The Reviews Are In for Palin's 'Going Rogue'

(Nov. 16) -- Advance reviews have already started to pop up. As Palin prepares to blitz the nation to promote the book -- from interviews with Oprah and Barbara Walters to a 14-state book tour -- reviewers are offering a variety of opinions on how the former governor did in her debut as an author.

Michiko Kakutani, the grand doyenne of letters at The New York Times, notes that Palin spends a sizable portion of the book attacking John McCain's advisers:

"The most sustained and vehement barbs in this book are directed not at Democrats or liberals or the news media, but at the McCain campaign. The very campaign that plucked her out of Alaska, anointed her the Republican vice-presidential nominee and made her one of the most talked about women on the planet -- someone who could command a reported $5 million advance for writing this book."

In The Wall Street Journal, reviewer Melanie Kirkpatrick writes:

Palin's "criticisms of the campaign's treatment of her appear prominently in 'Going Rogue.' But the book contains self-criticisms too, if not as many as there ought to be for a candidate who was ultimately responsible for her own uneven performance."

Kirkpatrick also has good things to say about the book:

"Through it all, Mrs. Palin emerges as a new style of feminist: a politician who took on the Ole Boy network and won; a wife with a supportive husband whose career takes second place to hers; a mother who, unlike working women of an earlier age, isn't shy about showcasing her family responsibilities."

Writing in The Los Angeles Times, Tim Rutten hones in on what he believes to be Palin's political motivation for writing the book:

"'Going Rogue' is so obviously a campaign biography that a reader comes away trying to figure out what he thinks of Palin's presidential chances rather than what he thinks of her."

The Associated Press, which obtained an advance copy of the book, scrutinized the work for its assertions of fact. They turned up a dozen instances in the book's pages where they believe Palin's claims don't square with the record.

"Sarah Palin's new book reprises familiar claims from the 2008 presidential campaign that haven't become any truer over time."

The AP also notes one striking omission from "Going Rogue":

"Sarah Palin's new memoir describes heart-wrenching anguish about her teen daughter's pregnancy playing out before a national audience. But the 413-page tome doesn't contain a single reference to the father of her grandson, soon-to-be Playgirl model Levi Johnston."

On her Facebook page, Palin has responded to the fact-checking efforts of the AP as "opposition research."

"Amazingly, but not surprisingly, the AP somehow nabbed a copy of the book before it was released. They're now erroneously reporting on the book's contents and are repeating many of the same things they spewed during the campaign and afterwards."

As more reviews come in, we'll update our piece.