I remember that one time where I was so uninterested and practically falling asleep that I gave up on my PhD/law school/love of my life, married this random lady, then got divorced cause I didn't like that she could talk, and later got hired as a private detective to ruin people's lives for political gain because it was something to pass the time....oh wait. That wasn't me. That was the aggravating asshole main character of this novel.
I think some classics do not age well. Maybe this one had enough thrill and interest for previous readers, but it was pretty painful for me.

I wasn't disappointed in the writing. I was disappointed in the action. Actually it was the lack of action in the plot.

It might just be the slow and languishing writing style, but major climatic events felt silly and washed over. They were as well described as the change of the seasons and the fat guts of the political idiots. Which meant that they were not thrilling, and if you hadn't been paying much attention or skimmed, you might miss deaths and other significant events, especially because they might be just one sentence here or there. This seems like a poor method of conveying interesting events to the reader, and I guess the goal was to demonstrate how politics moves on and forward in the unforgiving, lying machine it is, but it made the story SO BORING.

Jack was a blasé, uncaring, unmotivated, lazy character and since the entire story was told through him, the story itself felt like a slow tale you might listen to while sipping lemonade on a hot day when you aren't really in the mood to pay attention. The author's idea might have been to show politics through an unbiased view that made this book so famous...but it just made the book forgettable and so boring I wasn't sure if I could finish it.

Willie was an interesting man and his rise in politics and his end made sense and was well-done. I can see why this part of the story is revered, however having to listen to Jack not really complain, more like try to explain his laziness and complete and total lack of interest in anything, was mind-numbing.

HOLY SHIT Jack if you love Anne, please by God just marry her. But NO, let's wait 25 years or so and then in ONE SENTENCE say she is your wife. HOW IS THAT A CLIMATIC ENDING?

And curveball on who Jack's father was, but he isn't all that interested anyways so let's just throw that plot twist down the drain.

*trying not to pull out my hair or scream over Jack's personality* Geez man just do something!

I read All the King’s Men several months ago after hearing from someone how much he and his book club had enjoyed the book. It had been sitting on my shelf for some time, and that recommendation was all the motivation I needed to finally pick up the book.

All the King’s Men is often referred to as a great novel of American politics—what a misnomer! Let’s not even focus on the “great” part; let’s talk first about “politics.” It’s not a book about politics; it’s a book about a man—and not the man whom you would think, the politician—rather it is about Jack Burden, the narrator—journalist and right-hand man (or lackey depending on your viewpoint) for Southern governor Willie Stark.
The fact that he works in politics is not entirely irrelevant, but for much of the book it seems almost incidental since so much of what we learn from Jack is particular to his own situation, apart from his work on the political scene.

I found some of the characters to be frustratingly clichéd (the fast-talking dame, the virgin queen, the long-suffering wife). On the other hand, there were Sugar-Boy* and Cass Mastern and somebody whose name I can’t remember but who tickled me to pieces.

The storyline often wasn’t particularly compelling either (though I suppose this is not the type of book you are meant to read ultimately for the plot); and at times it was melodramatic and predictable. I wonder if my reading this in the twenty-first century when so many storylines have been done and redone has anything to do with that. Maybe in 1946 readers couldn’t see some of it coming because they hadn’t already watched it fifty times in some television show or movie, but I’ve seen a couple episodes of Dateline and some TV movies in my day, so... (I’m referring, for example, to what happens with Willie’s son and how the Adam Stanton plotline unfolds.)

There were many points at which I really did enjoy the book, though. When it made me sit and think for a minute, or laugh out loud, or re-read just for the pleasure of enjoying the phrasing again. And I had a really nice run for about 200 pages in the middle of the book (the parts on Cass Mastern and Judge Irwin) when I truly enjoyed what I was reading. I think that was in large part because I enjoy how Cass Mastern tells a story much more than I enjoy how Jack Burden does. For the most part, however, I was incredulous as I read, scratching my head and wondering what exactly people love so much about this book. For me, its flaws undercut the enjoyment too much.

*The line where Burden says, “No doubt you thought Sugar-Boy was a Negro”—ha! Totally got me with that one.