Memoir, redefined

Posted on | May 16, 2009 |

The British press, which often is well ahead of the curve on things like this, is agog that Sarah Palin’s memoir is due out next Spring, a stunning $7 million having been handed over by HarperCollins for the privilege. It will appear at roughly the same time as George W. Bush’s volume about his ‘decisions’. They’re not calling that one a memoir, although Laura Bush is also doing something that might be given that name.

Ms. Palin has freely admitted that she has a collaborator on her project and when interviewed about this project she kept saying that ‘we’ would show the world what it mean to come from Alaska. So this will be a committee effort.

Obviously I haven’t read Ms. Palin’s book yet, but I’m prepared to make a few observations even so.

While it is possible that Ms. Palin will have some interesting things to say we must also bear in mind that she is a politician, one who has her sights on a White House run very soon, and so we are unlikely to get anything that isn’t a carefully thought out self-justification. We already know that she is not truthful when it serves her needs. ‘The Bridge to Nowhere’ denials let us see that. And we already know that she has axes to grind, since she had to fight a lawsuit over her persecution of a state police official and those who did not do her (illegal) bidding. We are unlikely, therefore, to be presented with a thoughtful, truthful, or even a very wise piece of writing. It will not reach to the heart of the person to present us with life-enhancing insights about the majesty of being alive. No. This will be a political campaign piece every bit as carefully nuanced and as shamelessly biased as any piece of electioneering manipulation.

I’m sure it will be fascinating from the point of view of analyzing the routes to power available in this country. But let us not pretend that this is memoir. Let us not even try to pretend that it will be accurate.

If this is classed as ‘Memoir’ then perhaps James Frey was right. His highly fabricated A Million Little Pieces was a travesty of anything thoughtful or honest. It, too, made him millions. It also destroyed his name.

So my advice to Ms. Plain is, be careful what you call your book. It won’t be a memoir in the true sense, at all. And it may just come back to bite you.

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