'Going Rouge': A Sarah Palin parody book
What publishers of a book mimicking Palin's memoir hope to accomplish
Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin "can hunt, and even field-dress a moose," said Thom Geier in Entertainment Weekly, "but how will she take to poachers on her book sales?" On Nov. 17, the same day that Palin's memoir Going Rogue: An American Life hits bookstores, start-up publisher OR Books is releasing Going Rouge: An American Nightmare, a parody book consisting of essays about Palin compiled by editors of the "left-leaning" weekly The Nation. "Might some hockey-mom-loving conservatives be confused enough to pick up the wrong book? You betcha!" (Watch a Fox News warning about the parody book.)
Going Rouge “looks like a bad Mad Magazine takeoff of a book," said Ed Morrissey in Hot Air. It's pathetic that "after 150 years of publication, The Nation has to piggyback off of a Republican VP candidate to achieve relevance." Are the magazine's editors "so insecure about their product that they feel they can only sell it through deception?" Or maybe they're just trying "to make a little cash off of their bête noir, Sarah Palin."
Some critics of Going Rouge "may argue that the book is capitalizing on Sarah Palin's own memoirs," said Brian Haughey in Associated Content, "but Palin's own memoirs are a result of capitalizing on her own fame." Palin quit her job as Alaska's governor because she knew "there was more money to be had" in the private sector, "and she is certainly now on the campaign trail for high book sales," as her upcoming appearance on Oprah—a day before Going Rogue comes out—proves.
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