shayduhs 's review for:

All the King's Men by Robert Penn Warren

4.0

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Were we happy tonight because we were happy or because once, a long time back, we had been happy? Was our happiness tonight like the light of the moon, which does not come from the moon, for the moon is cold and has no light of its own, but is reflected light from far away?

This was quite difficult for me to get into because I started off listening to the audiobook and just could not, for the life of me, focus on a word of what was being said; however, once I switched to the e-book and left with an insane amount of highlighted segments, I was able to fully immerse myself.

The story is really well-crafted and the delicacy of the nonlinear chronology is, I think, a thing to be studied. I really liked the way the narrator seamlessly goes back and forth in time and waves the story how he sees fit, leading to a great payoff when everything comes together. It's a classic style of storytelling but it still felt new and exciting. Of course, there are tangents and there's a whole chapter that makes you scratch your head wondering where this is all going, but overall, I had an enjoyable experience reading this book and I'll leave you all with one of my favorite segments (also, can anyone explain why this is written as "a play by Robert Penn Warren" when it's ... not a play?):

You meet somebody at the seashore on a vacation and have a wonderful time together. Or in a corner at a party, while the glasses clink and somebody beats on a piano, you talk with a stranger whose mind seems to whet and sharpen your own and with whom a wonderful new vista of ideas is spied.. Or you share some intense or painful experience with somebody, and discover a deep communion. Then afterward you are sure that when you meet again, the gay companion will give you the old gaiety, the brilliant stranger will stir your mind from its torpor, the sympathetic friend will solace you with the old communion of spirit. But something happens, or almost always happens, to the gaiety, the brilliance, the communion. You remember the individual words from the old language you spoke together, but you have forgotten the grammar. You remember the steps of the dance, but the music isn’t playing any more. So there you are.