All the King's Men (Penguin Modern Classics)

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Yes, the corruption which has always mired American democracy is brilliantly dissected, and the theme is as relevant today as it was at the time of writing. The book follows Willie Talos, a politician who starts out with grand visions of studying “the heart of the people. Stark’s demagogic descent mirrors the story of the real Louisiana governor and then senator Huey Long, whose radical economic program and charismatic personality ensured his political domination until his assassination in 1935.

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. The trajectory of Stark's career is interwoven with Jack Burden's life story and philosophical reflections: "the story of Willie Stark and the story of Jack Burden are, in one sense, one story. As you say, they are not specific for politicians, you see the same in all spheres of life, where some sort of power / money can be achieved. But on the other hand, there were those who took the thing to be a rousing declaration of democratic principles and a tract for the assassination of dictators.So, for example, we will go back in time to learn about how Jack and Willie met, when Jack was a young journalist covering Willie’s first failed run for Governor. This sounds like an amazing book and worthy of the GAN win – I was thinking as I saw the title we haven’t seen any of these for a while, so I’m glad it was a good one. In studying this fragment of Civil War–era history, Jack begins to suspect (but cannot yet bring himself to accept) the idea that every event has unforeseen and unknowable implications, and that all actions and all persons are connected to other actions and other persons. The novel is narrated by Jack Burden, a political reporter who comes to work as the governor’s most trusted aide.

On the left is the second issue jacket where the Sinclair Lewis review was moved to the back flap and replaced by six new reviews - by Joseph Henry Jackson, Diana Trilling, Harry Hansen, Orville Prescott, Paul Engle, and W.Stark steals Burden’s desired woman and sets in motion a complicated plot that makes Burden the instrument of a man he discovers only too late to be his own father. Thanks, Alyson, and sorry for disappearing without a word, especially since I hate when other people do that so I have no excuse.

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. However, in the wake of a devastating revelation regarding one of her father's moral lapses, she has an affair with Stark.Nevertheless, Warren’s novel also provided me with hope that while demagogues may seem invincible, they and all they stand for can be defeated. Los Angeles Times Book Review" "It's a measure of the enduring worth of"All the King's Men"that Willie Stark has entered our collective literary consciousness, in the company of Captain Ahab, Huck Finn, Jay Gatsby, Holden Caulfield, Rabbit Angstrom, and very few others. Like in a Greek tragedy, Stark’s public fall and Jack’s private shattering come from their Achilles’ heels. I’ve never read it and was just looking at it yesterday, trying to decide if I wanted to read it or a biography of Long.

Hahaha, what with Trump, Brexit and the ongoing threat of another Scottish independence referendum, mu opinion of politicians and people in power generally is at rock bottom!Much like the ‘lock her up’ chants that defined Trump’s 2016 rallies, The Boss similar derides his opponents, primarily Duffy, as ‘Judas Iscariot, the lick-spittle, the nose-wiper! This is the tale of two men: Claude Dansey, deputy head of MI6, and double agent Henri Dericourt, who was planted with the rival wartime secret service – SOE – at Dansey’s instructions. I’m not so keen on books that are actually pushing a political agenda, even if it’s one I agree with. A g