All the King's Men (1946)

A beautiful book. It has a poetic feel while the plot inexorably moves to its climax. ( )

In the age of Trump, this is a wonderful book. Especially the revised edition. It has been 45 years since I last read All the Kings Men and I found it much more profound today than when I was young. ( )

50 pages in - like this very much, the language, the feel

200 pages in - still digging it. this Jack Burden, a cynical, aloof narrator, neither offering opinions to others nor asking questions, always listening...love him as the presenter of this story

this is an über-Southern book.

i'm working off this list - https://main.oxfordamerican.org/magazine/item/470-the-best-southern-novels-of-al... - having first read Absalom, Absalom! (#1 on the list), now reading this (#2). i've got to say, simply as a "reader" engaging with a "story", this book is SO MUCH MORE enjoyable than Absalom, Absalom!. Absalom, Absalom! gets so nebulous, and i'm sure there are readers that love it for what they see as its artistry. Penn Warren's language has its own beauty and there is definitely artistry in it, yet it is visceral, direct, very removed from Faulkner's "Faulkner-ness".

still a long way to go in the story. i'm interested to see if i get bored with it, i usually do with longer books (this one is 642 pp).

300 pages in - still going pretty strong. the Cass Mastern story was somewhat, not extremely, interesting. seemed to go on too long.

420 pages in - 4 stars - Warren does a good job writing about the summer Jack and Anne's romantic relationship started. very engaging

like 30 pages from the end - i've enjoyed this book. it is worth reading, and maintains momentum well/fairly well for a longer work. i have to say some of the "theorizing" such as "The Twitch", while i appreciated the attempt, i don't feel Warren pulled those approaches off completely successfully.

NOTE: the "n" word appears in this book ( )

Case 13 shelf 1

Fiction