All the King's Men
by Robert Penn Warren
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Book Summary Information
Author: Robert Penn WarrenEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 1996-09-01
ISBN: 0156004801
Number of pages: 672
Publisher: Mariner Books
Book Reviews of All the King's Men
Book Review: "This only affirms what we must affirm: that direction is all."
Summary: 5 Stars
I was soundly defeated by this book in my early 20s. Although I could appreciate the flashes of genius and the beautiful passages which populate the book, I got lost in the weeds of the characters and politics and eventually gave it up as hopeless.
I picked it up again this year after reading and enjoying some poetry by Warren. I had the idea that I might be better able to appreciate the book now that I was older. The idea was a good one, as it happens. Either my patience has increased, or I understand the characters better now, or something. In any case, the book really spoke to me this time around.
You can find a lot of information about the political side of the novel-- the comparisons between Willie Stark and Huey Long are many and well documented. I have to confess that I was more interested in the intersection between the personal and the political than in the probable historical parallels. There is something really nice about Willie Stark's fall from idealism as highlighted by Jack Burden's simultaneously cynical and romantic narration. Dressed up as a political novel, All The King's Men somehow manages to put the focus squarely on the people involved.
Warren is a poet writing prose. This is worth bearing in mind when you pick up the book. The digressions into the thought or the moment are many. Although generally very beautiful, it can often be quite tricky to follow the thread of the plot. If you bear in mind that the digressions are as important as the point, I believe that you will struggle with it a lot less. Nobody will ever accuse the novel of being terse. It is very big and often windy, in the best and grandest possible fashion.
I would recommend the book to nearly everybody. Do not let its label as a political novel put you off, imagining that it will be dry and boring. It is a lovely book-- one that I suspect that I will go back to several more times in this life.
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