1.0 out of 5 stars A Memoir No One Asked For, From a Senator Who Forgot What “Home” Even Means
Reviewed in the United States on July 2, 2025
Format: Hardcover
Reading Far From Home feels less like diving into the life of a stateswoman and more like being stranded in a tundra of mediocrity, political cowardice, and recycled platitudes. If Lisa Murkowski’s goal was to produce a book as forgettable as her Senate career, she’s succeeded with flying colors.
Murkowski opens her book with tales of Alaska — majestic landscapes, hardy people, and her “deep connection” to the land. One would think this might be a love letter to her state. Instead, it reads more like the passive-aggressive Yelp review of a failed guest at a wilderness Airbnb. She speaks of independence, but governs like a windsock in a snowstorm — always shifting, never standing.
The writing is wooden, uninspired, and oozes with the polished sterility of a D.C. PR intern trying to punch up a farewell letter no one will read. You’d expect insight into the inner workings of Congress, perhaps reflections on integrity or leadership. What you get instead is a lukewarm defense of being permanently noncommittal — a political Switzerland with none of the chocolate or precision.
Her attempts at “courageous centrism” are as hollow as her prose. Murkowski brands herself a maverick, but her book shows she’s more like the Senate’s beige wallpaper: technically present, occasionally noticed, but never essential. She pats herself on the back for being the last moderate Republican, all while playing both sides so expertly that you forget what her actual principles are — if any ever existed.
Even in recounting moments of national importance, her tone remains as bland and detached as her voting record. Roe v. Wade? Climate change? Jan. 6? Murkowski spins each moment into a PR-safe lullaby, carefully avoiding anything that might accidentally resemble conviction.
As for the title, Far From Home, it’s tragically accurate. Murkowski has been politically adrift for years — unmoored from her constituents, her party, and evidently, any literary talent. It’s less a memoir and more a 250-page justification for being a career placeholder.
In short: Far From Home is a tedious, self-congratulatory dirge from a politician who mistook indecision for leadership and a Word doc for a memoir. If you’re looking for political insight, moral courage, or literary skill — keep looking. Lisa Murkowski may have been born in Alaska, but based on this book, she left her soul somewhere inside the Beltway and never bothered to go back.
Avoid at all costs — unless you need a coaster for your lukewarm coffee.
My darling and I used to make a hobby of reading Amazon one-star reviews of popular bilge. This one is second only to the one-star reviews of "Fifty Shades of Grey." (Our favorite of which was headered "If crap had an a!!hole, this would be shooting out of it.")
We love reading bad or obviously sarcastic good reviews of terrible products on Amazon! One of my favorite pastimes. They will make you laugh so hard you’ll cry.
I must go look up the Fifty Shades one you mentioned. Sounds good!
My oldest got me started on them at least a decade ago or more. He’s even written a couple himself.
It all began with The Three Wolf Moon t-shirt….which led to the glorious How to Avoid Large Ships, which led to the Gallon of Milk….
My hubby works at an Amazon office and the head guy there gifted him a copy of a book that Amazon itself actually published, “Did You Read That Review?”
You have to hand it to Amazon for accepting and publishing all of those hilarious reviews of the products it is trying to sell. I write reviews of crappy stuff once in a while and to my surprise they publish them.
Ya know, Nana, I've figured since '15 that one of DJT's primary reasons for entering the Cthulhu-pit of politics was at least in part to normalize "being genuine again." Even as it has seemed to me he has cultivated an over-the-top New Yawker personality (just as he cultivated the Baller personality he used in the '80s). The man may "p!ss ice water" as Roy Cohn once said of him, but he also always had an incredibly thoughtful, intellligent, quiet side, judging from interviews in the '80s and '90s.
One of the reasons people hate him, I figure, is that he refuses wishy-washy presentation-of-self that most politicians adopt...then are suffocated by. What was it Shakespeare wrote in Sonnet 111: My nature is subdued to what it works in, like the dyer's hand.
Or that original Twilight Zone episode about the greedy people visiting their elderly relative on New Year's Eve to suck up to him, knowing he's dying and wanting to be named in his legacy. He has them all put masks on depicting his view of their personalities. The truth about them each comes out in conversation, and then when they unmask at midnight, their faces are frozen into the masks' features.
This is one of the dark magicks that the PR industry has laid on everyone and everything.
Very insightful comments. I agree that Trump, love him or hate him, is a genuine person. He’s like a lightening rod of real in a world of artificiality.
Dark magics describes the fakeness that overlays so much and so many.
Ah, I enjoyed that romp through flowery fields of derision. Excellent.
It appears amazon may be hiding that killer one-star book report: the hyperlink you provided got me a cute dog photo and nothing else; I searched for the book online and found 44 reviews, none of which was the masterpiece you quoted/posted.
No lie, Julie. Even if someone hogtied me to a chair and demanded I read it, I know I would resist. Charming how she elevates the wishy-washy people like Romney and Sinema.
As I read the subtitle to this newsletter and laughed out loud, I realized why I love Chris Bray, and sub stack in general.
I should say the writers I enjoy on sub stack.
Chris writes in the language I think. It is raw and irreverent, not polished for highfalutin publication.
Chris rights like we speak, in the real language of the 21st-century cynically awoken crowd. We haven’t given up hope yet, but our trust in our leadership class and our institutions are now lower than whale shit.
I always feel as if Chris and I are just bullshitting about life and current events from the back of a 2 1/2 truck on the way to the range.
Chris, first you venture into the very hostile and dangerous MacArthur Park, then you read the memoirs of Lisa Murkowski. What’s next? Jumping out of an airplane in a batwing suit?
I'd tell her to go play in traffic, but she would just end up straddling the middle divider and survive the experience. We officially have the worst people "leading" our country in the Senate. They are self-interested lying mid-wits at best, or absolute Bond villains at worst. At least The House is interesting when it's being stupid. I'm kind of all over with Fetterman though...I'll compromise: All Senators from here on out need to have provable brain damage, at least that way I will know they are accidentally telling the truth roughly half the time.
I admit that in half a century of practicing law I’ve never until now even heard of somebody who failed their bar exam four times in a row. I’d have changed my name and moved to Arkansas, but their exam is no piece of cake either. IIRC Hillary flunked that one so it must be brutal.
I’ll admit that while I’m stuck in your last piece , I think I can make them come together. Take Ms Murkowski with you next time …. to Mac Arthur partly , AT NIGHT, leave her in the middle ( she likes it there ), she can compromise, take votes, play both sides. I’ll be waiting for that report .
Salute for taking one for the team. Your take aways and humor are so much better than the cost of the book, the cost of a fifth (or two) needed to get through that kind of drivel and the cost of a ticket for an illegal outside fire as I burned it in the driveway so no one else would be harmed by it.
And lastly, we should all know by now that these "books", and the income they generate, supposedly written by our betters in DC, are simply a payoff for doing something no one else was slimy enough to do.
Yeah, consensus to maintain the failing status quo. Because you know, that’s where we can meet in the middle and feel like we’re accomplishing something together,
Damn, Chris! Good thing you took some time off so you could come back clear-headed with Lisa Murkowski on your mind…you’re way stronger than 98.8% of the rest of us…please tell me you found a clif notes version and didn’t read the whole thing…
Hitler wanted to get rid of 12 million Jews, and lots of other folks didn’t want to get rid of any. Ms Murkowski thinks getting rid of 6 million Jews is a reasonable compromise.
At great risk to your own wellbeing, you have fearlessly stepped into a zero energy space that is utterly devoid of quantum fluctuations. You should be more careful; there is a lot of it about.
With term limits, it becomes even more of an entrenched administrative state because party staff are waiting to initiate/haze newcomers who have no idea what the heck they are doing. Voting IS term limiting.
Flawless reader review at Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/customer-reviews/R2JSATI4SMN8CO/ref=cm_cr_dp_d_rvw_ttl?ie=UTF8&ASIN=0593728661
Customer Review
crg
1.0 out of 5 stars A Memoir No One Asked For, From a Senator Who Forgot What “Home” Even Means
Reviewed in the United States on July 2, 2025
Format: Hardcover
Reading Far From Home feels less like diving into the life of a stateswoman and more like being stranded in a tundra of mediocrity, political cowardice, and recycled platitudes. If Lisa Murkowski’s goal was to produce a book as forgettable as her Senate career, she’s succeeded with flying colors.
Murkowski opens her book with tales of Alaska — majestic landscapes, hardy people, and her “deep connection” to the land. One would think this might be a love letter to her state. Instead, it reads more like the passive-aggressive Yelp review of a failed guest at a wilderness Airbnb. She speaks of independence, but governs like a windsock in a snowstorm — always shifting, never standing.
The writing is wooden, uninspired, and oozes with the polished sterility of a D.C. PR intern trying to punch up a farewell letter no one will read. You’d expect insight into the inner workings of Congress, perhaps reflections on integrity or leadership. What you get instead is a lukewarm defense of being permanently noncommittal — a political Switzerland with none of the chocolate or precision.
Her attempts at “courageous centrism” are as hollow as her prose. Murkowski brands herself a maverick, but her book shows she’s more like the Senate’s beige wallpaper: technically present, occasionally noticed, but never essential. She pats herself on the back for being the last moderate Republican, all while playing both sides so expertly that you forget what her actual principles are — if any ever existed.
Even in recounting moments of national importance, her tone remains as bland and detached as her voting record. Roe v. Wade? Climate change? Jan. 6? Murkowski spins each moment into a PR-safe lullaby, carefully avoiding anything that might accidentally resemble conviction.
As for the title, Far From Home, it’s tragically accurate. Murkowski has been politically adrift for years — unmoored from her constituents, her party, and evidently, any literary talent. It’s less a memoir and more a 250-page justification for being a career placeholder.
In short: Far From Home is a tedious, self-congratulatory dirge from a politician who mistook indecision for leadership and a Word doc for a memoir. If you’re looking for political insight, moral courage, or literary skill — keep looking. Lisa Murkowski may have been born in Alaska, but based on this book, she left her soul somewhere inside the Beltway and never bothered to go back.
Avoid at all costs — unless you need a coaster for your lukewarm coffee.
"a political Switzerland with none of the chocolate or precision." Genius.
That review was priceless. I just read it out loud to a friend…I had to stop several times and catch my breath, I was laughing too hard.
When a review is more entertaining and better written than the book they’re writing it about, you know you failed bigly.
It’s often fascinating how some of the worst productions bring out the best reviews.
My darling and I used to make a hobby of reading Amazon one-star reviews of popular bilge. This one is second only to the one-star reviews of "Fifty Shades of Grey." (Our favorite of which was headered "If crap had an a!!hole, this would be shooting out of it.")
We love reading bad or obviously sarcastic good reviews of terrible products on Amazon! One of my favorite pastimes. They will make you laugh so hard you’ll cry.
I must go look up the Fifty Shades one you mentioned. Sounds good!
My oldest got me started on them at least a decade ago or more. He’s even written a couple himself.
It all began with The Three Wolf Moon t-shirt….which led to the glorious How to Avoid Large Ships, which led to the Gallon of Milk….
My hubby works at an Amazon office and the head guy there gifted him a copy of a book that Amazon itself actually published, “Did You Read That Review?”
I’m going through it again right now. Good times.
We always assumed that Amazon figured out this Engagement Formula a long time ago. I never saw that book, but thanks for the pointer, Nan.
My pleasure.
You have to hand it to Amazon for accepting and publishing all of those hilarious reviews of the products it is trying to sell. I write reviews of crappy stuff once in a while and to my surprise they publish them.
Indeed. Credit where credit is due.
No one cried out Nepo Baby, when her dad appointed her to the Senate?
Many, many cries but no one did anything about it. Or even tried to do something about it. Her father behaved shamelessly.
I like your review more. But his is good too.
Just imagine the spawn of Murkowski and Schumer! A “compromise” that could be aborted on Youtube in the 9th month as a “sacrifice” to the nation…
> imagine the spawn of Murkowski and Schumer
Howbout a cold grey veganburger with a cold taupe slice of nondairy cheese on an obviously cold grill on a balcony of a chic Brooklyn apartment???
This article and the Amazon review gave me a laughing paroxysm I didn’t need at 4:30 a.m.
Seriously, every time I have come back to this article throughout the day, it has made me laugh out loud
Here lies Lisa Murkowski, "Failed Guest at a Wilderness AirBnb"
Between this and your piece I can almost feel it's OK to surrender my allergy to Hopium for a moment.
> stranded in a tundra of mediocrity
> windsock in a snowstorm
> a lukewarm defense of being permanently noncommittal
> a political Switzerland with none of the chocolate or precision.
Say what you will about our horrible age...but it is honing the minds and souls of some as nothing else can or could.
Scroll down here for the famous Mean Girl In The Hall photo.
https://mustreadalaska.com/murkowski-eulogy-of-feinstein-shows-how-clubby-washington-really-is/
That picture said more about the true nature of their “relationship” than all of Murkowski’s eulogy.
Are these people even capable of ever being genuine again?
Purely rhetorical question.
Ya know, Nana, I've figured since '15 that one of DJT's primary reasons for entering the Cthulhu-pit of politics was at least in part to normalize "being genuine again." Even as it has seemed to me he has cultivated an over-the-top New Yawker personality (just as he cultivated the Baller personality he used in the '80s). The man may "p!ss ice water" as Roy Cohn once said of him, but he also always had an incredibly thoughtful, intellligent, quiet side, judging from interviews in the '80s and '90s.
One of the reasons people hate him, I figure, is that he refuses wishy-washy presentation-of-self that most politicians adopt...then are suffocated by. What was it Shakespeare wrote in Sonnet 111: My nature is subdued to what it works in, like the dyer's hand.
Or that original Twilight Zone episode about the greedy people visiting their elderly relative on New Year's Eve to suck up to him, knowing he's dying and wanting to be named in his legacy. He has them all put masks on depicting his view of their personalities. The truth about them each comes out in conversation, and then when they unmask at midnight, their faces are frozen into the masks' features.
This is one of the dark magicks that the PR industry has laid on everyone and everything.
Very insightful comments. I agree that Trump, love him or hate him, is a genuine person. He’s like a lightening rod of real in a world of artificiality.
Dark magics describes the fakeness that overlays so much and so many.
Being a charitable person, I like to believe she reached mid-30's, having spent all of her true self on the mattress.
Ah, I enjoyed that romp through flowery fields of derision. Excellent.
It appears amazon may be hiding that killer one-star book report: the hyperlink you provided got me a cute dog photo and nothing else; I searched for the book online and found 44 reviews, none of which was the masterpiece you quoted/posted.
Some great turns of phrase here. Thanks!!
Yesterday we addressed gaslighting and today we see a 250 page example of that very technique. Chris you’re on a roll here.
Thank you for reading so I don’t have to
No lie, Julie. Even if someone hogtied me to a chair and demanded I read it, I know I would resist. Charming how she elevates the wishy-washy people like Romney and Sinema.
The ending line about Voyager was absolutely devastating! I have got to use that one day. A true mic drop.
Yes, but in the 5th grade, Voyager was sent to explore Ur-anus.
My wife and kids laugh at me but I still laugh at this kind of humor!
As I read the subtitle to this newsletter and laughed out loud, I realized why I love Chris Bray, and sub stack in general.
I should say the writers I enjoy on sub stack.
Chris writes in the language I think. It is raw and irreverent, not polished for highfalutin publication.
Chris rights like we speak, in the real language of the 21st-century cynically awoken crowd. We haven’t given up hope yet, but our trust in our leadership class and our institutions are now lower than whale shit.
I always feel as if Chris and I are just bullshitting about life and current events from the back of a 2 1/2 truck on the way to the range.
bsn
So true!
I have enjoyed many of your articles, however, this work is far and away one of your best. You are a treasure!
I am so glad I found this gent at Substack
'a dry pot of paste'
Oh, Chris, how do you spin both accuracy and humor with 5 simple words?
You always give me a good chuckle!
Chris, first you venture into the very hostile and dangerous MacArthur Park, then you read the memoirs of Lisa Murkowski. What’s next? Jumping out of an airplane in a batwing suit?
I'd tell her to go play in traffic, but she would just end up straddling the middle divider and survive the experience. We officially have the worst people "leading" our country in the Senate. They are self-interested lying mid-wits at best, or absolute Bond villains at worst. At least The House is interesting when it's being stupid. I'm kind of all over with Fetterman though...I'll compromise: All Senators from here on out need to have provable brain damage, at least that way I will know they are accidentally telling the truth roughly half the time.
Fetterman has been a pleasant suprise --- to us and himself.
Not really .... it's one thing to speak out against the stupidity of the Democrat party .... but he votes with them 100% of the time. Useless!
"Hi, goodnight everybody!!"
"The Eagles are so much better ...than the Eagles!”
I'm not even mad...I'm kind of impressed.
> Bond villains
More like Dick Tracy or Gotham City characters, Just.
The woman is barely a midwit. She finally passed the bar on her fifth try. Jerk.
I admit that in half a century of practicing law I’ve never until now even heard of somebody who failed their bar exam four times in a row. I’d have changed my name and moved to Arkansas, but their exam is no piece of cake either. IIRC Hillary flunked that one so it must be brutal.
And she always has the look of a deer in headlights. 👀
On the cover of her "book," she looks more like a snapping turtle. So in this case, you can judge a book by the cover--they both suck.
I had a friend who passed the bar on his 3rd try. He was no legal genius either.
I’ll admit that while I’m stuck in your last piece , I think I can make them come together. Take Ms Murkowski with you next time …. to Mac Arthur partly , AT NIGHT, leave her in the middle ( she likes it there ), she can compromise, take votes, play both sides. I’ll be waiting for that report .
She would lead people to consensus. It's what she does.
Concensus, also known as mediocrity.
Salute for taking one for the team. Your take aways and humor are so much better than the cost of the book, the cost of a fifth (or two) needed to get through that kind of drivel and the cost of a ticket for an illegal outside fire as I burned it in the driveway so no one else would be harmed by it.
And lastly, we should all know by now that these "books", and the income they generate, supposedly written by our betters in DC, are simply a payoff for doing something no one else was slimy enough to do.
Yeah, consensus to maintain the failing status quo. Because you know, that’s where we can meet in the middle and feel like we’re accomplishing something together,
So everyone would agree that there is at least one needle and one pile of human crap ? Even Karen Bass. ? Wow !!!! She is truly amazing.
Damn, Chris! Good thing you took some time off so you could come back clear-headed with Lisa Murkowski on your mind…you’re way stronger than 98.8% of the rest of us…please tell me you found a clif notes version and didn’t read the whole thing…
There was skimming, or I would have gone into a coma.
Lemme see if I have this right…
Hitler wanted to get rid of 12 million Jews, and lots of other folks didn’t want to get rid of any. Ms Murkowski thinks getting rid of 6 million Jews is a reasonable compromise.
Is that about it?
She has that Di Fi vibe. Lol.
At great risk to your own wellbeing, you have fearlessly stepped into a zero energy space that is utterly devoid of quantum fluctuations. You should be more careful; there is a lot of it about.
Another reason we need term limits.
Term limits are always about other people's choices - because most people are happy with who they vote for.
With term limits, it becomes even more of an entrenched administrative state because party staff are waiting to initiate/haze newcomers who have no idea what the heck they are doing. Voting IS term limiting.
🙌