I do wonder how many of those one-star reviews actually read the book since my pre-ordered copy arrived yesterday. Anyway, it is excellent although it began a bit disappointingly. The first couple of chapters were not well written with florid prose, an excess of adjectives and I thought this was going to be heavy going. As I got into it further, either the writing got better or I got used to it. I think the writing got better and the supposed "ghost writer" may have been overdoing it. Later in the book, the style is much more like Sarah Palin talks and it reads, except for those first couple of chapters, like she wrote the whole thing.
Don't believe the reviews that say it is all negative complaining about the campaign. That is a lie and makes me wonder if they read it. She does name a few names toward the end but I would say the score settling takes about ten pages, if that. The rest is a charming and interesting biography. Her parents are very interesting people, willing to move to Skagway, Alaska in 1964, two months after the great earthquake that devastated the state. Her father was a high school teacher and coach and Alaska was paying large bonuses ($6,000 which was real money in 1964) for teachers. Her father is the same age I am so I can relate pretty well. Five years later, they moved to Anchorage and then eventually to Wasilla in the Mat-Su Valley north of Anchorage. She doesn't mention it but Wasilla has been proposed as the state capital for many years because of the inaccessibility of Juneau, which cannot be reached by land. In 1994, there was another ballot initiative to move the capitol to Wasilla but it was defeated by Fairbanks voters who are fierce rivals to Anchorage. Without understanding the bitter rivalries within Alaska residents, it is more difficult to appreciate the wildfires set off by her selection as the VP candidate. As long as she was anonymous on the national stage, she could work with Democrats in the state. Once she became a national figure, the underlying Alaskan jealousies were stirred up.
Her story continues and she met Todd when he moved to town to play basketball. Once again. she does not explain that high school basketball is a passion in Alaska with even small native villages in the far north vigorous participants in the leagues. During the winters, there is very little else to do in much of Alaska but attend high school basketball games. Todd sounds pretty impressive as a 16 year old with his own car and a truck to haul his snow machines. He is a year younger than she is but they have been inseparable (although often separated by thousands of miles for months at a time by school and work) since they met. There is one funny story about how they kept in touch by VHF radio when the telephone was not available until they realized that truckers passing through town, who also had VHF radios, could listen to their conversations.
She registered to vote as a Republican at 18. She does not mention the lies that were spread about her alleged connection with the Alaska Independent Party during the campaign. By the time they were in their early 20s, she was fishing with Todd during the season at Bristol Bay where his family has fished for generations. In the summer of 1988, they eloped, getting married at the courthouse with two residents of the old folks home across the street as witnesses. Track was born on April 20, 1989 so, if she was pregnant as many assume, it was pretty early. Summer in Alaska ends in August and April is eight months away. They lived with her sister, Heather, in a small apartment in Anchorage. There is another funny story about her labor with Track as they rushed her to the hospital and decided the sign "Deliveries" showed them the right entrance. They ended up in the warehouse.
There was a good deal of sneering at her college career but, after reading the book, I don't understand that. She got a scholarship by entering the local beauty contest. She attended the U of Hawaii for a year before deciding that was too exotic and transferring to U of Idaho. Hawaii is the most popular vacation site for Alaskans and Alaska Airlines has had daily flights from Anchorage for many years. It is the closest part of the Lower 48 (or 49 in that case) to Alaska. The U of Idaho is a great place with a wonderful student life, being isolated in rural country yet close to Washington State U which is only about 25 miles away across the state border. It is a sign of the distance between the Harvard "educated" elites and the rest of us.
Her history in Alaska politics and the presidential campaign are pretty well known by now. I won't summarize the book. I will say that there are 268 pages about her life before we get to Senator McCain. I knew about her before she was chosen and my personal preferences for a VP nominee were her and Meg Whitman, who is running for governor of California next year. I thought Ms Whitman might too much a novice at politics so Sarah was my personal favorite. I was a McCain supporter in 2000 against George Bush and still think he might have been a better president given our problems after 2001. I was not a supporter of McCain in the primaries in 2008 as I thought he was too old. His choice of Sarah Palin was inspired. I agree with her criticisms of his staff that are contained in the last 60 pages of the book and total less than 10 pages. I knew about most of them at the time. The Katie Couric interview was a disaster but she should have been allowed to do interviews with friendly venues first and I thought so a year ago. There is no criticism of McCain himself and she obviously still has the highest regard for him.
Her explanation of the resignation has been criticized, even by friendly sources, as "weak." I think it makes sense given that I know more about Alaska than some others. Once she was a national figure, the Democrats were under orders to make her life miserable. There are quite a few nutty Alaskans. When I got my Alaska medical license 15 years ago, I had to have a personal interview in Anchorage with a member of the state medical board. They know that their state is a magnet for nuts and kooks. I thought it a wise policy. She had burned her bridges with the Republicans by taking on Murkowski and the state party when she ran for governor. She has few allies in state politics.
I read the book in a day and a half. After the first 40 pages or so, it reads very well and is well done. The early heavy going seems artificial and I suspect the co-author but could be wrong. As I got into the book, the excessive adjectives and overwriting seemed to go away and I think it wasn't just me getting used to them. I am obviously a friendly reader and knew most of the story. The AP has already assigned 11 "fact checkers" to find flaws and they didn't come up with anything. It rings true, especially the early section about the local politics when she first was elected to the city council of Wasilla. I have been involved in local politics and understand exactly what she is saying. I have also been involved in state politics in California, although not as an office holder, and that section rings true. Michael Crichton once wrote about what he called the "Murray Gell-Mann Amnesia effect." In that concept, a knowledgeable person reads a newspaper article about a subject he knows well and realizes that it is totally erroneous. The reporter doesn't know what he is writing about. That knowledgeable person then turns to another section of the paper, about a subject that he knows little about, and assumes that story is correct. It is much the same with Sarah Palin. Those areas I know something about, confirm her version of events. Therefore, I am more inclined to accept her version of events I don't know much about. Let's call it the reverse Murray Gell-Mann Amnesia effect. Read the book.
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Four Stars
A beautiful spirit in a beautiful woman who knows whats good for The American People period !!
Top reviews from other countries
Julian Cruces
INTERESANTE EXPERIENCIA DE UNA CANDIDATA REPUBLICANA EN USA
Reviewed in Mexico on February 12, 2022
Lori A Vidal
Sarah is a breath of fresh air and common sense in our time of political correctness
Reviewed in Canada on August 30, 2018
StreetwiseTucsonSmart
Insightfully Rogue
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 16, 2013