ALL THE KING'S MEN

I spent the better part of the last week with Robert Penn Warren - specifically, his Pulitzer Prize 1947 novel All the King's Men.  I was so mesmerized when I finished the audiobook that I purchased and watched both of its cinematic adaptations - the 1950 version starring Broderick Crawford who I believe was awarded an Oscar for his performance, and the 2006 version with Sean Penn, Jude Law, Anthony Hopkins, Kate Winslet and the late James Gandolfini. The latter received an abysmal 11% on Rotten Tomatoes, an inexplicably low score for a pretty good movie, and one that was far more true to the novel than its 1950 counterpart, and it nails the key moments and phrases in a way completely missed by the elder version.

(A bonus for audiobook listeners: the unabridged 2006 release of Warren's novel is narrated by MIchael Emerson - the same guy who knocked it out of the park as Ben Linus in ABC's Lost. He is as good in the Audible recording booth as he was on the Island.)

Robert Penn Warren was primarily a poet, not a novelist, and this is clear in the prose style and cadences of ATKM. Soon into the book I wondered if David Mamet borrowed his unusual ear for dialogue from Warren - effective and eccentric in equal measure. Perhaps this makes for better listening than it does reading.

Like all great literature ATKM is about a journey. Ostensibly it is the journey of Willie Stark, a caricature of Louisiana governor and legendary populist Huey P. Long.  It drips with cynicism about the climate of Politics in America, and deservedly so. But I think it is more the story of Jack Burden than the story of Willie Stark. Stark's loss of idealistic fervor is quick and savage and near total with no looking back - Burden's is longer, more gradual, and, in the end, more excruciating. One could make the case that ATKM is as much about philosophy as politics, if not more so, and all the great themes are well-explored: who are we? where did we come from? how does one live with loss and disillusionment? what is the nature of love? is nature ultimately stronger than nurture? in a contest between viscera and intellect who will win out? is it true that the most effective politicians are nearly always pretty shitty people?

If you are looking for some good listening on your summer road trip, you could do much worse than All The King's Men.  Enjoy.