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All the King's Men, by Robert Penn Warren
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Winner of the Pulitzer Prize, Robert Penn Warren’s tale of ambition and power set in the Depression–era South is widely considered the finest novel ever written about American politics.
All the King’s Men traces the rise and fall of demagogue Willie Stark, a fictional character loosely based on Governor Huey “Kingfish” Long of Louisiana. Stark begins his political career as an idealistic man of the people but soon becomes corrupted by success and caught between dreams of service and an insatiable lust for power, culminating in a novel that Sinclair Lewis pronounced, on the book’s release in 1946, “one of our few national galleries of character.”
- Sales Rank: #21479 in eBooks
- Published on: 1996-09-01
- Released on: 1996-09-01
- Format: Kindle eBook
Amazon.com Review
This landmark book is a loosely fictionalized account of Governor Huey Long of Louisiana, one of the nation's most astounding politicians. All the King's Men tells the story of Willie Stark, a southern-fried politician who builds support by appealing to the common man and playing dirty politics with the best of the back-room deal-makers. Though Stark quickly sheds his idealism, his right-hand man, Jack Burden -- who narrates the story -- retains it and proves to be a thorn in the new governor's side. Stark becomes a successful leader, but at a very high price, one that eventually costs him his life. The award-winning book is a play of politics, society and personal affairs, all wrapped in the cloak of history.
From Publishers Weekly
Nonfiction Reprints
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
This reconstituted edition of the 1947 Pulitzer Prize-winning dissection of Louisiana politics gets a serious makeover by scholar Polk, who rescues the cuts and alterations made by the original editors as well as returning protagonist Willie Stark to his original name, Willie Talos. There is also an appendix and editorial notes. Considering this title's importance in American letters and the quite reasonable price, libraries should invest in this edition.
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Most helpful customer reviews
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful.
"There is always something on everybody..."
By March boy
Warning: Major spoilers!
If you've only seen the 1949 film I beg you to read the book because while the film does an excellent job summarizing the basic plot, every book has more details than two hours could ever convey.
For one thing, the narrator Jack is given much more development (while in the movie he is merely an observer) and we really get to know the psychology of his character inside and out through a series of episodes in his life--his bromance with Adam, failure to consummate his love with his childhood sweetheart Anne, friendship with the elderly judge Irwin, failure of his marriage to Lois and the constrained relationship with his "father" the scholarly attorney. (If you've already read the book you'll know why I put quotations on the word "father.") That he slowly pushes them all away simply to 'belong' to a corrupt politician is absolutely heartbreaking--how he trades in the love of meaningful relationships for the love of power.
I won't give away too much of the plot here. I'll just state the basics of what I liked and didn't like.
What I liked:
Well, I can't say I 'liked' these parts but they were still 'good' in that they were relevant to the plot and helped shed some insight on the characters.
1. Willie Stark's sadomachistic relationship with his secretary Sadie Burke. Sadie is a tough, hardened woman beaten down by life and consumed with feelings of depression and low self esteem. The smallpox she had as a child spoiled her looks and she often laments how no man could ever love her. Then Willie gives her some attention and she feels wanted but he turns out to be a typical jerk who just uses her for some cheap thrills until someone more beautiful comes along--the ice skater, the senator's wife and finally Anne Stanton. Sadie should know Willie isn't worth casting her pearls to but she holds on to him with a fierce tiger like grip saying over and over again "Let him have his sluts but he'll always come back to me because I was the one who led him to the governor's seat! He can do without them but he CAN'T DO WITHOUT ME!!!" to convince herself that deep down he truly loves her. Unfortunately, her fantasy land from which she often retreats into is finally dashed to pieces and as the old saying goes "Hell knows no fury like a woman scorned;" the confession scene with her and Jack in the mental institution will tear your heart out.
2. Willie's favorite saying when he makes plans to blackmail an opponent. "There is ALWAYS SOMETHING. Man is conceived in sin and born in corruption and he passeth from the stench of the didie to the stench of the shroud." And also "I grew up with those Methodists long enough to know the human condition inside and out and I didn't learn it for nothing either!"
Throughout the book, it's obvious Willie has no conviction save what is expedient for himself but if he does have a religion he seems to fit the "Mr Brocklehurst/Jane Eyre" mold to a T--someone very much hung up on hell and damnation and the Old Testament smiting and not at all given to the love of Jesus as the scholarly attorney is.
Yes, of course there is always something. Of course man is conceived in sin and born in corruption but this SHOULD make him feel more kind and compassionate towards his fellow man because it means he has HIS OWN SHORTCOMINGS to be mindful of--rather than antagonize or take advantage of another person for his 'tragic flaw' just to get a benefit out of it. (Allen Drury's Advise and Consent follows a similar theme) If it's a sin, it's not Willie's sin. He has plenty of his own to worry about.
What I didn't like (primary reason for four stars):
1. Robert Penn Warren bogs the reader down with too many descriptive details down to the color of the Coca Cola in a glass or the dandruff in a person's hair and sometimes they get a bit repetitive and annoying. For instance how many times do we have to be reminded about that 'Plaster Paris Mask' face with the 'BB gun marks' which was Sadie's face or those disgusting sugar cubes covered in fuzz that Sugar Boy eats?
2. The final act lays on the tragedy too thick. I understand the importance of some of the catastrophes for Jack's character development (such as Irwin’s suicide) but it often feels like Warren is just piling on the misery simply for the sake of it--one disaster after another.
I thought it was extremely mean spirited of him to kill off Tom Stark by having him mowed down in the football field as if he couldn't figure out a proper way to tie up his story or was too lazy to develop it--would Tom stay a self serving hedonistic jerk or would he finally grow up and face up to his responsibilities by marrying the girl he impregnated out of wedlock and strive to conquer his alcoholism? (In the movie he's portrayed more sympathetically) Why did Sugar Boy have to die in a car accident? Why couldn't he just settle down to a quiet life like Sadie Burke did after her brief stay in the mental institution? What did he do for a living after he retired from being Willie's chauffeur?
Three deaths (Irwin, Adam and Willie) should have been enough.
3. (And I’ll give my sister credit for pointing this one out when I discussed it with her.)
The track the scholarly attorney writes on his deathbed is a real downer and sour note to end the book on.
“The creation of man whom God in his foreknowledge knew doomed to sin was the awful index of God’s omnipotence. For it would have been a thing of trifling and contemptible ease for Perfection to create mere perfection. To do so would, to speak truth, be not creation but extension. Separateness is the identity and the only way for God to create, truly create, man was to make him separate from God Himself and to be separate from God is to be sinful. The creation of evil is therefore the index of God’s glory and His power. That had to be so that the creation of good might be the index of man’s glory and power. But by God’s help. By His help and in His wisdom.”
Throughout the book Warren has exposed all his characters for their shameless acts and puts the responsibility entirely on themselves so when I read this part my first impression was “WHAT THE HECK?” Does the scholarly attorney think God DELIBERATELY CREATED EVIL to demonstrate his omnipotence? If so then WHY DOES HE WORSHIP HIM? In fact, WHY IS HE A CHRISTIAN IN THE FIRST PLACE???? Hasn’t he read the book of Genesis--how Adam and Eve were CREATED PERFECT until they rebelled against God? It just seemed out of place for a “bible-thumper” to say.
Then I thought maybe there was a double meaning to this--that he meant God could have created a perfect world with perfect people that always did whatever he said like robots with buttons to be pushed on at the bidding of the inventor--but without free will we would never know the difference between right and wrong because right and wrong would not even exist.
Still, I’m not sure and I tend to stick with my first impression.
I know, Warren was just trying to reconcile the concept of God and suffering but it comes across as too simple and dry-cut and paints God in an unflattering light--despite the scholarly attorney’s constant reverence of him.
I recommend this book even if you aren’t a particularly political person because there’s some serious potential for great discussion here.
21 of 21 people found the following review helpful.
The Burden of the Past
By G. Bestick
The release of the new movie (disappointing) drove me back to the book, which I probably read thirty years ago. The book was a revelation. It's astonishingly good - a great American novel - but not for the reasons I remembered. If asked, most people would say All the King's Men is about the rise and fall of Willie Stark, a country lawyer who becomes the near-dictatorial governor of a poor southern state. Willie's story is based fairly closely on the life of Huey Long, the populist governor of Louisiana during the Depression. Willie is certainly a central character in the story. In fact, his attempts to bring economic justice to the poor people of his state through the imperfect vehicle of a corrupt legislature have led many critics to call All the King's Men the best novel ever written about American politics.
But Willie's career is chronicled by Jack Burden, and ultimately this is not Willie's story, it's Jack's. Born into privilege, Jack rejects his upper-class background and goes to work for Willie because he believes Willie is trying to do good for the people who have been kept down by Jack's ancestors and childhood associates. Jack accepts that the means to Willie's ends aren't always pretty or pure. As Willie's right hand man, Jack spends a lot of time digging up the dirt that Willie uses to bury his political opponents. During the course of the novel, some of this dirt spatters on Jack in direct and very painful ways.
What make the novel astonishing are the workings of Jack's consciousness and the prose that Warren uses to describe that consciousness. Jack is a classic American type, the cynical idealist. Jack thinks he can remove himself from his own history, only to find himself lacking the optimism and conviction he needs to fully inhabit the present. The real struggle in the novel is not Willie's attempt to soar above gutter politics, but Jack's effort to know and accept his own heart.
Jack is both a romantic and a wise guy, and Warren's supple vernacular captures the full range of his expression, from soaring perorations on the moral confusion of Southern history to crude jibes at hack politicos. Jack's insights about the haphazard constructs we assemble into a self are forward looking for 1940s when this novel was written, and give this Depression era story a curiously postmodern feel. Beyond the tragic and almost gothic machinations of its plot, this novel reveals some fundamental truths about the American character. Americans are a strange blend of idealism and cynical opportunism. We're born to believe we can flee our past, right up to the point we run out of land and run out of excuses. It's only when Jack turns around and retraces his steps that he finds what he needs to go forward.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful.
Enjoyable reading despite numerous lengthy sentences often describing the weather ...
By Amazon Customer
Enjoyable reading despite numerous lengthy sentences often describing the weather or the roadscape. Too much focus on the narrator's own internal dialogues. A cast of stereotypical characters. I wished the limelight had been more directed on Willie's character and deeds of abuse of power.
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