Actually, both. Whether it’s an attempt at equal time/equal play or simply smart marketing, there will be two Sarah Palin books released on Nov. 17. “Going Rogue: An American Life” is, of course, Palin’s own memoir. On that same day, however, a young publishing group with a liberal bent will be releasing “Going Rouge.” Both books have large and lovely portraits of Palin on the cover. But “Going Rouge,” to be published by OR Books as both an e-book and a trade paperback, is a collection of essays about Palin.
Guessing from both the background of OR Books (a group with a self-described “distinctive progressive edge”) and the backgrounds of the book’s editors (Nation magazine senior editors Richard Kim and Betsy Reed), “Going Rouge” will present Palin in a distinctly different light than will her own memoir. (The book’s contributors are to include several frequent Nation contributors, including Katrina vanden Heuvel, Patricia Williams, Jim Hightower, Joe Conason, and Katha Pollitt.)
What will they have to say about Palin? You’ll have to buy the book to find out. In the meantime, however, OR Books asks and answers its own question: Is their book “the most honest, revealing account of the Palin story to appear this fall? You betcha!”