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. 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.
