Chalk it up as a major "forgive and forget" moment in modern literary history. Talk-show legend Oprah Winfrey on Friday made official what had been rumored since the middle of the week. The first Oprah Book Club pick of her new (and final) season is "Freedom," by Jonathan Franzen. The news that Franzen will appear on Oprah in November to talk about the book shows that both sides have agreed to forgive and forget the 2001 disagreement that resulted in Franzen being uninvited as a guest on Oprah's show. In a press release, Oprah called Franzen's new novel -- his first since "The Corrections" in 2001 -- a "tour de force" and "an indelible and deeply moving portrait of our time." Asked by the Star Tribune in August if he thought Oprah might pick "Freedom" for her Book Club, Franzen said, "I would be happy if she did." The earlier falling-out came after Franzen went public with misgivings about being selected by Oprah's Book Club for "The Corrections." Among other things, he wondered aloud if it might actually decrease readership among men. And he characterized as "schmaltzy" some other Book Club honorees. Recalling the 2001 disagreement, Franzen admitted, "I made the mistake of trying to say complicated things when I should have been saying simple things in the runup to my appearance on the show." While saying he thought Oprah may have "overreacted a little bit, understandably" Franzen added that "I don't think she mistook me for an elitist, and I didn't mistake her for an elitist-basher. Those were categories that were supplied by the commentators, who had their own agendas. That was a source of grief to me." Franzen's fracas with the talk-show legend played badly for him, with some observers saying it cast him as a highbrow literary snob. Franzen told one interviewer that the falling-out earned him "a degree of vilification that only Osama Bin Laden could rival that particular autumn." Even before Oprah's selection of "Freedom," the novel had begun showing up on bestseller lists, including in the Twin Cities, where much of the book is set. Early reviews were mostly raves, and Franzen was on the cover of Time magazine in August. "Freedom" landed at the number-one position this week on the New York Times list. According to Publishers Weekly, Franzen's publisher, Farrar, Straus & Giroux, said it has printed 600,000 Oprah Book Club-stickered copies of "Freedom" to augment its printing of 355,000 regular-jacketed copies. Franzen will appear in St. Paul as part of the Talking Volumes series on Tuesday, Sept. 21. That event is sold out, but will be streamed live on video on the websites of Star Tribune and Minnesota Public Radio. The Star Tribune recently ran a story about Franzen and the long process of writing his latest novel.