"America By Heart" by Sarah Palin

Fun fact: The original headline on this review was "Palin's heart in right place; brain MIA."  

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A version of this review originally appeared in the December 2010 issue of the George C. Marshall high school newspaper Rank & File. 

America By Heart, Sarah Palin's memoir-cum-manifesto is wearying, to say the least. The first half of the book is a diatribe on the correctness of political conservatism, and the latter half is a torturous discussion of the power of prayer in the United States.

The conservative section is seeded with arguments on how the U.S. is "exceptional," while the power-of-prayer portion is laced with anti-abortion messages every other page. For better or for worse, Palin's voice comes across very strongly in her writing. It is difficult to focus on the content of a book when said content is mentally delivered in the grating voice of Sarah Palin.

On the other hand, Palin does express some ideas that are reasonable at their root. However, she generalizes enormously and applies her opinion to the U.S. as a whole. The very survey Palin cites to support her claim that the "influential academic and legal elite" are out of touch with prayer and by extension the people, states that more than 40 percent of Americans don't pray at all.

This trend stretches throughout the narrative. The book is essentially Palin presenting her own take on conservative ideology, and while many disagree with conservatism, it does have a certain amount of grounding in logic. This logic transfers to Palin's dialogue, but fails when she tries to stretch it further than it can reach.

Palin's disconnect between the perceived and actual severity of an issue affects both her social and political views in the book. She uses phrases such as "the left" and "the liberal media" like blunt instruments. In this sense, Palin's writing is couched in black and white. She by turns ignores the possibility that she could be incorrect and acknowledges issues that put both the Republicans and Democrats in the wrong. The middle ground, however, is rarely discussed.

But enough about political bias. Stripped of politicization, many of Palin's thoughts have merit. Should we respect our troops? Yes. Does the US have great potential for enacting good in the world? Yes. Does faith create morality? In most cases, it does not hurt.

Palin's opinions are polarizing, to say the least. Nevertheless, underneath all the controversy and idiocy there is some respectable content worthy of being known by heart.

That doesn't make it a good book, though.

1.85/5