★★★☆☆ That was LONG!

All the King's Men

Robert Penn Warner

I listened to All The King's Men sometime in 2014. (Actually, what I know for sure is that I bought it from Audible 2-Feb-2014.) It is, as everyone knows, a classic Pulitzer-prize-winning portrait of politician Willie Stark, who is based on the real-life corrupt Louisiana politician Huey Long. (If you didn't know that, read the publisher's blurb.) To give Robert Penn Warren his due, All The King's Men is unquestionably what the sainted Molly Ivins would call "Ort", so don't say you weren't warned.

It is also, and this was my first and last impression when I read it, LONG. Now, "long" can be either a good or a bad thing in a book. Sometimes you reach the end of a long book thinking to yourself, "I'm so sorry that's over -- I wish that could go on forever!" These are the best books! For me, personally, All The King's Men was the far more common second case, where you reach the end and think, "I sure am glad that's over!" and congratulate yourself on having the perseverance to stick it out. Some people instead bemoan their poor decision-making for not having had the wisdom to abandon this dog early. But that is not how I felt about All The King's Men. It's a good book, and I'm glad I read it, even though I wished Warren could have showed a bit more restraint.

The main problem for me was Willie Stark. He is a disgusting person, and spending 21 hours with him is a bit too much of a good thing. Now, Warren's portrait of Willie is not entirely negative. He makes it clear that Willie truly desired to be a man who stood up for people who had no one to stand up for them, and that such people revered him. In fact, if I were to reread it now, I would be drawn inevitably to comparisons with Donald Trump. In fact, that's the best reason I can think of to reread All The King's Men.

But I am not going to do that.

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