All the King's Men

All the King's Men is widely considered to be a great political novel, but the deeds of Willie Stark and his crew won't surprise anyone who has paid even scant attention to the workings of the world. What makes this a great novel is the beautiful writing describing the personal odyssey of Stark's fixer, Jack Burden. There is also the the 19th century tale of a Burden relative, Cass Mastern, an episode that could make a novel in itself. Robert Penn Warren's skill at imagery and simile lights up these passages. Everything is connected in this novel, and so in life; a ripple from a stone dropped into a pond will spread out with unforeseen and sometimes unthinkable results. That, more than the ambiguous perfidy of Willie Stark, is the idea that will linger long after this novel is put down.