An American Life” -- officially hits book stores today -- there’ll be a legion of titles waiting to cash in, from unauthorized biographies to critical essays to a tongue-in-cheek coloring book.That doesn’t even include the picture book “Terminatrix: The Sarah Palin Chronicles” -- which superimposes her head on paintings and famous photos -- and a boomlet of self-published books, including one that weirdly takes Henrik Ibsen’s play “Hedda Gabler” and merely substitutes Gabler for Palin and George Tesman for Todd Palin. This much is clear: Palin, whose wardrobe got her in trouble during the presidential campaign, has apparently sparked others to ride her memoir’s coattails, whether to assault, defend or just giggle.
“There is something about her which is very hard not to be drawn into,” says Colin Robinson, co-publisher at OR Books, which is putting out a collection of essays pulled together by two senior editors at The Nation magazine. “It might be a sort of adoration. Or it might be that one is appalled. But you can’t stop watching.” Robinson’s book doesn’t exactly hide its disdain for the former vice presidential candidate, who is pictured on the cover in front of a stormy sky. It’s called “Going Rouge: Sarah Palin, An American Nightmare.”
“Sarah Palin isn’t going away. That’s clear,” Robinson says. “She’s going to be an important force for some time to come in American politics and we think she’s a dangerous force. So we wanted to take the fight up against her.” Other serious studies out this month include “Sarah From Alaska: The Sudden Rise and Brutal Education of a New Conservative Superstar” by Scott Conroy and Shushannah Walshe, and “The Persecution of Sarah Palin: How the Elite Media Tried to Bring Down a Rising Star,” by Matthew Continetti, an associate editor at The Weekly Standard.
Other authors are going simply for laughs, such as “Going Rouge: The Sarah Palin Rogue Coloring and Activity Book” by Julie Sigwart and Micheal Stinson, which is filled with political cartoons drawn in the style of a coloring book. Readers can do a word search for Palin’s potential vice presidential picks -- can you find “Rush Limbaugh” and “Tina Fey”? -- or tackle a puzzle maze of oil pipelines.
“As a satirical vehicle, a coloring book is perfect,” says Stinson. “Both the right and the left can enjoy this book. Unlike The Nation, which just has a bunch of words, we have pictures.”
