Publisher of "Going Rouge" to Publish First Book on May Gaza Flotilla

OR Books, which published Going Rouge, the excellent 2009 compilation of essays on aspects of Sarah Palin's political career from a liberal/progressive perspective, announced late last week that they intend to publish a compilation on the May Gaza Flotilla. The New York Times' Julie Bostman writes:

The publisher of “Going Rouge,” a Sarah Palin parody book, is turning to Israel’s recent raid on a flotilla of aid ships bound for Gaza as its next subject. The publisher, OR Books, specializes in books that are based on current events and rushed to publication quickly. Paperback and digital copies of the new book, “Murder on the Mavi Marmara,” are expected to be available on July 28. It will be edited by Moustafa Bayoumi, a professor of English at Brooklyn College and the author of “How Does It Feel to Be a Problem?,” and contain a retelling of the attack by eyewitnesses, and analysis of the blockade and the conflict in the region.

First off, the book, Going Rouge was not a "parody." Its title mocked that of Palin's ghost-written memoir, which probably came closer to something one might describe as "parody." Though dozens of critics have come forward to expose the lies, vanity and hubris of Palin's book, the collection of essays in Going Rouge has stood up rather well to what criticism there has been.

Second, Going Rouge's collection of essays contained a sample of the fine investigative work on Palin by Alaskans, most notably Jeanne Devon from The Mudflats, Elston Lausen, and Shannyn Moore.

OR's Going Rouge was reviewed by some of the progressive Alaskan bloggers, as had been Going Rogue. I doubt Murder on the MV Marmara will get anything approximating that kind of attention from the Alaska blogosphere. Maybe if we could get Levi to go on the next flotilla, there'd be more attention?

Another recent publication by OR was Norman Finkelstein's latest book, This Time We Went Too Far, about Operation Cast Lead, the Israeli massacre in Gaza in the weeks before the seating of the Obama administration.