Wednesday, June 25, 2008

All the King's Men - Warren

At first glance this is a book about a corrupt politician who finally gets his just desserts. The pol (Willie Stark) must be based at least in part on Huey Long. He's a populist in it's purest form, promising the 'little people' that he'll battle those special interests that are keeping them down. He starts from the best of motives and soon is seduced by the power until it becomes it's own goal.
The book is told from the standpoint of Jack Burden, a son of privilege who became a newspaper man and then an assistant to Stark. He is a deeply cynical man who doesn't care that he's turned his back on his upbringing. His mother is on her own while his father has left to lead an almost hermitlike life. One of Burden's most important relationships with Judge Irwin, a very close friend of the family and something of a surrogate father.
You might remember that the movie came out a few years back and it was terrible. Now that I've read the book I can see where it went wrong. It followed too many sub-plots and meandered, failing to even close some of them. It probably made sense to those who were fans of the book.
How was the book itself? The story was interesting, if dense. The main character would talk through very long internal monologues, pages and pages of asides without any real dialogue. But the story does have a destination and it's a rewarding one.

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