Oprah: A Biography by Kitty Kelley

Having read most of Kelley’s other books, I was slightly disappointed in this one but not because of the writing. Since it is an unauthorized biography, Kelley had to work with mainly press reports and very few interviews. She states at the beginning of the biography that everyone who works/worked for Oprah had to sign a nondisclosure agreement. Therefore, there were not many people willing to speak about Oprah. Throughout the book one is struck by the fear everyone has for being sued and also fear of retribution by Oprah with her money and power. Kelley is not terribly kind but that is not one of her attributes as a writer. She mentions Oprah’s humble beginnings (some quite fascinating) and we follow her life up to the time she assumes the mantle of “Queen of Daytime”. Kelley lists pages of charitable donations but then proceeds to comment about the foolishness of some of them and how Oprah did not continue to commit to her causes. One surprise to me was the items Oprah gives to her audiences (did you hear about the cars) are donated by sponsors and not paid for by Oprah. I always thought from all the hoopla that she was spending a fortune on the gifts for the audience. By the way, the free cars entailed $7,000 in taxes and most people in the audience couldn’t afford to keep them. All in all I thought Kelley came off as a little mean spirited in this volume and should have given Oprah more credit for a true rags to riches story.