Tonite I finished All the King's Men. I was really surprised at how quickly I got through the book. I was also really impressed by the breadth of the storyline. What seemed like a story about politics, covered a wide range of topics and emotions. The basic premise is of a country bumpkin, Willie Stark, who gets put on a ballot to split the vote by the opposing party. In the end, that bumpkin becomes the governor (of Mississippi).
The narrator is a man named Jack Burden. Jack is sort of a lackey for Governor Stark (also referred to as Boss). I can't really figure out why he stays with Boss, being that Boss seems to walk the line of questionable ethics, and Jack is from a high class upbringing. However, there is a whole daddy issue, as a number of men played father to Jack. His mother spends her adult life trading up for a younger, more dashing, more interesting model... Leaving Jack feeling a bit aimless, I believe.
Boss seems to be very upstanding in public life by building a hospital and fighting to get a fair contractor... But he's quite another person in his private life, taking down political opponents and cheating on his wife. Governor Stark gets around with several prominent women characters in the book, which leads to jealousy, betrayal, and ultimately 2 deaths. These story lines are pretty interesting, because I wasn't sure the purpose of each romance. It seemed like Boss wanted to have women present in different spheres of life, rather than women who fulfilled different needs/desires.
Governor Stark's son Tom is an all-star football player who hot rods around and chases girls. I found a parallel between Tom's story line and the TV show Friday Night Lights. The all-star football player who frequents roadhouses/strip clubs gets seriously injured in a collision on the field. The balance of the story doesn't light up with FNL, but I'd like to think that our modern script writers drew some inspiration from ATKM.
If you're interested in more, a full synopsis of the novel can be found here: http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/kingsmen/summary.html
That's it for now... I'm not sure how much is too much info on the books, in case someone does decide to read the book. Feedback is welcome!
Next up:
Book #2 - The Adventures of Augie March by Saul Bellow
It's nearly 100 pages longer than the last book! Hopefully I'll be posting again soon!
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