This is impressive, and it's clear why it won the Pulitzer for fiction. The prose flows beautifully, and the banter and schemes and relationships are captivating and infuriating ( )

650 pages of poetry. I'm sure it is the masterpiece it is said to be, but for me it was a real slog. ( )

As good as I remember ( )

A serious, ambitious, somewhat overwritten classic political novel. The first five hundred pages pass in a blur as Warren follows the rise to power of Willie Stark and the moral conflicts of Jack Burden, his right-hand man. The last few chapters devolve into operatic melodrama - over-the-top tragedy, whiplash-inducing plot developments, poetic passages in which our intrepid narrator tries to make sense of it all.

I'm getting ready to read Faulkner again and am constantly reminded of the "Burden" of history in the South, of the desire for goodness in a world mired in sin. The original sin of our country was slavery - the South was Eve, the beautiful sensual wife who brought the fruit of knowledge to the lips of the Union. We were cast out of the Garden with the Civil War - our own innocence and ideals were stained and we began the long process of living with each other, a fallen people in a vast land who have little in common.

Southern writers understand that nothing is pure, that an attempt to keep up appearances only causes the poison under the surface to roil more violently.

Near the end of All the King's Men, Jack's supposed father says that "the creation of evil is therefore the index of God's glory and His power." This is the paradox of the world that Willie Stark knew in his deepest instinctual fiber - that we are constantly being made to sin against ourselves and each other, but that this sin can also lead to redemption. ( )

4.5* for this audiobook edition.

In many regards, this novel was much better than the 1949 movie (which was excellent!). Warren's prose is amazingly evocative and the characters were more complex than in the film. However, I did find Jack Burden's periodic excursions into philosophy & religion a bit tedious, perhaps due to the fact that I didn't comprehend his ideas (or maybe I did and just didn't like them...).

Unlike the film, the book is really more about Jack than Willie Stark. Stark is the flash point of the story and the not-so subtle resemblance to real life politician Huey Long makes Stark's character all the more fascinating. Despite that, it is the mysteries and complications of Jack's character and his relationships that are the heart of the book.

One final comment - Warren has included one of the best descriptions of undiagnosed clinical depression that I have ever read with Jack's "Great Sleep". ( )