just finished reading All the King's Men by Robert Penn Warren.


It's a novel about politics in the South in the early 1900's. The main character is a 'dog' of an aspiring (and once high-minded) politician named Willie Stark, who does a load of dirty work and is, for the start at least, not unwelcome to this work.

The novel is about 700 pages and goes over the life of the main character and the politician and their family, friends and lovers. It's a rather dark and cynical book with a fair share of violence, racism and contempt for all that defines American politics.

It won the 1947 Pulitzer and is considered to be "perhaps the most important" American political novel of the modern period. Highly recommended to all, but make sure to read at least the first two chapters. I hated chapter one, had to get adjusted to the writing style, but was in love with the book by the end of the second.