All the King's Men

by Robert Penn Warren

book data

2805 ratings, 4.16 average rating, 365 reviews (more data...)

rating	frequency	%
5		44%
4		34%
3		15%
2		4%
1		1%

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published

September 5th 2006 (first published 1946) by Harvest Books

binding

Paperback, 672 pages

literary awards

Pulitzer Prize for Fiction (1947)

isbn

0156031043 (isbn13: 9780156031042)

description

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 ...more

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Andrew added it (review of isbn 0156004801)

09/02/07

Read in August, 2007

All the King’s Men is often promoted as a novel about politics, occasionally even the quintessential novel of American politics. While I did enjoy the portrait of Willie Stark as an archetype political boss, more interesting, to me, is the struggle of the narrator, Jack Burden, to overcome his nihilistic doubts in the face of a world governed by power. Jack claims to overcome his nihilism (“the Great Twitch”) by coming to an understanding of the morality of his own life (the personal an...more All the King’s Men is often promoted as a novel about politics, occasionally even the quintessential novel of American politics. While I did enjoy the portrait of Willie Stark as an archetype political boss, more interesting, to me, is the struggle of the narrator, Jack Burden, to overcome his nihilistic doubts in the face of a world governed by power. Jack claims to overcome his nihilism (“the Great Twitch”) by coming to an understanding of the morality of his own life (the personal and inter-personal) in relation to the ethical valuations of history (on the stage of the world).

So I read the larger narrative of the book in the light of Jack’s search for meaning, rather than seeing Jack as merely a narrator to the story of Willie Stark. From this perspective I think All the King’s Men tells a compelling story of Stark as a politician who, despite by all outward appearances of being driven merely by a quest for power, can in fact believe in the righteousness of his actions. He accomplishes this through an elaborate scheme of means-end reasoning and a vision of purpose that captivates or even short-circuits his own moral calculus. Willie Stark constructs a narrative of meaning through his campaign for a hospital that will serve all people, regardless of income, and is not mired in the exigencies of political reality that becomes for him a trump card in any consideration of the morality of his actions.

The ethically pious and occasionally self-righteous Doctor Adam Stanton serves as a foil to Stark, with their lives ultimately meeting in a tragic end as though destined by their inability to grasp the ethical possibilities of their world that the narrator, Jack Burden, eventually realizes. Adam’s attempt to live ethically through nonparticipation with evil and political power is sacrificed with the realization of his father’s ethical shortcomings; he then steps into the world of power by agreeing to oversee the construction of Willie Stark’s hospital (creating odd parallel between the two in that the hospital serves for both of them as the symbolic touchstone for an ethical life). Yet this critical step, away from a sanctified idealism into the practical world of compromise leads eventually to his tragic confrontation with Willie Stark. In the end, his defining action is not aimed at any practical end but is rather either an emotionally-driven strike against the objectification of his own (and his sister’s) moral compromise. The reader is left to ponder whether this outcome is this simply the natural result of his step away from a “kingdom of ends” in agreeing to join Stark’s hospital or a product of his inability to cope with the fallen nature of humanity.

That’s what I got out of it anyway. For a more critical view highlighting literary shortcomings and racial and gender issues, read “All the King’s Men—A Case of Misreading?” by Joyce Carol Oats in the New York Times Book Review.
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Brinda rated it:

(review of isbn 0156004801)

06/22/08

Read in June, 2008

This book was unlike anything I have ever read before and I doubt I will read many of its caliber ever again. It is an epic, biblical, human yet quintessentially American saga, disguised in the bizarre circumstances surrounding a particular brand of local Southern politics. In Willie Stark, Penn Warren has created the ultimate American antihero -- describing to the tee the populist circus the campaign trail becomes, with Willie playing off the parasitic needs of potential voters and staffers and...more

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Heather rated it:

(review of isbn 0156004801)

05/01/08

bookshelves: literary-novels

Has a copy to sell/swap — Read in May, 2008

Compelling, overstuffed, overplotted, sexist, labyrinthine, poetic, atmospheric. To me this book's status as The Great American Political Novel seems like a terrific bitter joke, because the author's vision of "politics" is comprised entirely of blackmail, physical intimidation, pork-barreling, rabble-rousing, nepotism, bribery, rigged elections, and hilariously contrived "family values" photo shoots. (I love the scene where a photographer and two aides attempt to wrestle a ...more Compelling, overstuffed, overplotted, sexist, labyrinthine, poetic, atmospheric. To me this book's status as The Great American Political Novel seems like a terrific bitter joke, because the author's vision of "politics" is comprised entirely of blackmail, physical intimidation, pork-barreling, rabble-rousing, nepotism, bribery, rigged elections, and hilariously contrived "family values" photo shoots. (I love the scene where a photographer and two aides attempt to wrestle a comatose, foul-smelling dog into position for a shot of the dog leaping up to greet its beloved master, the Governor!)

I would place this novel in the Philosophical Potboiler genre (together with "East of Eden" and "Sophie's Choice"). There are lengthy meditations on the Human Condition, the nature of History, the problem of Free Will, the Original Sin of slavery as a hereditary taint corrupting the southern upper class, etc... woven among scenes featuring such archetypes as the Angelic Woman (Anne Stanton), the Demonic Woman (Sadie Burke, and Cass Mastern's mistress), the Saintly Aesthete and Crypto-Homosexual (Adam Stanton), the Seductive Mother, the "Colonel Sanders" With a Secret (Judge Irwin), and What's Bred in the Bone Coming Out in the Flesh (Tom Stark, the embodiment of his father's egoism and brutality). In the ranks of minor characters we find the Long-Suffering Wife in the Country (Mrs. Stark), and Flannery O'Connor-style Mad Missionary (Jack's father). What an array!

There are a number of rather heavy-handed themes, of which I thought the most interesting was the contrast between Jack the self-identified "student of history" and product of History, and Willie the man without a history... no family, no formal education, no tradition, nothing to explain his ambition, charisma, ruthlessness, and power over others. There seems to be a trade-off between History and Act. Jack is Burdened by the past at every level -- his parents' broken marriage, his half-mad father, his unfinished dissertation, the end of the plantation class's reign in Southern politics, the guilt of slavery. He lives in a fog of depression, cynicism, sophistication, and rationalization. He is fascinated by Willie at their first meeting because Willie is his opposite: an earnest rube who seems unaware of his own dorkiness and believes the political game could and should be played fair.

But Willie isn't just a naif. He's also a kind of monster. Even at that early stage there's a monstrous ego and ambition germinating inside him... ambition not for political goals but for personal power and domination. Where does his ambition come from? What sets Willie apart from any other impoverished child of dirt farmers in any other wretched little town like Mason City? And which side is the true Willie Stark -- the idealist who fights on behalf of poor farmers and families, the builder of new roads and schools and hospitals, or the bully who fights for the sadistic joy of humiliating and dominating others?

These mysteries haunt the novel, and Penn Warren never offers a solution. Willie remains an enigma from start to finish. In fact I felt that Penn Warren wrote himself into a corner - he COULDN'T solve the enigma of Willie Stark's origins and essential nature, so he shifted focus to the more solvable mysteries in Jack Burden's past.

I don't think the Jack Burden plot has aged particularly well. It has the kind of heavy-handed Freudianism you see in 1950s movies... the seductive mother, the discovery of the True Father; the taboo of virginity; the sorting of women into angels and whores, spirits and bodies. Almost every character has at least one light or dark "double" (Willie/Jack, Willie/Adam, Jack/Adam, Sadie/Ann, Burden/Irwin, Lois/Ann, etc), which is very schematic. The happy ending is only achieved by the death/disappearance of everyone but Jack and Ann... they don't so much overcome or escape the Burden of history as have history conveniently relax its grip on them. ...less

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Teresa rated it:

(review of isbn 0156004801)

10/05/08

bookshelves: re-reads--2008-

Read in October, 2008

I first read this in Oct '06 and just re-read it for a discussion that was held in conjunction with this year's Louisiana Book Festival. It's amazing what one forgets in just 2 years, but what I didn't forget was Warren's lyrical way with words and structure, and the questioning, many times sardonic voice of his narrator, Jack Burden. It was a pleasure to read it again.

It took me so long to read this book in the first place because I thought it was going to be 'just' a fictionalized account...more

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Coy rated it:

(review of isbn 0156047624)

05/04/08

Read in April, 2008

recommended to Coy by: Angela

I can understand why people call this a classic. It sort of reminds me of the Great Gatsby, one of my favorite novels. I can also hear the narration at the end. It's deep, nostalgic, matter of fact and meloncholy-- like saying goodbye. That reminds me of A River Runs Through It. After all is said and done, however, I can't say that All the Kings Men, to me, was as good as a River Runs Through It or Gatsby.

This I write much to the dismay of my girlfriend, who not only loves All the Kin...more

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Christy rated it:

(review of isbn 0156004801)

04/02/07

Read in March, 2007

recommends it for: history buffs/ politicos

Well, I enjoyed reading it. Things that bothered me:
1. blantant patriarchal taint. But hell, it's about politics in the 30s and written by a man, so what can you do?
2. it buttresses so many bunk assumptions about the way that the world is supposed to work. So--violence/coersion are necessary and there is no escaping exploitation. I guess that feeds into it's whole patriarchal bent. It doesn't really question the underlying premise of our society or offer alternatives.

Things I liked:
...more

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matt rated it:

(review of isbn 0156012952)

02/14/08

bookshelves: america--f-k-yeah-, fictions-of-the-big-it, political-badassery

Read in September, 2005

This book grabbed me by the collar and pulled me in when I picked it up at the bookstore and I couldn't breath until I finished it.

This is exactly what American politics, in the essential or fundamental sense, are about. Innocense gets you into the game, experience gets you further, ruthlessness gets you ahead.

Its narrated with zest and sarcasm and this particular version is great because it throws in all of Warren's original extras- references, allusions, extra plot points, details, ...more

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Emma rated it:

(review of isbn 0156012952)

07/22/07

This is one of my favorite books. In addition to writing novels, Robert Penn Warren was a poet laureate. When I was first introduced to this book I was told that it was a lyrical novel, which I assume means that its prose have rhythm and tempo. In addition to being a captivating story, the style of the book is constantly engaging. I love the description at the beginning of the novel when the characters are driving down a highway road in Mississippi at night. The author sets the tempo of the m...more

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Mister Jones rated it:

(review of isbn 0156004801)

01/26/08

recommended to Mister Jones by: My Southern Literature Teacher

For my money, I think this is the greatest book in Southern Literature exceeding Faulkner. All the King's Men is much more than the usual purported centrality of Willie Stark's political motives and final demise, and the usual shallow analogies to Huey Long; if anything, the novel's narrator, Jack Bundren, is a cynical person whose life has unraveled. I think the one scene with Jack's father will always stay vivid as the epitome of Southern Grotesque. It is a multi-layer novel--with clari...more

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James rated it:

(review of isbn 0156004801)

07/05/07

bookshelves: fiction

Read in April, 2006

This tale, probably the most known work of Warren (prominent critic and one-time U.S. poet lauerate), surrounds the rise to power of a vastly influential progressive southern governor modeled on real life's "Kingfish" Huey Long.

Though both film renditions have wone certain acclaim, one should really disregard them for two different awful manglings of the plot. The novel, however, particularly when considered as an American political novel, is exemplar to say the least.

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Polomoche rated it:

(review of isbn 0156004801)

05/07/08

I had to add this book after watching all the mudslinging in this campaign, the simplified messages, etc. Essential reading for understanding American politics. NOTHING has changed, except we spend less time now mulling over moral dilemmas and just go straight for the jugular, at whatever ethical cost.

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Nicole added it (review of isbn 0156004801)

10/14/08

bookshelves: stopped-reading-because-it-sucked-

Read in October, 2008

OK...I know this was the 1948 Pulitzer winner, and it's our book club book this month....I just can't get into it! I think I'm so tired of real-life politics that reading about a fictional politician is just not interesting right now. Maybe I'll give this one a try next year.

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Pat rated it:

(review of isbn 0156004801)

06/30/08

Read in June, 2008

recommended to Pat by: book club pick
recommends it for: all my friends

Still fresh in its delineation of the web of politics, compelling well drawn characters, beautiful writing that pulls you through an ever accelerating plot, an end so satisfying that you can close the book without regret, this book is an incomparable read.

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Sloan rated it:

(review of isbn 0156004801)

10/01/08

beautiful prose. you have to give this book a bit of time to grow on you. it's not really about willie stark, the governor, it's about jack burden, history, and blue eyes.

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Page added it (review of isbn 0156004801)

11/08/08

Read in November, 2008

recommended to Page by: church group
recommends it for: any one who loves our language

I had a slow beginning with this book but after 100 pages I was hooked. I felt like the emperor in the movie, Amadeus in which in reviewing a new piece of music Mozart had written-"There are too many notes". Too many words in the novel. But I quickly learned that every one was important to the beauty of the story and the descriptions of people and events.The writing is very literary and poetic. It is a study of politics, life and love. Warren's descriptions evoke nostalgic feeling...more

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Michael rated it:

(review of isbn 0156004801)

09/20/08

Read in September, 2008

recommends it for: Any lover of classic, early to mid 20th century American fiction

This book gets my vote for the most celebrated book of 20th century American fiction that no one reads. Maybe its because Warren was mainly a poet, so you can't teach a class on his novels or spend a summer immersed in his fictional world, as you can with Hemingway, Faulkner, or Fitzgerald. One hundred pages or so in, I'm thinkin' ATKM holds its own with the works of any of those authors.
Set in an unspecified southern state, it initially centers around the later stages of a relationship be...more This book gets my vote for the most celebrated book of 20th century American fiction that no one reads. Maybe its because Warren was mainly a poet, so you can't teach a class on his novels or spend a summer immersed in his fictional world, as you can with Hemingway, Faulkner, or Fitzgerald. One hundred pages or so in, I'm thinkin' ATKM holds its own with the works of any of those authors.
Set in an unspecified southern state, it initially centers around the later stages of a relationship between an established political boss (character inspired by Huey Long) and his right hand, formerly a newspaperman, who serves as our narrator and the voice of the story. It's tragedy, a meditation on the final chapters of a heroic life, delivered in first person storytelling that conjures place, each person, the heat, the casual racism, and the tone of life, all with simple words, and not too many of them. An educated man, our narrator allows himself enough literary references and philosophical asides to put an authorial spin on the events that are related, but the scenes selected and recounted are compelling in themselves, meticulously observed and focused on struggles between and within the characters. It's great stuff, less elegant than Fitsgerald, more thoughtful and literary than Hemingway, more accessible, less 'experimental' than Faulkner... I'll stop there and reserve the right to revise when I finish. [...three weeks later....:] I did finish it a couple of weeks ago while traveling; continued to enjoy it very much. Interestingly, the story veers away from the central political figure to focus on the narrator, our over-educated journalist. He's depressed, periodically dysfunctional, and consistently drunk due to unresolved disappointments in his relationship with his parents and former girlfriend; that clinical summary does no justice to the actual rendering, which is very like Hammett/Chandler in the telling. It made me wonder where Warren stands in the evolution of the detective novel, because the story is carried by the narrator's quest, initially set by his boss, to find some dirt on an uncooperative judge. The trail leads toward secrets in his own past, and, like any good detective novel, his unwillingness to look away, to stop trying to find out the truth, becomes the mechanism that drives the plot. An amazing number of plotlines and character motivations are resolved in a fast-paced final section that delivers many satisfying moments as questions are answered, one by one, both for the reader and the lead character. All in all, the best novel I've read in the last several months, a wonderful surprise. If you've run out of Fitzgerald, dos Passos (another underappreciated master), Hemingway, Chandler, and Hammett, and are looking for something that fits alongside them on the shelves, but represents a unique style and a great talent in its own right, try All the King's Men. I guess I'll have to give the poetry a shot, too....less

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Lori rated it:

(review of isbn 0156004801)

08/27/08

Read in August, 2008

This book is a small feat...at least the edition I had. Tiny font, over 400 pages. It doesn't follow one story-line, but instead weaves in and out of the protaganist's story (Jack Burden), the story of the Boss, the story of his ancestors, and his parents.

As the story meandered, my attention followed suit. On the whole, I really enjoyed the book. But there were times in the story when things were slower--I think when Jack talked about the Boss or present-day, the story lost real charac...more

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Timothy rated it:

(review of isbn 0156004801)

11/19/08

Read in November, 2008

All the King’s Men is what real literary reviewers (unlike myself) might call a “tour de force.” I would agree with this label. I will devote this review to providing nine reasons why All the King’s Men is Robert Penn Warren’s tour de force novel (I could not think of a tenth to complete the traditional top ten list). Reason #1: All the King’s Men persuasively captures the American South. A reader could gain cultural insights by reading the novel. Reason #2: Warren’s description of...more

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Jude rated it:

(review of isbn 0156004801)

07/11/08

bookshelves: the-south

Read in January, 2006

I'm from Louisiana, so I had to read this classic portrait of a Southern demagogue, based on Huey Long. If you like political pot-boilers, this is a great read, a page turner. Curiously enough, the story revolves around a noirish, alienated narrator, Jack Burden, who you will either really enjoy or get full-well sick of pretty quickly. This guy is self-absorbed and it's hard to tell if Penn Warren is really choosing that, or he just loves to brood on the page.

When RPW really gets going, his ...more

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Casey rated it:

(review of isbn 0156004801)

08/04/08

There were significant parts of this book that bothered me - the author is a poet as well as a novelist, and he gets ridiculously verbose at times. Often times it seems he does so to achieve a rhythm to his prose rather than more extensively describe something or elucidate a point. He'll repeat phrases several times, sometimes in the same paragraph, sometimes at certain points throughout the book. Occasionally it's fun and entertainingly, mostly it just slows down and detracts from the story.
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