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All the King's Men 
| 80% Recommended by our customers. Publisher: Harvest Books Catalog: Book Release date: 1996-09-01 Media: Paperback Format: Bargain Price Number of pages: 672  Tip: compare prices with similar booksAuthor:
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| User Reviews: |
 Written on April 2, 2007 Summary: Tedious As long as I have wanted to read this fascinating story, I just could not make my way through the author's ponderous writing style. I gave up after about 100 pages as he is one of those writers who thinks 1000 words is better than 100. I don't think I have EVER read longer sentences or longer paragraphs!!  Written on March 10, 2007 Summary: "This only affirms what we must affirm: that direction is all." I was soundly defeated by this book in my early 20s. Although I could appreciate the flashes of genius and the beautiful passages which populate the book, I got lost in the weeds of the characters and politics and eventually gave it up as hopeless. I picked it up again this year after reading and enjoying some poetry by Warren. I had the idea that I might be better able to appreciate the book now that I was older. The idea was a good one, as it happens. Either my patience has increased, or I understand the characters better now, or something. In any case, the book really spoke to me this time around. You can find a lot of information about the political side of the novel-- the comparisons between Willie Stark and Huey Long are many and well documented. I have to confess that I was more interested in the intersection between the personal and the political than in the probable historical parallels. There is something really nice about Willie Stark's fall from idealism as highlighted by Jack Burden's simultaneously cynical and romantic narration. Dressed up as a political novel, All The King's Men somehow manages to put the focus squarely on the people involved. Warren is a poet writing prose. This is worth bearing in mind when you pick up the book. The digressions into the thought or the moment are many. Although generally very beautiful, it can often be quite tricky to follow the thread of the plot. If you bear in mind that the digressions are as important as the point, I believe that you will struggle with it a lot less. Nobody will ever accuse the novel of being terse. It is very big and often windy, in the best and grandest possible fashion. I would recommend the book to nearly everybody. Do not let its label as a political novel put you off, imagining that it will be dry and boring. It is a lovely book-- one that I suspect that I will go back to several more times in this life. Written on February 22, 2007 Summary: Tedious There's no doubt this novel has a good story line. The main problem I had was getting to it. I labored through so much descriptive prose that I often forgot where I was in the story. It was a chore to finish and I have come to the conclusion I should not read any more Pulitzer Prize winning novelists. This is my fourth and none have been half as good as a Glass Castle or Memoirs of a Geisha or many others with less acclaim. Written on January 30, 2007 Summary: Into the past and into the future The plot involves Jack Burden, failed historian and fallen aristocrat, who has become a political hatchet man for a charismatic populist politician, Willie Stark, who believes that the greater good may be cultivated if well fertilized by the corruption of his friends and the carcasses of his enemies. Jack's duties include gathering weapons for use against those enemies, like biblical David before him, by gathering stones with which to fell the Goliaths of a more genteel, if scarcely less corrupt, plutocracy who formerly ran the state. But it is not the stones themselves that Jack gathers but rather the creepy crawlies living underneath the stones unearthed that will eventually allow Jack to be so successful that tragedy will ensue for all, good and evil alike. This theme of raking through the muck of bygone days resonates with me as I first read this book as a youth some forty years ago and as I reread it I see my childhood and this book in a different light. But as I understand more of this book than I did upon first reading, I fear that one need not delve so deeply into the past to see the relevance of this book today and into the future. Although inspired by Louisiana's Governor Huey Long, one need not look to the thirties to see the type. Stark rather resembles a certain Arkansas governor of recent vintage whose wife, like Stark, attempted to redeem the family of its sins by providing free health care to the less fortunate. One need not squint too hard to see in Anne Stanton, that paragon of female nobility whose virtue could not survive an encounter with Willie Stark, the National Organization of Women who were only too willing to overlook the sexual improprieties, lies and corruption of their Willie Stark if only he pretended to respect them in the morning. Why, even the senator from Massachusetts may be glimpsed as Tom Stark drunkenly drives into a culvert ruining the life of a young lady companion with no consequence to himself, although admittedly Tom had the foresight to avoid plunging the car into water. Huey Long promised to raise Louisiana up out of the muck but mired it in corruption just as Willie Stark promised to raise a Louisiana-like state only to see it sunk into corruption. Now we see the results of an additional seventy years of Democratic good old boy (and girl) corruption in Louisiana as it struggles to blame others for its failures of government to the detriment of the very people in pretends to help but, in fact, victimizes. So off we go into the future as the citizens of Louisiana and elsewhere continue to not only accept but to positively demand a snake oil salesman, well acquainted with his wares due to close family relations, to lead them into the promised land. Too bad that we, like Jack Burden, Willie Stark, and the rest, will find more venom than remedy from the fangs of the serpent we demand. Written on January 21, 2007 Summary: Well Deserving of the Pulitzer Let's get this out of the way: having just finished this book, I feel confident in ascribing "All the King's Men" the status of one of my all-time favorite books. My words cannot begin to describe just how good it is, but I shall try... This book is primarily sold as a political novel. I think this is somewhat of an inaccurate pitch, because while Willie Stark is certainly a politician,and the book's real main character, Jack Burden, is one of stark's pundits, to limit ATKM to the political realm does it a disservice. This book is truly about so much more than politics. Sure, one of the main themes of this book is how politics are present in nearly every aspect of our lives, but this book is also about ideas, the ties that bind, the search for self, the human condition at its best and at its worst, the driving force of passion, and the intricacies of morality. It has romance, mystery, scandal, suicide, murder, and some fairly awesome speeches. Sound dense? It is. At nearly 700 pages, ATKM is a true epic, but not one word of it is superfluous. Warren deftly spins multiple storylines into an intricately tangled web. His prose is deceptively simple, the strong Southern voice of the narrator belying some of the stark truths. He selects and arranges his words so that you feel the full force of their meaning as it resonates within you. After reading this book, you will understand with fierce clarity how this book won the Pulitzer prize This book is a testament to what fiction should strive to be, for there is more truth in these lines than fantasy. I highly recommend this novel to anyone who wants the ultimate reading experience, and I daresay that this is one of those books that only improves upon re-reading. This book rocked my world, and I can only hope it does the same for you as well. |
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| Price comparison |
 All the King's Men |
 The Great Gatsby |
 Invisible Man |
 The Grapes of Wrath (Centennial Edition) |
 Their Eyes Were Watching God |
 The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn |
| Our price | - | $11.20 | $10.17 | $11.05 | $10.85 | $6.95 |
| List price | $13.00 | $14.00 | $14.95 | $17.00 | $15.95 | $6.95 |
| Lowest used price | $3.25 | $2.44 | $1.22 | $4.42 | $4.39 | $4.46 |
| Lowest new price | $4.70 | $4.74 | $5.50 | $7.00 | $7.49 | $6.95 |
| Collectible price | - | $16.50 | $14.95 | $16.00 | $7.95 | $50.00 |
| Catalog | Book | Book | Book | Book | Book | Book |
| Release date | 1996-09-01 | 1999-09-30 | 1995-03-14 | 2002-01-03 | 2006-05-30 | 2008-08-20 |
| Media | Paperback | Paperback | Paperback | Paperback | Paperback | Paperback |
| Format | Bargain Price | - | - | - | - | - |
| Number of pages | 672 | 180 | 608 | 464 | 256 | 202 |
| Ean | - | 9780743273565 | 9780679732761 | 9780142000663 | 9780061120060 | 9781438245416 |
| Book Isbn | - | 0743273567 | 0679732764 | 0142000663 | 0061120065 | 1438245416 |
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