou: Well, I did say there were exceptions, and you nailed them, and I agree with you. And yes, getting people to buy and read books is wonderful. But overwhelmingly, she loooves self-help books disguised as lit.

It'd be great if she went with more like the 3 (wonderful) exceptions you pointed out. Shame only one of the 3 is contemporary, for the author's sake- good for Eugenides.
Reply

Baroness was starred Baroness was unstarred

CodePink
12/29/08

In reply to Oprah Winfrey's Liars Club
Opes loved my book HOAX: Story of a Fake until she realized it was true.
Reply

CodePink was starred CodePink was unstarred

m4ximusprim3
12/29/08

In reply to Oprah Winfrey's Liars Club
Does Oprah actually read all of these books, or are they just summarized by aides, CIA style? If so, how do I get that job?
Reply

m4ximusprim3 was starred m4ximusprim3 was unstarred

Hydroceph
12/29/08

@m4ximusprim3: and who vets these people, anyway? the same ones who brought us Sarah Palion? how many times must she be taken before she and the rest of realize that Oprah is not to be trusted with books?
Reply

Hydroceph was starred Hydroceph was unstarred

Claire Buoyant
12/29/08

@Hydroceph: I have a feeling that a large part of her audience also buy into astrology and Rhonda Byrne's "The Secret," so, um, there's no hope for those people.
Reply

Claire Buoyant was starred Claire Buoyant was unstarred

Hydroceph
12/29/08

@Claire Buoyant: i realized this morning that one of my coworkers is part of the Secret set. That certainly explains the yawning chasm between her ears. I think you're right. We need to keep in mind that on some level Oprah approves of that shite. OK, whatever, her latest Holocaust gut-wrencher is made up, so what, it's just Oprah.
Reply

Hydroceph was starred Hydroceph was unstarred

Nice Beaver
12/29/08

In reply to Oprah Winfrey's Liars Club
Dear God, it's me, Nard. Please let Oprah call Herman's lies "the worst thing that's ever happened to the Jewish people." Thank you.
Reply

Nice Beaver was starred Nice Beaver was unstarred

ginger rant
12/29/08

@Nard: I.e., "Worse than Madoff!!!"?
Reply

ginger rant was starred ginger rant was unstarred

EleanorRigby
12/29/08

@ginger rant: Translate those things into Yiddish and it's pretty much a verbatim transcription of the conversation my familial elders had at the annual gathering for latkes yesterday. Add in a few sighs and disapproving tut noises, though.
Reply

EleanorRigby was starred EleanorRigby was unstarred

ginger rant
12/29/08

@EleanorRigby: Funny you should say that: actually, it was at a Hanukah party (my husband is Jewish; I'm a wannabe) last week where I first learned of the shame that Madoff has brought to the Jews, particularly the reinforcing-the-stereotype-about-only-caring-about-money thing. So when I heard about Herman's hubris, I thought, "Uh oh ... not good for the Jews," and then I thought, "Ooh! Lookee me! I'm thinking like a Jew! Wheeeeeeee!" Yes, I'm very easily amused. Why?

Although of course those of us raised by church ladies and such don't go "Bad for the Christians!" whenever Bush, Mel Gibson, or Rod Stewart [aside: why Rod Stewart? Not sure; I just really hate him] open their hideous mouths. (Insert Lani Guineer's speil about the tyranny of the majority here.) Maybe we should start?
Reply

ginger rant was starred ginger rant was unstarred

EleanorRigby
12/29/08

@ginger rant: My boss and I were just having this conversation. Her in-laws are embarrassed/ashamed whenever a black person is pilloried in the news for doing something shameful or not smart (her example was Janet Jackson at the Superbowl). Minorities that carry heavy stereotypes and face a lot of stigma hate when the stereotypes are publicly reinforced. The conniving Jew who even steals from his own people is, as they say, a great shande. My grandpa went so far as to proclaim he should be hanged in the town square.
Reply

EleanorRigby was starred EleanorRigby was unstarred

ginger rant
12/29/08

@EleanorRigby: Very interesting. At risk of saying something impolitic, it sounds a little like self-hatred (an inevitable vestige of being a persecuted people, I'm tempted to say). Perhaps?

Or was that a bad thing to say? Not sure.

Meanwhile, I'm half-WASP and quite enjoy people making fun of WASPs.
Reply

ginger rant was starred ginger rant was unstarred

EleanorRigby
12/29/08

@ginger rant: It's a "we have to stick together since everyone else is against us" mentality that my grandparents have from the Holocaust. It does bear the taint of self-hatred as well since they were so persecuted for most of their lives. To them, Jews are a big family with shared morals and values. When a "relative" betrays them, he's cut off and shamed. For the public to know is the equivalent of airing your actual family's dirty laundry to the world.
Reply

EleanorRigby was starred EleanorRigby was unstarred

ginger rant
12/29/08

@EleanorRigby: It's funny, though: while I "got it" when my (three Jewish female) friends said of the Madoff thing at the Hanukkah party last week, "My first thought was, This is bad for the Jews," the more I think about it, the more I realize that MY first thought was, "But I expect better of the Jews!" Maybe that's part of the bummer for Jews, too: while of course no nationality has a monopoly on morality, traditional Jewish values (as I understand them) include an emphasis on philanthropy and, decidedly un-Madoff-like, doing one's part for the common good--hence the appeal of Judaism to (atheist) me and the appeal of raising my kid as a Jew. Well, that and to spite my mother.
Reply

ginger rant was starred ginger rant was unstarred

BookishLookish
12/29/08

@ginger rant: OK, red, you're getting your heart back!
Reply

BookishLookish was starred BookishLookish was unstarred

Pope John Peeps II
12/29/08

In reply to Oprah Winfrey's Liars Club
It would be tragic if we didn't firmly realize that Oprah is illiterate.
Reply

Pope John Peeps II was starred

belltolls
12/29/08

In reply to Oprah Winfrey's Liars Club
More Posthumous Oprah Picks: The Painted Bird.
Reply

belltolls was starred belltolls was unstarred

TedSez
12/29/08

@belltolls:

Jerzy Kosinski may have misled people about his past, but The Painted Bird was published as a work of fiction.
Reply

TedSez was starred TedSez was unstarred

belltolls
12/29/08

@TedSez: @IndianSlipper: @Queen of the Passive Aggressives: Hey, HEY you guys, I know it was written as a work of fiction (and I liked the book as well) but there was considerable controversey as to WHO actually wrote it.
Reply

belltolls was starred belltolls was unstarred

i'm a bottle
12/29/08

@belltolls: The difference between Kosinski and the members of Oprah's Pantheon of Tedious Literary Fraudsters: he was an interesting liar.
Reply

i'm a bottle was starred i'm a bottle was unstarred

TedSez
12/29/08

@belltolls:

The idea that Kosinski's books were plagiarized or largely written by others has been discredited. As a non-native English speaker, he did hire translators to help him with his prose, especially early in his career. But the content, style and themes of all his novels are remarkably consistent, which would have been impossible if different people wrote each one.

Plus, his main characters all tend to be kind of a-holes, just as he apparently was in real life.
Reply

TedSez was starred TedSez was unstarred

TedSez
12/29/08

@belltolls: But I'm sorry for misconstruing your comment... I hate it when that happens!
Reply

TedSez was starred TedSez was unstarred

belltolls
12/29/08

@TedSez: I am sorry if I repeated an old libel; the old ones are always the best ones.
Reply

belltolls was starred belltolls was unstarred

MrInBetween
12/29/08

In reply to Oprah Winfrey's Liars Club
Don't forget Oprah is also quick to embrace authors who are horrific hacks like, well, for starters: Mitch Albom.
Reply

MrInBetween was starred MrInBetween was unstarred

Queen of the Passive Aggressives
12/29/08

@MrInBetween: Thank you for saying that. That stupid 5 People You Meet is a killer. I have friends who eat that stuff up whole.
Reply

MrInBetween
12/29/08

@Queen of the Passive Aggressives: Have you seen The Five People You Meet in Hell? Hilarious.
Reply

MrInBetween was starred MrInBetween was unstarred

bigleggedwoman
12/29/08

@MrInBetween: ... by Rich Pablum!
Reply

bigleggedwoman was starred bigleggedwoman was unstarred

Earlier discussions Other discussions Show all discussions Show featured discussions only Start a new discussion

#fakebooks

Gawker

SUBSCRIBE TO Gawker

Oprah Winfrey's Liars Club

Login

Reset Password

Register

Submit Your Comment