All the King's Men

I picked up the book because a respected Russian political scientist, now living in the West, mentioned that it made a lasting impression on him during his childhood and taught him much about politics. The book was published in Russian in the Soviet Union in 1968 and was adapted into a Soviet film three years later, though the movie omits much of the original content.

I didn't know what to expect, but the book turned out to be about much more than just politics and politicians. It was clear that the author was not only familiar with the circumstances in the US South during the 1930s, but also with the work of a news reporter from that era. I even suspected he might have been a reporter himself, which he never was.

It's evident that populist politics in the US South and Fascist Italy served as inspiration for the author. However, the resulting story is universal, focusing less on politics and more on the human condition.

I've been hanging out with this novel for quite some time...and an interesting gang...Jack Burden, Willie Stark, Anne Stanton, Judge Irwin, Adam Stanton, Sadie Burke, Tiny Duffy, Sugar Boy...they're all memorable. Eventually, though, I had to finish the story.

This is Louisiana in the 1930's, and since it was written so long ago, the narrative has a genuinely old style that took me awhile to read, at first. Actually, it does get off to a slow start, just in the beginning, before it becomes truly fascinating.

The story is narrated by Jack Burden, a political reporter. He chronicles Willie Stark's beginnings as a boring, naïve idealist from the middle of nowhere to his transformation into a charismatic, riveting politician who becomes the state's governor. In the beginning, Willie seems to have all good intentions before becoming corrupt. Jack takes some kind of position in Willie's staff--it's never clear if he has a title, but it is clear that he and Sadie Burke have some sort of patronage positions, as a result of knowing Willie before he came to power.

However, the novel is not just about politics--that's just the backdrop. The central idea in this story is that what we do matters; actions have consequences, rippling through other lives, sometimes in unforeseeable ways. Even reporters cannot be simply bystanders in life.

There are several complicated subplots in this tome, all very interesting and interconnected. I highly recommend this!


This novel is considered to be based on the life of Huey Long, who was a controversial political figure in the early 1930's, though the author was ambivalent about that assumption.