-B.
Doug Henwood wrote:
Los Angeles Times - January 18, 2005
Oprah's new mess By Adam Shatz
AMONG THOSE reeling from the flap around James Frey's memoir, "A Million Little Pieces" - which has been exposed as an embellishment, when not outright fabrication, of the author's life - is America's most powerful literary critic, Oprah Winfrey. "A Million Little Pieces" was an Oprah Book Club selection, and Winfrey has defended her choice, insisting that the "underlying message" counts more than strict respect for the facts.
Now she has also made what looks like a highly savvy decision. She has named as her next book club selection Elie Wiesel's 1960 memoir, "Night," a searing account of the author's journey through the nightmare of Auschwitz and Buchenwald. What better way for Oprah to underscore her point about a memoir's underlying message - and at the same time to insulate herself from criticism over the Frey contretemps - than to warm herself by the hearth of Holocaust remembrance? After all, no one will contest Wiesel's memoir or - thankfully - the truth of the historical events it recounts.