Going Rogue: An American Life

Prior to reading this book, I knew little about either Sarah Palin or Alaska and I was interested to learn more about both, especially the book's author. Although famous in America, Sarah Palin could go just about anywhere in Britain completely anonymously as long as she didn't meet any Americans along the way. Frankly, Brits normally only take any notice of American politicians if they become president. There are exceptions such as Al Gore and Hillary Clinton, but they are rare. Contrast the number of reviews of this book posted in Amazon USA with the number posted in Amazon UK for confirmation of the lack of British interest.

I realized early on in this book that I was going to enjoy reading it because Mrs Palin's story is both interesting and well-written. She makes summer in Alaska sound wonderful, although acknowledging that the winters are long and harsh. She discusses many aspects of her life and it is clear that she has strong views on a number of issues.

Although not directly relevant to her political career, perhaps the most intriguing question about her beliefs concerns her stance on the origin of species. At first glance, Mrs Palin appears to be a full-blooded creationist, but she denies this. Apparently, she accepts what she calls microevolution, in which species change and evolve over time, but not that people are related to apes or monkeys. Her stance is interesting, but I prefer to accept Darwin's theory, despite the proof of it still being incomplete.

Not having studied the American political scene closely, I'll leave others to judge the accuracy of the main story, but the politics as described here is explosive stuff. Corruption in Alaska, tales of in-fighting within the Republican party and dirty tricks played by some Democrats - all rather sad, but I'll say straight away that similar things happen elsewhere in the world including Britain. Hey, the summer of 2009 was dominated by the expenses scandal at Westminster, while all British political parties of any significance have had their internal fights at one time or another, in between playing dirty tricks on each other. So in one form or another, most of the political stuff here doesn't surprise me, but some of it is shocking nevertheless.

An unconventional politician in many ways, Mrs Palin nevertheless appears to have brought about significant changes in a number of areas in her home state of Alaska, which may seem to many people (especially in my country) like a frozen wasteland, but which is rich in natural resources and occupies a vast land area, approximately equivalent to France, Spain, Italy and the UK combined. So being governor of Alaska is not equivalent to running a small local council in Britain even though it is sparsely populated (fewer people live there than in the county of Leicestershire in which I live). I suspect that the position of state governor may be equivalent to being leader of the Welsh assembly. The biggest Alaskan story by far in my adult lifetime was the 1989 Exxon Valdez disaster, which Mrs Palin covers briefly; she later had plenty of political fights with the oil companies (including BP as well as ExxonMobil and others) in her time as state governor.

Mrs Palin has drawn plenty of criticism from a variety of sources and uses the opportunity that this book affords to hit back at those critics, often explaining how things have been distorted by the media. Having had my own relatively minor experience of being in British national newspapers, I have sympathy with victims of media distortion, so I don't blame Mrs Palin for hitting back via this book, but I can see that others will react badly. At least my story was a one-day wonder with no lasting consequences, but things are different for those who go into politics, sport or showbiz.

Mrs Palin clearly isn't impressed by the way the Republican presidential campaign was handled, and clearly feels that she wasn't able to contribute effectively to the campaign, but the aftermath was even worse. While some Republicans were happy to cast her as the scapegoat, some Democrats launched a sustained campaign against her that exploited freedom of information laws. Ultimately, this created problems for the legislative process as well as personal difficulties for the Palin family, all described in detail, causing Mrs Palin to decide that she had to quit as governor with a year still to run, even though she was never found guilty of anything. As she acknowledges, that decision to quit may kill her political career, but Mrs Palin says that she did what she felt was right for Alaska. Inevitably in such situations, people will believe whatever they choose to.

I expect Mrs Palin will return to public life in some capacity eventually. That might be as a presidential candidate, but it might alternatively be as champion of a cause dear to her heart. Her vice-presidential campaign generated enormous hope among disabled people, while her love of Alaska makes her passionate about environmental issues. So there's two obvious issues, but I'm sure there are others.

Would I vote for Mrs Palin, given the chance? I don't know because I'd need to know more about issues not discussed in this book, but I'd like the option.

I can see why this book - and the author - are so controversial. Fans of Mrs Palin will love this book, while critics will be furious. Both are likely to have their opinions reinforced by reading this book. Coming from a position of ignorance, I'll just say that I found this book to be compulsive reading.

I'll admit to being a fan of Sarah Palin, but that does not compel me to write a glowing review of this book. So, here's a try at a quick review of the book without venting my personal politics.

Reading this book is like having Sarah Palin over for coffee and having her tell you stories from her life, starting with her childhood and through her resignation from the governorship of Alaska.

That might be a pleasant and fun experience, but with a book you can't ask follow-up questions and get more information about a subject that particularly interests you, and with a conversation you can't expect it to be tightly organized.

So, I found myself wanting some more detail about some parts of her life, like what it was like during the campaign (although I got a good idea of why McCain's campaign failed, and I think he deserved to.) And, I wanted a bit more organization. I wanted the material divided into smaller, more focused chapters with a tighter chronology. And I wanted an index, so I find that exact page where she wrote about holding still-warm moose eyeballs in her hands.

The most revealing chapter to me was at the end where she described the use of what I can best describe as "terrorism by lawsuit" to bankrupt her personally and keep her from doing her job as governor. I got the impression that she had been rendered incapable of doing her job as governor before she actually resigned, so what her resignation accomplished was to free her up to do what she thought was important, and it got the state of Alaska a functioning governor again. And finally, this chapter made me glad I bought this book if just a bit of my money went to pay off her legal bills.

Somehow I doubt this will be the last biography of Sarah Palin.

Review by a liberal

While I disagree with a lot of Palins Political beliefs I read this book with interest. Admittedly in the beginning I wasn't sure If I could make it through the book because of that but the way that she chronicled her life it really makes it an interesting read.

The book really covers the decisions she has made in her life both political and personal. The reader gets to know her as a person and a politician, her motivations in life.

She was fairly unknown outside of Alaska, thrust into the middle of a Presidential campaign that was already floundering. While she did breath some life into the McCain campaign it wasn't enough. She was put in a tough situation. Clearly she felt that she didn't receive the kind of support that she needed to be an effective Vice Presidential candidate and she discussed that in this book. We get to read about all of the things we suspected were going on in the McCain camp that she wasn't able to talk about during the race.

She sacrificed a lot and her family sacrificed a lot from the demands of campaign from criticism on her political beliefs, the innuendo that the only reason McCain selected her as a running mate is because she is attractive, to the personal attacks about her decision to have her challenged son. She was criticized a lot during the campaign of nearly everything. She talks about the criticisms in the book in detail. She loves her State and tried to make it a better place. She loved it enough to resign thinking that someone else could do a better job running it with out all of the distraction that was heaped upon her by media following her every move both on the local and national front.

Palin talks about life under the media microscope, how it effects to this day her and her family. While most of us including me can't imagine the pressure she was under during the campaign, she lays it out on paper.

This is Sarah Palin speaking her mind, She talks about everything While she didn't change my mind on the political issues that I disagree with her on. She did change my mind about the type of person she is. In her personal life. In writing this book she has subjected herself to more criticism. I applaud her for her strength and conviction. Regardless of your political beliefs you should read this book.

In an easy going and thoughtful style Palin, along with ghostwriter Lynn Vincent, covers her early years growing up in Alaska and her political career. She explains her political philosophy and the reasons she calls herself a 'commonsense conservative' clearly and with no apologies. This is a woman who knows who she is and why she thinks and believes the way she does. While she forcefully confronts her critics and discusses in bold detail her experiences during the Presidential campaign, she also graciously thanks those who helped her along the way. Despite it's more than 400 pages, it's also a quick read and makes for an interesting glimpse into the life of one of America's most divisive and intriguing political figures.

When she was first elected Gov., and especially when she seemed to be capable of pushback against the trans-national oil companies that practically run Alaska, Alaskans loved Sarah. She lost a lot of popularity during the Presidential election, and then of course when she prematurely resigned.

This book is more than anything a revisionist attempt to vent frustrations and to get even. Sarah herself has nothing of interest to say on the national stage, and this book accurately reflects that.