Thanks to the modern miracle of free online audiobooks that can be checked out through various libraries, I was able to listen to All the King's Men while working. Warren's book, not to be confused with Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward's 1974 investigation into Watergate - All the President's Men, is the story of the political rise and fall of the fictional governor Willie Stark, loosely based on Huey Long, former governor and U.S. Senator from Louisiana.

Warren creates an interesting story that definitely brought to mind images of the rampant political corruption in Louisiana in the first half of the 1900s (and arguably even later) that I learned about in history class. He also show, I believe, his incredible literary skills by simply keeping his story straight. Warren makes extensive use of the "flashback" literary tool to the point that the reader tends to lose all sense of past and present. While I'm sure this is effective when reading the actual book, it caused me some problems as I listened. I often had trouble remembering where we were in time, especially after pausing to go home for the night.

For this reason I definitely recommend reading the actual printed book. Something else that helped me to follow along generally was the fact that I had watched the Academy award-winning movie adaptation recently. While the movie leaves out multiple story lines and deviates from the plot of the book, seeing the movie helped me to envision what was going on in the book and anticipate the time-jumping. Warren did claim that he did not intend for this book to be a political story, but I feel that it and the movie are both important commentaries on how power can corrupt. If you have a chance, read the book and/or watch the movie. ( )

I read this book four years ago, the summer before my senior year of high school, and I still think back on it from time to time, especially when driving long distances at night--the time when, as Warren's narrator claims, one is most alone, most truly unique (between the "You"s that you take on around other people). I don't remember the exact quote anymore, obviously, but it was quite powerful, and the meaning sticks with me all the same.

I'd say this holds true for the book as a whole, too. I took issue with some of the details--the prose dragged occasionally, some of the characters were flat, etc--but portions did affect me, and the themes were well presented.

I'd give this book 3/5 stars; it's not Warren's strongest, but you'll find yourself meditating on it for years to come. ( )

This is a classic of Southern American literature that can hold its head up proudly next to other works in the genre, Faulkner among them.

This 1947 Pulitzer Prize winner tells the tragic parallel tales of Wille Stark, a boy from the farm who rises to great political power, and Jack Burden, an aristocratic journalist who becomes his right-hand man. It is a moving and complex tale of love, corruption, loss and redemption caught up in family, history and the quest for power. Although it's a commitment to read a book this long and dense, it pays off with a great story, a brilliant subtext on humanity, a powerful peek into the excesses of political life, and a clear sense of what Southern literature can offer. Books like this are why I read: to understand just a little of what makes human beings tick. Marvelous. ( )

This was the real start of my Louisiana jag, and a good one. The story jumps all over the place as do the emotions, but this is a very good thing. I did end wanting more of Willie Stark. This line can explain what reading this book is like: “I felt that a story was over, that what had been begun a long time back had been played out, that the lemon had been squeezed dry. But if anything is certain it is that no story is ever over, for the story which we think is over is only a chapter in a story which will not be over, and it isn’t the game that is over, it is just an inning, and that game has a lot more than nine innings. When the game stops it will be called on account of darkness. But it is a long day.” ( )

The themes of “All the King’s Men” include the issues of idealism versus pragmatism, whether or not the ends can justify the means, and whether or not the truth really sets one free. The reader is forced to confront the notion that people are not all good or bad: “the human contraption is a very complicated contraption and they are not good or bad but are good and bad and the good comes out of the bad and the bad out of good.” In fact, Jack voices the notion that God would not have made man perfect, that man had to be made imperfect to set him aside from God. The character Willie Stark (based on the real-life politician Huey Long – see below) believes that “everyone had a secret” and understood that he could control people by knowing their secrets and using them to his advantage. Jack Burden always seeks the truth, and it usually causes more trouble than good (for example, the suicide of Judge Irwin). At the end of the book he finally let’s the truth pass when he doesn’t reveal to “Sugar boy” that “Tiny” Duffy was the one who provoked Adam Stanton to assassinate Willie Stark. Stark is powerful and ambitious whereas Burden is impotent in some ways and lacks ambition. This may be why Anne Stanton falls for Stark and never committed herself to Burden earlier in the story: “I lacked some essential confidence in the world and in myself. She came, as time passed, to suspect this fact about me.” Jack’s “burden” is to puzzle out the meaning of things. He finds that human beings are bound together through their imperfections and that life is a force that persists through adversity (the “Great Twitch”): “Life is but the dark heave of blood and the twitch of the nerve.”

Huey Long: The real-life Willie Stark

Huey P. Long was born in Winnfield, Louisiana in 1893. He dropped out of high school and worked as a door-to-door salesman before pursuing and obtaining a degree in law. He was elected to the Louisiana Railroad Commission (later called the Louisiana Public Service Commission) in 1918 and ran for governor in 1923 and 1927. He was elected and began serving as governor of Louisiana in 1928. He called himself the “Kingfish” after a popular radio character. Long pushed through several controversial pieces of legislation his first year in office. He expanded social services, built and improved roads, built hospitals and schools and transferred the tax burden to corporations and the wealthy. He soundly crushed individuals who opposed him by political, social, or financial means. An impeachment attempt was made in 1929 but he not only survived it but went on to be elected to the U.S. Senate in 1931. He initially supported Franklin D. Roosevelt for president in 1932 but broke with him in 1934 (the cause for the split was unclear) and planned to challenge Roosevelt for the Democratic nomination or run for president on a third party ticket. This move would have presented a difficulty for Roosevelt in that Long may have taken enough votes away from Roosevelt to allow a Republican candidate to be elected. In 1932, Long founded the “Share Our Wealth” National Society at the height of the depression. It was founded on the radical notion of redistributing the wealth of the nation by confiscating the fortunes of wealthy individuals. He was viewed by some as a champion of the people against special interests and reviled by others as a dangerous demagogue who used populist rhetoric to advance his own personal interests. On September 8, 1935, one of the things on the agenda for a special Sunday session of the legislature was to gerrymander the district of one of Long’s political enemies, Judge Benjamin Pavy. As Long walked through the Louisiana State House in Baton Rouge on that day, he was assassinated by a physician named Dr. Carl Weiss, Pavy’s son-in-law. Weiss was immediately shot and killed by Long’s bodyguards. After the shooting, Long said “I wonder why he shot me. I don’t know him.” Long died a few days later. This assassination is considered by some to be the second most controversial (after that of John F. Kennedy) in terms of unanswered questions. ( )