A fantastic book about human nature, politics, power and followers looking to be stirred out of numbness.

Author Robert Penn Warren was the only person to have won Pulitzer Prizes for both fiction and poetry. The writing is rich, descriptive and thought provoking. I read this book over ten years ago, and I remember skimming through the rich descriptions of the narrator's thoughts and observations because I wanted to know how the plot progresses (its an exciting plot). But on my second reading I enjoyed these sections more and thought about the many insights on human behavior they offer. Lots of yellow highlighting.

This book probably enlightened me more than any other on how successful political movements with Charismatic leaders build an enthusiastic following ... and why it does not end well.

Warning -- it is set in the Louisiana of the 1920s and 30s and uses the language of the setting which modern readers will find jarring (mainly the N word).