Sarah Palin and the Republican Literary Scene
Sarah Palin’s new book Going Rogue: An American Life, released on November 17th, is just one of the highlights of a literary season marked by riveting works from some of the country’s premier Republican authors. Still the Alaska politician’s tome stands out in a season which will also see the printing of James Baker’s long-awaited futuristic fantasy trilogy, Donald Rumsfeld’s translation of 17th century Japanese haikus and Alan Greenspan’s Mary Had a Diminutive, Quadrupedal, Ruminant Mammal and Other Nursery Rhymes.
Demonstrating the trademark urbanity and maturity that have encapsulated her young and vibrant writing career to this point, Palin delves deeply and agilely — with what one might describe as Qualyean verve mixed with Fitzwateresque nuance — into age-old and contemporary themes which have confronted and given pause to conservative-leaning writers for generations. Palin deftly uses the metaphor of the moose throughout the book to drive home her point, as evidenced here on page 123: “The plane approached steadily towards a meandering moose. I nodded to Todd to hand me my rifle. I shot that moose dead. We carved out its meat and had moose burgers for dinner.” Close followers of Palin’s writing will instantly recognize the significance of the moose as symbolizing the feebleness of various liberal issues that plague society – education, clean air, negotiation – and which must be eradicated henceforth.
Then again on page 238: “Todd and I were coming home in the van from a hockey game on a cold January night in Wasilla. We saw a moose meandering near our driveway. I nodded to Todd to hand me my rifle. I shot that moose dead. We carved out its meat and had moose burgers for dinner.” Once more, aficionados of the former governor and vice-presidential candidate’s oeuvre will notice instantly this Palinian literary device of using the moose to represent the myriad of menaces posed by the American left: religious enlightenment, habeas corpus, the right to see a doctor when ill.
All great works of Republican literature center around strong, stable family characters, the type which would never dream of soliciting gay sex at an airport men’s room, and Palin’s work is no exception. We see the solid, steady influences of the Palins who, in one scene, attend a religious ceremony where they are blessed by a witch hunter, who encourage one of their daughters, a young teenage mother, to separate from the baby’s father mere weeks after giving birth, and who show that the best way an elected official can lead by example is to quit by example – without providing any reason for his or her sudden departure from public life.
What makes the Palin book so remarkable for a great work of fiction is that the protagonist experiences no hubris. Rather the fortunes of the heroine (also named Sarah) continue to climb. From a humble upbringing in rural Alaska, we witness the central character, comely yet bookish – though we know not what she reads – rise in meteoric fashion from small-town beauty queen to nearly becoming the second most powerful person in the most powerful country in the world, all within the span of a half-dozen pages. Whereas such as scenario would have seemed implausible in the hands of an average scribe, Palin’s expert storytelling ability make the tale sound believable.
What next for Palin? Surely her readership (or “literary base” in the Republican publishing vernacular) will be clanging for more after this spellbinding work, desperate to know what will happen to the lead character. The story ends with a land called America, home of all that used to be noble, honest and right, besieged by hateful, heinous forces who are determined not to relinquish their grasp on power for at least another three years. Its people have been maliciously hypnotized by an audacious message of hope. When in fact, as Sarah and the silent majority which truly believe know, this message of hope is a false prophesy.
Will Sarah manage to convince the brainwashed masses back to believing in what is noble, honest and right and lead the forces of good against the evil liberal scourge which rules the land? It is a daunting task, an epic struggle to be sure. No other Republican fictional characters have been able to capture the imagination of such a wide sector of the American public as those in a Palin novel. If any contemporary conservative writer is up to the challenge, then it is Palin through her all-powerful, omniscient title character.
