It's outselling Dan Brown's latest blockbuster and is already the butt of a torrent of jokes about blank pages before the reading public has seen a word.
But anyone who hoped they had seen the last of Sarah Palin after she quit as Alaska's governor had better brace themselves for a new blast as her autobiography shoots to the top of the bestseller lists weeks before it is released.
The former vice-presidential candidate has already done very nicely out of it with a reported $7m (£4.4m) advance for the book, called Going Rogue: An American Life - mistakenly called Going Rouge by one newsreader. Whether readers will feel the 400-plus pages are worth it remains to be seen. Palin wrote the book in just four months and finished it so far ahead of schedule that the release date was brought forward from next spring to 17 November.
HarperCollins is to print 1.5m copies but that looks likely to be just a first run with pre-orders already putting Going Rogue at the top of the bestseller list on Amazon's American website. It has pushed Da Vinci Code author Dan Brown's latest novel from the top spot.
But at least one reader, Palin's former running mate, John McCain, will be waiting more with trepidation than excitement.
"The part I"m looking forward to most is the part where it energised our campaign and her selection put us ahead in the polls. The part I am looking forward to least is some of the disagreements that took place within the campaign," he told NBC.
Further confirmation that Palin is not Barack Obama, who writes his own books, comes with the news that she used a ghostwriter, who is arguably even more controversial than Palin herself.
HarperCollins describes the autobiography as "her words, her life, and it's all there in full and fascinating detail". Fascinating it may prove to be from a woman who has entranced and repelled Americans, and it's undoubtedly Palin's life. But "her words" is a more suspect claim.
Palin's ghostwriter, Lynn Vincent, has previously collaborated on the memoirs of a retired general, William Boykin, the former head of the US army's Special Forces Command. He described his mission in the military as to defeat Satan in order to save America as a Christian country.
Among the views Vincent helped Boykin to express was why, apparently, the whole world despises America: "We are hated because we are a nation of believers."
Then there was his view of fighting Somalis: "I knew that my God was bigger than [theirs]. I knew that my God was a real God and [theirs] was an idol."
There is likely to be more of this kind of thing in Palin's autobiography, none of which will upset her fans - one of whom recently paid $63,500 in an internet charity auction to have dinner with her. But there are already questions about whether a book that is expected to have a strong appeal to the Christian right with plenty of religion alongside a fiery diatribe against Obama's socialist conspiracy will do anything to advance Palin's thirst for a bigger political stage.
The chief strategist on John McCain's campaign, Steve Schmidt, this week thought not.
"I think that she has talents, but my honest view is that she would not be a winning [presidential] candidate for the Republican party in 2012, and in fact, were she to be the nominee, we would have a catastrophic election result," he said. "In the year since the election has ended, she has done nothing to expand her appeal beyond the base ... It's fairly inconceivable she could be elected."
News of the autobiography's release has already prompted a string of jokes by the late night talkshow hosts reminding the wider public about Palin's shortcomings.
"Critics say that it starts out okay, it gets really exciting and then confusing, and then the last 100 pages are blank," said comedian Jimmy Fallon.
莎拉·佩琳(Sarah Palin)自传现正超越丹·布朗(Dan Brown)的最新畅销书,然而在公众读到此书之前,它就因为其大量空白书页而屡屡成为笑柄。
莎拉·佩琳辞去阿拉斯加州长一职后,有些人希望这是她最后在公众面前露面。然而随佩林的自传尚未出版就在畅销书榜上独占鳌头,这些人要准备好迎接莎拉·佩琳的新一轮密集曝光。
就此书的销售而言,这位前副总统候选人已经表现得非常出色,据说这本书名为《单打独斗:一个美国人的生活》(Going Rogue: An American Life)——某个新闻播音员曾将书名误称为《涂脂抹粉》(Going Rouge)——预售额已高达七百万美元(440万英镑)。但读者是否觉得这本四百多页的书物有所值,这个问题的答案我们仍将拭目以待。佩林在短短四个月间就写完了这本书,比原计划大大提前,因而发行日期也从明年春天提前到今年的11月17日。
出版商哈珀柯林斯将印刷150万本,但预售书已将《单打独斗》推上了亚马逊美国网站畅销书榜首,迫使《达芬奇密码》作者丹·布朗的新作从榜首位置跌落。这样看来,这150万很可能只是首印。
但至少有一个读者——佩林的前竞选伙伴,约翰·麦凯恩——在等待本书期间将会惴惴不安而不是激动不已。
“我最期待是关于我们的竞选运动中最具活力的部分以及她的选择使我们在投票中领先的部分。而我最不感兴趣的则是关于我们在竞选运动中产生分歧的那部分,”他告诉NBC。
有消息称莎拉·佩琳用了一个比她自己更有争议的枪手代笔,这进一步使人确信,佩林与亲自写书的巴拉克·奥巴马大相径庭。
哈珀柯林斯这样描述这本自传“她的语言,她的生活,一切都在其中,细节引人入胜”。也许一个既令美国人着迷又令他们厌恶的女人其生活的确“引人入胜”,而且毋庸置疑,这确实是佩林的生活,但声称这是“她的语言”却令人生疑。
佩林的枪手,林·文森特(Lynn Vincent)之前曾协助一退役将军、前美国特种部队指挥官威廉·柏金(William Boykin)撰写回忆录。他将柏金在军队中的使命描述为“击败撒旦、拯救基督教国家美国”。
文森特帮助柏金表达的观点之一是,为什么整个世界都鄙视美国:“我们受到憎恨是因为我们是信徒之国。”
接下来是他关于索马里之战的观点:“我知道我的神灵[比他们的]更强大。我知道我的神灵是真正的神灵,而[他们的]不过是泥雕木偶。”
佩林的自传中很可能出现更多类似的言辞,然而佩林的粉丝不会对此失望——她的一个粉丝最近在网络慈善拍卖上支付了63500美元,以求与她共进晚餐。预期此书将通过大量宗教内容以及对奥巴马暗中密谋社会主义道路进行猛烈抨击来吸引基督教右派,但这样做能否对实现佩林获得更大的政治舞台的渴望有所助益仍然是个问题。
本周,约翰·麦凯恩竞选小组的首席策略专家史蒂夫·施密特(Steve Schmidt)认为答案是否定的。
“我认为她有天分,但说实话,2012年她不可能赢得共和党的总统候选人提名,事实上,如果她代表共和党竞选的话,我们将一败涂地,”他说。“本次大选结束后的一年里,她没有做任何事以扩大她原有的吸引力……很难想象她会当选。”
昨晚的脱口秀主持人已经拿自传出版的新闻大做文章,以此制造了大量笑料,提醒公众佩林的种种缺陷。
“评论家说这本书开始时尚可,然后令人激动不已,接下来却令人大惑不解,最后100页则是空白的,”喜剧演员杰米·法伦(Jimmy Fallon)这样说道。
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