The Rogue by Joe McGinnis

I think the author put too much about himself in the book. He writes about meeting people that he knew from a previous stay in Alaska. The friend he meets for dinner at the beginning of the book is friends with Sarah Palin’s parents. She brings him up to date on the gossip. When he was looking for a place to stay, the leasing agent told him that there was a house for rent next door to the Palins. Since he was writing about Sarah, I’m sure that was too good to pass up. Also the rent was better than an apartment he checked into. Sarah made a big deal about him living next door on Fox News saying that he could see in her daughter’s bedroom. He said that he would have to have binoculars to be able to see in her room, but he did not have them. He almost had to put himself into it to some extent because of the commotion made about him living next door. Mr. McGinnis interviewed as many people as he could that would talk to him. Some people wouldn’t talk to him because of fear of reprisal of some sort. At the time of the writing of the book Ms. Palin had already resigned as governor, so she had no real power. McGinnis shows Sarah Palin to be relentless from trying desperately to get her former brother-in-law fired from his state trooper job to moving up the political ladder. She fired the chief of the state police for not firing him when she was governor. She tried to do it when she was mayor, but she discovered that she didn’t have the power to do it. The Rogue is interesting, but it could have been written better if it were written in a more detached manner.