Douglas Stuart: “John of John” | Oprah’s Book Club

As part of the 30th anniversary of Oprah’s Book Club, Oprah picks her 123rd selection: John of John by celebrated Scottish author Douglas Stuart. His other novels include Young Mungo and Shuggie Bain which won the prestigious Booker Prize in 2020. John of John is set in a small, fictional farming and textile town, Falabay, on an isle off northern Scotland where everybody knows everyone’s business. The story centers around three generations living under the same roof: a father, his son and the son's grandmother. The central theme to this enthralling book is the secrets these three so desperately hold on to: secrets from each other, from their neighbors and from the church. A love story at its heart, Douglas Stuart tells Oprah how he spent six years writing this book, spending 16 weeks researching the Outer Hebrides Isles on the northwest coast of Scotland talking to local people who inspired his 26 supporting characters. Oprah and Douglas Stuart are joined by an audience in New York City who enthusiastically read the book and have questions for the author.

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00:00:00 - Welcome Douglas Stuart, author of “John of John”

00:03:01 - The setting of the book

00:04:05 - Where he found this story

00:07:30 - What Douglas needed to learn to write “John of John”

00:09:20 - Douglas describes “John of John”

00:11:43 - Oprah compares the book to Heated Rivalry

00:13:30 - An unexpected love story

00:17:40 - The conflict between father and son

00:20:40 - His writing process

00:25:55 - Father and gay son on “John of John”

00:30:30 - How man found acceptance of his son

00:34:20 - Feeling seen in a novel

00:38:27 - What Douglas wants the reader to feel

00:44:50 - Masculinity and the patriarchy

00:46:10 - The experience of growing up gay

00:47:20 - The end of the novel

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