I am working hard at being able to read more books this year. Last year was the pits and I aim to make time for reading again....even if it is only for 20 minutes. Presently I am about one third of the way through Robert Penn Warren's "All the King's Men". This was a Pulitzer Prize winning book for him and thus on my list of books to read in my lifetime.
I find these episodes of forced reading interesting. I would have never picked up this book on my own as it does not fall into the usual type of book I gravitate towards. Having said that, it is a lovely surprise. Warren has a masterful vocabulary (I have to hit the dictionary at least every few pages) and is spot on with his narrative that is engaging and detailed but not so much that it is burdensome. I will admit that the dialogue is harder for me as it is set in the 1930's deep south. Reading in dialect has never been one of my favorite things because I have to hear it in my head in order for it to compute. Combine this with very small print and you have a slower moving book than I would have liked. It is slow moving because of me, not because of the content.
In the wee hours last night, when I couldn't sleep and the house was quiet, I sat in my sewing/reading room layered with blankets in negative weather and read this book. I came across this quote and it made reading the book worth it:
"They say you are not you except in terms of relation to other people. If there weren't any other people there wouldn't be any you because what you do, which is what you are, only has meaning in relation to other people."--Robert Penn Warren
I had to stop and read these lines over and over again. There is so much unwanted truth in these sentences. We want to think that we are the same person no matter who we are around, but in our heart of hearts we know it isn't true. I am a different version of myself with my child than I am with my lover. I am a different version of myself depending on which nurses I work with. I am different at parties than I am at home. The people in my life and in my environment change me. We all want to be accepted in the company we keep even if we pretend we don't care. It is human nature to want to belong to something greater than yourself. Why do you think religion has such a strong hold in the world?
I look forward to finishing this book and adding it to my list of Pulitzer's read. The book is about a man in politics from the view of another man who works closely with him. It is the unraveling of a life. It is relationships that fall away and leave the narrator as an island. At least it is so far. Pick up the book and see for yourself.
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