It's a testament to the holes in my literary education that I had never heard of Robert Penn Warren until I read Faulkner's biography. This is a massive well-written book. It makes me want to quit writing, to give up my own weak efforts in embarassment.
He is the master of metaphor and imagery. Try this: There wasn't any sound for what must have been three seconds but seemed like a week while a mourning dove down in the clump of trees in the bottom where the hogs were gave a couple of tries at breaking his heart and mine.
People say this book is about the politician Willie Stark. Not in my humble opinion. It's about his employee, the narrator of the novel, Jack Burden. He's not named "burden" for nothing, since he spends most of the novel shouldering burdens on his soul. He is as sarcastic as they come, but a completely believable complex character in Warren's hands.
There is plenty of plot, just the way I like my novels. Lots of twists and turns, unexpected facts, and a satisfying tie-up at the end.
My only criticisms are that the prose is heavy and repetitious. At times Warren confuses the reader with the timeline. Those are small criticisms though, and were not enough for me to abandon reading it as I have done with some other (boring) literary novels.
So if you are like me and have never heard of Warren or been exposed to his work, give this one a read - you won't be disappointed.
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