The Oprah's Book Club controversy, explained

American Dirt has roiled the publishing world around questions of identity and appropriation

Oprah Winfrey.
(Image credit: Illustrated | Jesse Grant/Getty Images for THR, Flatiron, Aerial3/iStock)

In the more than two decades since Oprah's Book Club began in 1996, the program has faced its share of controversies. There was the time, in 2001, that Jonathan Franzen publicly threw a fit over his new novel being selected. There was the great sales flop of 2010, when the club disastrously picked two Charles Dickens books to the utter disinterest of its audience. And, most memorably of all, there was the A Million Little Pieces scandal of 2006, when Winfrey revealed she'd been "duped" by the purported memoir, and took the author to task on her show for "[betraying] millions of readers" with his "lies."

Now, once again, Oprah's Book Club has found itself in an imbroglio, with readers feeling betrayed. But unlike those other scandals, Winfrey and her team had plenty of time and warning to see this one coming — so much, that they never should have picked the book to begin with. Instead, it has become clear that for a second time since A Million Little Pieces, Oprah's Book Club needs to walk back its selection with an apology to its readers and to the very community the novel, American Dirt, claims to represent.

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Jeva Lange

Jeva Lange was the executive editor at TheWeek.com. She formerly served as The Week's deputy editor and culture critic. She is also a contributor to Screen Slate, and her writing has appeared in The New York Daily News, The Awl, Vice, and Gothamist, among other publications. Jeva lives in New York City. Follow her on Twitter.