All the King's Men (Penguin Modern Classics)

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And we see played out in detail the corruption at the heart of politics – how a man who starts out full of good intention and moral purpose cuts a little corner here, exerts a little pressure there, sucks up to the rich, all initially to achieve his pet projects for the benefit of his constituents; until suddenly he finds he has become the kind of crooked, manipulative, self-justifying politician he once despised and intended to destroy. It was later adapted into two films of the same name, in 1949 and 2006; the 1949 version won the Academy Award for Best Picture. Irwin is brave and upright, a man who can face down a gun-brandishing criminal without a twinge, who shrugs off Stark’s most sinister threats, who continues the grand Bourbon political traditions celebrated in the bronze statues on the Statehouse lawn. I’m just drafting my Blogging Highlights post for posting on 1 January, and one of the things I noted is that I wrote significantly fewer posts this year, so yes, I too had trouble staying afloat too. Must be written by an American author or an author who has lived long enough in the US to assimilate the culture.

He struggles with his guilt and the realization that all men, irrespective of their nobility, carry some darkness within them.

Jack Burden's story introduces an examination of the role of history in individual lives and in the life of a social group. That is the only explanation I can offer for how this lazy, long-winded piece of pseudo-intellectual palaver could have remained in print for 55 days, let alone 55 years. Politics merely provided the framework story in which the deeper concerns, whatever their final significance, might work themselves out.

If his supporters refuse to, The Boss concludes they can ‘…hand me the hammer and I’ll do it with my own hand’. Warren is keen to separate the idealistic ‘Willie Stark’ from the corrupted ‘Boss’, the same individual but rendered barely recognisable in a Jekyll-Hyde style transformation. The novel’s effectiveness depends on a convincing portrayal of the nobility and villainy, courage and venality, dignity and vulgarity, of [Willie Stark]. You can change your choices at any time by visiting Cookie preferences, as described in the Cookie notice. It traces the rise and fall of Willie Stark, who resembles the real-life Huey "Kingfish" Long of Louisiana.

However, after losing the mayoral election due to his refusal to play politics, he resolves to become a shrewd, unscrupulous player in the political game. It is here that the Trump comparisons become more sharper, with The Donald’s numerous infidelities mirrored by The Boss’. Jack also grapples with his troubled romantic relationship with Anne Stanton, who becomes Willie's mistress, complicating Jack’s personal and professional life further. This hospital sounds like Stark’s rosebud, not a link to his childhood but a link to the beginning of his political engagement after the collapse of a school. Despite Trump’s growth in the polls, I could not believe that such mentality would grip a country obsessed with freedom.

Since Huey Long was the governor of Louisiana, the novel is supposed to be set there but there is no direct mention of a precise Southern state.Although this one is set in the political world, there’s no political tub-thumping – he’s not got a political agenda as far as I could see. We’ll see how the already cynical Jack found himself fascinated by the naive idealism of Willie, and that allows us to understand how, through all the years and despite all the corruption, Jack still sees Willie as a man who genuinely wants to improve the lives of his people.