Oprah welcomes Oates to book club

Once again, Oprah's golden touch holds true.

Oprah Winfrey's Jan. 24 announcement that Joyce Carol Oates' "We Were the Mulvaneys" was one of her book club's books of the month saw sales of the book at Barnes & Noble, B. Dalton and BN.com skyrocket, selling 14,540 copies and climbing its way to the No. 3 spot on the bestseller list. The three companies account for approximately 20 percent of trade book sales in the United States.

During the week before it was chosen for Oprah's Book Club, Oates' 454-page novel — which was published in 1996 — sold 21 copies.

Oates described her reaction to Winfrey's announcement as a "very pleasant surprise."

She received a call from the media giant when Winfrey chose the book. "Oprah seems enthusiastic and genuinely moved," Oates said of her 15-minute telephone conversation with the talk show host.

It was Winfrey's genuine nature that Oates seemed to emphasize and admire most. She also recommended several other titles to Oprah, among them Noah Larson's "Passing" written in 1929, noting that Winfrey's book club has served only "to elevate literary works."

Oates and Winfrey have yet to meet but will do so privately on Feb. 22. The book will be discussed on the show during the week of Feb. 26.

Upon revisiting the novel after Oprah's book club announcement, Oates described her work as a "family novel" and said she believes its family oriented nature is the reason Winfrey choose it, in addition to the novel's overall success.

"I read this book over a year ago, but this family still haunts me," Winfrey said on the show.

The Chicago Tribune referred to Oates' novel as "Oates' finest book . . . a book about the ways of the heart and the compelling ties of love . . . a major achievement," solidifying Oates' 28th novel as a literary success.

When asked about the writing process itself and whether or not she knows a book will be a success as she is writing, Oates replied that she is "not thinking of an audience, but rather craft, being concerned with the integrity of the text, to express the story in the appropriate language."

Oates, however, is delighted with the success she has seen, especially that of this novel, she said. She has already begun to receive a flurry of letters citing renewed interest in the book, and while performing book readings in Buffalo and Detroit received congratulations from strangers only a day after Winfrey's announcement.