Friday, May 18, 2007

When The Inkwell Talks, Oprah Listens

It's being rumorously reported on the infallible internet that Oprah's next book club pick will be Michael Chabon's The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay. Now, I know a lot of folks assume that this choice was strongly influenced by the novel having won the Pulitzer Prize and its almost universal critical acclaim, but I ain't buying it. The timing is just a little too convenient to be coincidental, as these links will verify. (Go on, check 'em out. We'll still be here when you return.)

You see what we're talking about?

No, not the recent release of Chabon's new novel. We're referring to the fact that the Inkwell blog just dedicated a whole day's posts to promoting The Yiddish Policemen's Union and the curly-locked dreamboat who wrote it. Yeah, it seemed a little fishy to us, too, so we made a couple of calls to find out the gossip behind the gossip. Our first call was to Harpo Productions, Oprah's multi-million dollar company. Identifying ourselves as her beau, Steadman, we were rudely brushed off by an underling. On our second attempt, we deepened our voice and claimed to be Gayle King, Oprah's best friend and personal 'Johnny Drama.' This time our call was immediately forwarded to the Big O herself, who, after laughing with us about having just avoided a call from 'clingy Steadman,' confirmed that it was indeed the Inkwell's blog that was the tipping point in selecting her newest book club choice. She said that if it wasn't for those three posts, she would've probably chosen Chuck Palahniuck's new novel, Rant, and held her book club at some crappy cold cereal cafe in Park Slope with Sarah Vowell and the girl from Gawker.com as her guest co-hosts. Close call, no? Forward all letters of thanks to the comments section below.

Initial tip via: The Comics Reporter