NEW YORK AND LOS ANGELES — For Sarah Palin, whose electrifying debut on the national stage at last year's Republican National Convention was followed by perceived missteps and critical media coverage that left her feeling unappreciated and under attack, "Going Rogue: An American Life" is a shot at redemption as well as revenge.
Like just about everything she has done publicly since she was thrust into the national spotlight as Republican presidential candidate John McCain's running mate, Palin's entry into the literary world has been splashy and contentious.
Her three-week, 14-state tour, to be kicked off Monday by an appearance on "Oprah," is an opportunity to recapture the narrative of her own career, keep her political options open and make heaps of money in the process.
After suddenly resigning the governorship of Alaska this summer and lying low for a few months to write her memoir, she crashed back into the limelight this week with a book that topped bestseller lists well before its release on Tuesday.
On Thursday, the Associated Press said it had managed to purchase a copy, and reported that Palin's book, written with journalist Lynn Vincent, offers a folksy account of her life that reveals, among other things, the anguish she felt about her unwed teenage daughter's pregnancy and its public dissection.
But, said the AP, it is also a score-settling account.
Palin is angry about being depicted as a clotheshorse during the campaign, angry about getting stuck with $50,000 in legal fees related to the vetting process for vice president, angry about being "bottled up" from the press by McCain staffers and angry about what she sees as unsympathetic treatment by the media, as personified by CBS News anchor Katie Couric, whom she accused of badgering, condescension and bias.
Palin's performance in a series of interviews with Couric was widely panned, with even members of her own party characterizing her as unprepared and uninformed.
(McCain campaign attorney Trevor Potter said by e-mail that the campaign never billed Gov. Palin for costs incurred during the vetting process. Couric, through a spokesman, said her interviews "spoke for themselves.")
According to the AP account, Palin is also still upset about not being allowed to give a concession speech on election night.
Friday, true to pugnacious form -- remember when she likened hockey moms to pit bulls? -- Palin used her Facebook page to accuse the AP and other news outlets of "erroneously reporting the contents of the book."
