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Defector Reads A Book

Defector Reads A Book Has Nailed Its Pick For April

1:43 PM EDT on April 5, 2021

Children read books and comics in 1942.

FPG/Archive Photos/Getty Images

It's already the fifth of the month and you don't even know what this month's DRAB selection is. I can't imagine what these last few days have been like for you. Thank you all for your patience, and for a lively chat about August Wilson's Fences last week. Please pack up your bags, because after two straight months in Northeast we'll be setting out for the Deep South. Next up is Robert Penn Warren's All The King's Men, which follows the political rise of Willie Stark, who bears more than a passing resemblance to real-life Senator Huey P. Long of Louisiana, a Depression-era populist. Warren's novel is supposed to be one of the great literary treatments of American politics; it won not just the 1947 Pulitzer Prize but also inclusion in Tom Ley's "Big-Time Faves." That's how you know it's good.

Robert Penn Warren - All the King's Men - Seller-Supplied Images - AbeBooks

So go get the book. Pick one of the good ways: an independent bookstore, your local library, Bookshop.org, things of that nature. And then join us on May 5 to talk about it. See you then. You will also got some reminders in The Cipher, our daily newsletter for all Pal-and-up subscribers. Feel free to send any feedback on or suggestions for DRAB to giri@defector.com.

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