He makes a Deliverance reference, points out that “the raven is a trickster in Native Alaskan mythology” and refers to Kodiak — you can almost see the squint of nostalgia — “that island-world southwest of the Kenai Peninsula.” Bull moose burgers are “juicy with a tangy hint of game.” The word “gyre” is deployed.

Much of the “revelations” are trivial, private, or both. Some of them represent things we’d legitimately like to know about a public figure — especially one contemplating a run for the presidency. If Levi’s tells it true, then Sarah Palin — and indeed, her family — are a wholly unlikeable, irresponsible, and even malevolent lot. But of course the most salacious stuff in the book is Levi’s word versus Bristol’s and Sarah’s, so we have no idea how much is fabricated, how much is exaggerated, how much is sexed up.

Johnston’s claims deserve special scrutiny in light of the turn the “memoir” takes in the latter third — when he accepts representation from a burly lawyer and an even burlier bodyguard/manager, and admits his intent to “go for it while it lasted” — “it” being opportunities to cash-in on his Palin relationship and new-found infamy. Even his own mother, Levi confesses, warned him he was “a pawn” and that “the press conferences and these appearances were dumb publicity stunts and made [him] look bad.” (But perhaps the thing that impeaches his credibility most is his claim that “comedian” Kathy Griffin — with whom Levi shared a stunt date — was “hands down the funniest person” he’d ever spent time with.)

He also says of spending an Alaska night stranded — wet and hypothermic — ten miles from a hunting camp was “as scared as I’ve ever been, including when years later, Sarah would come after me.”

The view of the Palins’ marriage as cold (Todd spent nights on the couch), and of Palins’ motherhood as disinterested. “Todd supported Sarah” in her governor’s run, “although he believed that Alaska should secede from the Union, and he didn’t see much use for government.”

“The word around the streets of Wasilla–and there are only a few–was that he was kicked off the Michigan team and was forced to enlist in the military.” By whom?

Bathing together.

“The raven is a trickster in Native Alaskan mythology.”

“It was Bristol, the housekeeper and nanny, who gave Todd and especially Sarah the freedom to do whatever the hell they wanted, as their oldest daughter took on what should have been their responsibilities.”

“I never — and I mean never — saw Sarah and Todd touch or kiss, other than for a photo op.”

Sully bait: “Wow, I said. Your mom sure doesn’t look pregnant. When I think back on it, maybe she did, a little. She had started putting around her neck this scarf-y shit that hung down in front of her. She usually wore clothes that showed what she had. She was dressing a little different, with these looser outfits. When I’d told her how nie she looked, she had thrown her arms around me. She definitely did a good job of hiding her baby bump.”

“The Palin kids call their parents Todd and Sarah when things are tense.”

On announcing the pregnancy: “[Sarah] was staring so hard that I felt paralyzed. It was like getting too close to a bear. I had heard that Sarah Baracuda had a killer streak. Until that moment though, I never knew what people had been talking about. Sarah kept a gun under her bed, but she had no idea how to load it, much less shoot it. She once pulled it out, shook some bullets out of their box, and asked me to show her what to do. At this moment, I was happy I had opted out.”

Sarah only mentioned marriage once, “until, that is, the McCain team would make it an issue.”

On Sarah offering to adopt Bristol and Levi’s unborn baby: “It was ironic that Sarah offered to be a mother to another child considering that she basically ignored the ones she already had.”

“Sarah told the world that her being chosen [for vice president] was God’s plan. It would be the first time I had ever heard her mention the fella.”

“The National Republican Committee”

Sarah had made the decision to announce that Levi and Bristol were engaged — even though they weren’t.

“We watched her on the stump with Trig, her accessory. It made my stomach turn to see him displayed like a designer bag, then passed off to the nanny. I also was sick in my gut when I heard the media report that people were saying–again–Trig wasn’t Sarah’s baby. Then I heard Sarah doing the same thing to Obama, insisting he wasn’t born in Hawaii. The next time I heard her ranting on the Trig truthers, I pointed out that she was doing the same sh*t that made her so angry. I’ve seen Sarah livid, but that was the first time she looked at me that way.”

On Sarah as “stupid-smart”: “She did know how to use fibbing to change the story, to turn her, the aggressor, into the victim. She was the one to feel sorry for, then–smack! She took her shot. . . . She was stupid-smart. It fooled a lot of people.”

During the late stages of the race, Willow Palin was “going through a wild teenager phase. . . Drinking, partying, smoking weed.”

Levi saw that Obama was “presidential material” and “knew Sarah wasn’t.” Even so, Levi voted McCain/Palin even, but Bristol Palin “had never gotten around to registering” to vote, and so “never cast a ballot for her mom.”

-”I had asked her, What does a vice president do exactly? Take over — she had smiled — when the president dies.”

-While in labor, Bristol Palin “wen after her mom, verbally and then physically. Sarah ducked.”

-”I do not, she announced, want to be called Grandma. Tripp can call me Mommy Sarah.”

-Once, when Bristol held up Trig for Sarah to take: “Nah, Sarah said, kidding around. I don’t want the retarded one,” before picking up Bristol and Levi’s son Tripp, instead. Later, Johnston repeats the claim that Sarah referred to Trig as “her little retard” “more than once.” Though he does add that Palin was “joking around” and didn’t mean anything “in a cruel way.”

-Bristol had liposuction to have “her double chin reduced” and later had breast reduction.

-”Bristol had told me her mom wasn’t married when she got pregnant with Track, so what was the big deal?” [Is this news?]

-On hearing that Palin had resigned the governorship: “I hate this job, she used to say. I could be making money instead.”