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Title: All the King's Men (Harvest Book) by Robert Penn Warren, Joseph Blotner ISBN: 0-15-600480-1 Publisher: Harvest Books Pub. Date: September, 1996 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.49 (105 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: well worth the time it took me to read this book
Comment: All the King's Men was first published in 1946 to immense critical acclaim. The Washington Post made a comment about the novel and how if the idea of naming the Great American Novel is still being tossed around in 50 years (or, now), All the King's Men would certainly be a finalist. The novel won the highest literary prize in America, the Pulitzer Prize.
The novel is set in the 1930's and follows the political career of Willie Stark, a provincial man with ambition tempered by honesty and integrity. He begins with integrity, but we see how the power he gains corrupts the man he used to be. His fictional career mirrors (in some ways) the real life career of "Kingfish" Huey Long (Louisiana). The story is told through the eyes of Jack Burden, a reporter who eventually ends up working for Willie Stark. Burden tells his own story at the same time as he is revealing the life of Willie Stark. The reader only gets to see what Burden shows us. The novel is told with a first person narrative.
As would be expected with a Pulitzer Prize winning novel, the writing is quite exceptional. It was a little bit slow going at first, but about halfway through, i had a thought: "Damn, this is a good book."
Rating: 5
Summary: Mythic and Classical
Comment: Completely American- this book has stood the test of time. A gregarious, larger than life and country boy politician and his loyal assistant set about conquering Louisianna politics and do so, but not without costs. As the politician, based on Louisianna's legendary Huey Long, Governor Talos outsizes himself so that his original principles no longer fit. They sink, with his marriage his temperance and his honesty. Incremental excesses, adulteries and ruthlessness devour him and his assistant, our narrator whose interests became the same as the governors whom he followed unquestionably. Each generation of readers can find similarities in this very American story with its matching story of their age. Many of the people who reviewed the novel before me wrote during the Clinton sex scandal and, in their outrage and sense of being manipulated could draw similarities with Warren's book. I read the book during the year anniversary of 9/11 and found the mythic themes and Eastern philosophical overtones outstanding. Southern writers who incorporate the heat and the light into their passages inevitably recall the landscapes of the ancients. Myths caution us that when humans live fully as products of the light, they will ultimately suffer. That was certainly the case in this group of characters. The themes of young idealism, success, excess and loss of soul are never out of touch with modern life. We find the most revered 'gentlemen' in this case the white male protestant old guard (Judge Irwin and Dr. Stanton) felled by their attachment to their position and protection of their class. Their respective descent into murder and adultery were the consequences of their inability to integrate the dark impulses into their addiction to the perfect glow of the light. Similarly the characters who were gifted with great beauty and physical superiority, a hero- athlete and an Olympian beauty did each fail to do the work of mortals and were equally doomed. One, the Governor's son, to a drunken and debauched death scene and the other, the narrator's mother, to solitude and lost youth. The indignities and normal sufferings that their bodies protected were merely delayed and undisciplined, they ultimately had nothing to do but fall.
Politics is naturally a metaphor for so much of the conflict between good and evil in mankind. Jack, our narrator, was a traveller, also a lost child, one who attached himself to families in the absence of his own. He was not, as some have noted, a voice of honor or reason, he had an ambivalent moral code, but a developing one. He pursued his tasks with an indifference to cruelty, but not as a person who received pleasure in inflicting pain. He did retain loyalties, however, even toward his physically and emotionally repulsive father and the ancestors that propelled him to seek his legacy and ultimately his livelihood. Jack was a pilgrim and Governor Talos a sort of master, and in the end, the student outdistanced the teacher. All, at least in my own life space, quite mystical and mythic. It was also emotionally moving, not in a sentimental way, but in the way that we recognize so much of our own struggles and the fact that we are neither perfect nor complete, and unlikely to ever feel that sublime contentment.
But most significantly, this is a good story that 'sounds' Southern and conveys in the smell of stale beer and smoke, isolation and back road honkey tonks-a photographic and gritty realism that works. That it offers even more for those who care to reflect- is a bonus- but you don't have to care a bit about that stuff to enjoy.
Rating: 4
Summary: All the King's Men
Comment: Robert Penn Warren was one of the most outstanding writers of the twentieth century. He was the Poet Laureate of the United States and won two Pulitzer Prizes. After a brief stay in Italy Warren wrote a drama called Proud Flesh where he deals with many issues of political power and moral corruption for that power, also in this drama Warren tried to use the ideas of Louisiana politician Huey long. After not being satisfied with this piece of work he elaborate his drama into a novel called All the King's Men. All the King's Men is a book about the lives of southern governor Willie Stark and his right hand man Jack Burden as the live through the depression (1930's) in an unnamed southern state.
The book starts with Willie becoming a noticeable politician after he warns many people that a school building was going to collapse. No one listens until one day the building dose collapse killing three children. He then is chosen to run for governor but unknowns to him he is only a dummy candidate to break up the vote. After he learns this he tells the rural people that the government only thinks of them as "dummies" and he drops out. He eventually runs for governor and wins a few years later and wins. Jack becomes very interested in Willie after covering Willie when Jack was a reporter and eventually Jack becomes Willies right hand man. Along with being Willies right hand man Jack also uses his skills in research to dig up info on all of Willies enemies. Along with this the book also focuses on Willie becoming more corrupt when he has more power. We also see Jack's role as the moral compass in the story. Even as Willie becomes more and more corrupted jack keeps a steady path of working toward good for the poor. In addition we see how Jack works toward marrying his childhood sweetheart Anne. In the end Willie is murdered after all the political corruption gets the better of him and the doctor of a under funded hospital assassinates him. In a side note Huey Long was also assassinated but only after he went to the senate.
After reading both this book and many sites that offered commentaries. I have found that this was one of the most enjoyable books that I have ever read. Although as a critical reader I would not recommend this book to the average person. Personally I am very interested in the inner workings of politics, the West Wing is one of my favorite shows on television. But for people that are not as interested in politics this book may also be interesting because is dose deal a lot with personal relationship that everyone can relate to. For example everyone has someone in their life that they view as a moral compass.
In conclusion this was a great book that I would strongly recommend to people that like the workings of politics, but I would still recommend this book to everyone. It was a great read and interested me greatly.
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Title: All the King's Men (Cliffs Notes) by L. David Allen ISBN: 0822001462 Publisher: Cliffs Notes Pub. Date: 30 December, 1963 List Price(USD): $5.99 |
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Title: Absalom, Absalom! by William Faulkner ISBN: 0679732187 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 30 January, 1991 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
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Title: Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison ISBN: 0679732764 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 14 March, 1995 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
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Title: The Last Hurrah by Edwin O'Connor ISBN: 0316626597 Publisher: Little Brown & Co (Pap) Pub. Date: July, 1985 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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Title: Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway ISBN: 0684800713 Publisher: Scribner Pub. Date: 01 March, 1995 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
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