By now everyone's heard that Sarah Palin's 400 page book Going Rogue: An American Life is coming out November 17. But as it turns out, scandalous political pundit Martin Eisenstadt has his own book about Sarah Palin coming out exactly two weeks earlier, it costs half the price, and it is reportedly at least twice as "rogue-y." Eisenstadt writes this on his blog today:
Am I shocked that Sarah Palin's book Going Rogue: An American Life is coming out November 17th? No. As I warned on July 4 of this year, it's no surprise that Palin is concerned about upcoming revelations about her in mine and other books that are coming out soon. ... But too bad for her, she missed it by two weeks.
You see, my book about Sarah Palin is coming out exactly two weeks before hers: on November 3, to be exact. And at less than half the price of her fancy hardcover edition! And here's the best part: I guarantee that my book will be at least twice as rogue-y as hers. My simple calculation puts that at a total of eight times the value of Gov. Palin's book. In this economic climate, that's truly a bargain.
Trust me, if you want unfettered stories about Sarah Palin's commanding grasp of geography, her $150,000 wardrobe and a prosaic description of the smooth, white small of her naked backside, then you're going to want to buy a copy of I Am Martin Eisenstadt: One Man's (Wildly Inappropriate) Adventures with the Last Republicans from Faber & Faber (Farrar, Straus, Giroux).
Now, to be clear, my book is not just about Sarah Palin. Far from it. As I say in my video promo for the book, it is a mystery, a thriller, a campaign tell-all that stretches from the dark oedipal days of Watergate, to the sexually charged days of Iran-Contra, to the sweaty campaign buses of Joe the Plumber and Meghan McCain. And did I mention the Somali pirates? When all's said and done, it'll be a hell of lot more fun to read than Sarah Palin's ill-timed book!
Now then, I'm one of the few journalists working today who's read the early galleys of Eisenstadt's book (let's just say I have a mole at Farrar, Straus, Giroux), and without giving anything away (yet), suffice it to say that it is as promised: a very funny history of Republican ineptitude over the last 40 years, and a bitter satire of media foibles along the way. Here is the video for his book that he mentioned:
[Full disclosure: There are those who would argue that I am actually one of the co-creators of "Martin Eisenstadt" and co-author of his upcoming book. Eisenstadt, though, has always disputed this point.]