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Advise and Consent Hardcover – January 1, 1959

by Allen Drury (Author)

4.5 625 ratings

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Length

616
Pages
Language

EN
English
Publisher

Doubleday
Publication date

1959
January 1
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Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B0006AW052
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Doubleday; First Edition (January 1, 1959)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 616 pages
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1 pounds

Customer Reviews:
4.5 625 ratings

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Allen Drury
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4.5 out of 5

625 global ratings

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Reviewed in the United States on January 20, 2024

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This is the first book by Alan Drury that I have read. It was amazingly good. So will I read the rest of the series? I’m not sure. It was excellent but rather emotionally draining. I’ll probably take a break, but may come back to the series after I recover.

One person found this helpful

The audio version with the narrator’s excellent job on creating the characters is perfect.

Reviewed in the United States on February 5, 2016

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Advise and Consent
Written by: Allen Drury
Narrated by: Allan Robertson
Length: 33 hrs and 17 mins
Series: Advise and Consent, Book 1
Unabridged Audiobook
Release Date:05-13-15
Publisher: ListenUp Audiobooks

When I was a teen in the 1970’s, and reading everything I could get my hands on, my mother suggested Advise and Consent by Allan Drury. I did not pick it up until I was 53 years old and my mother had been gone twenty-seven years. Mom, you were right. It is a fantastic book and well worth reading over and over.

The audiobook, narrated by Allan Robertson, is over 33 hours long. I was very impressed by the end of the first hour. Allan Robertson does a fantastic job narrating this book. His cast of characters range from the President to Senators from multiple states and regions to women. It was easy to hear which character was speaking. Mr. Robertson gave them individual, recognizable and authentic voices. No easy task with a book that involves so many characters.

The book itself, written in 1959, is a political thriller. It is also a very accurate look at how things get done in Washington behind the scene. The author gets it right how most of the work is done in committee and caucus meetings. Before the bill ever hits the full Senate, it has already gone through countless hours of negotiation. While this may sound boring, Drury makes it suspenseful and exciting.

The main plot of the story is the Senate deciding whether or not to confirm the President’s candidate for Secretary of State. Of all the cabinet positions, Secretary of State is the most visible and career enhancing. Several main characters are opposed to the nominee from the beginning, either through personal conflicts or ideological ones. When allegations arise that the nominee has communist sympathies (remember this is 1959 and there was still a very real Cold War with the USSR), the majority party is faced with the choice of doing what their party leader, the President, wants or doing what they feel is right for the country. Backroom deals and blackmail soon become the currency of securing the needed votes. It is still very relevant to the reader in 2016. The USSR may be gone into the history books, but the threats, perceived or real, to our country still exist.

The writing is excellent. One of my favorite quotes so far is, "who will do what and why, all the web of interlocking interests and desires and ambitions and arrangements that always lies behind the simple ultimate, final statement, 'The Senate voted today-." I love this one because it is so true. By the time the news reports what the Senate voted on, so much has happened to create those words. Another great quote is when the President is thinking about his mistake in supporting a Senator who is dishonest and power hungry. The President thinks, “He suspects he has created a baby Moloch who will continue to demand sacrifices.”

I highly recommend Advise and Consent. The audio version with the narrator’s excellent job on creating the characters is perfect. I just purchased the second book (Kindle and audio versions) in the series.

Story (Plot) 5
Performance 5
Production Quality 5
Attention Holding 5

I received Advise and Consent provided from Audiobook Jukebox in exchange for a fair review.

17 people found this helpful

Kindle Customer

a pinacle of political intrigue

Reviewed in the United States on July 22, 2020

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This treatise is one of the most politically accurate renditions of the US Senate during a time of Advise and Consent to a Presidential nomination. The depth of character development and glacial pace of the process mirrors the halls of the Senate in precise detail. It is a huge political tome, that can be breathtaking in its ability to weary the reader. One must have a strong reading discipline to complete this book. It isn't for the faint of heart, but will educate the reader at the graduate level with regards to the American political venue. I recommend this book to anyone who wants to know how the American political system works, and wants an interesting dramatic story at the same time.

One person found this helpful

Reviewed in the United States on December 27, 2023

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Prescient. Foul machinations described in novel continue today in U.S. Senate.

2 people found this helpful

Rick loves jazz

Perhaps the finest political novel ever written

Reviewed in the United States on May 3, 2015

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Think back to the Cold War. America was nervous about the Russians, who in 1957 launched Sputnik, the first manned satellite to orbit the earth. Our national defense strategy, mutual assured destruction made everyone nervous. The Soviets were aggressively pushing their Communist ideology all over the globe. In the face of Soviet cupidity, most Americans wanted us to take a strong stand, yet many were willing to do almost anything, including surrender, to avoid the risk of another war.

Against this background Allen Drury, a long time UPI correspondent who covered Capitol Hill, especially the US Senate, gives us a story surrounding the appointment of a new Secretary of State. The president, who unbeknownst to most was very ill, was looking for a "new approach" with the Soviets.

Part Whitaker Chambers/Alger Hiss drama, part McCarty-style bullying, part Truman replacing the ill FDR in the middle of world crisis, Drury demonstrates how the Senate works from the insider's perspective, showing how business gets done between senators who serve for decades and thus form personal relationships that allows work to be done as the result of those relationships.

At each stage along the newly-appointed Secretary's path of confirmation in the Senate, Drury ratchets up the tension, leading to an explosive conclusion.

Great Stuff!

4 people found this helpful

Advise & Consent - still a political page turner.

Reviewed in the United States on December 6, 2016

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Advise & Consent is the political novel and was the political novel of the year in 1959 winning a Pulitzer Price for is author Allen Drury.
A confession: I read this book when I was 12 or 13 years old and, interesting enough, remembered enough of it that the characters and situations remained in mind. Yet I thought I would give it a chance again after more than 56 years.
Essentially, the plot revolves around the nomination by the President of a leftish professor for the position of Secretary of State and the process of confirmation in the Senate.
The plot describes recognizable politicians or politicians with recognizable qualities engaged in a process in a very different Senate and a very different age. In that sense the novel is both archaic and a window on a world that no longer exists - both better and worse - with a Southern Democratic Racist Senator can be portrayed as sympathetic; Democrats and Republicans worked together; Senators were subject to internal discipline; and deals were cut.
However, this description does not give this fast paced engaging story its due even today.
Once picked up, you will not be able to stop turning the pages.

23 people found this helpful

Top reviews from other countries

Gianluca Carpiceci

More subtle and sohpisticated than House of Cards

Reviewed in Italy on May 18, 2017

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This is a loooong book, long and slow: you can assume the first third is just about setting the background, the second third starts seeing some seeds of action and only in the last third the novel picks up and becomes really engaging. But, if you have the patience to go through the lengthy and slow initial parts, the book can be rewarding.
On a literary level, the book is clearly a son of its times: the prose is very slow, enjoying itself in describing every minutiae in detail; the characters comes out as rather simple, 1-D, 2-D at best, but lacking in most cases depth and complexity, they don't see to know what subtlety is and, as a result of all this, often times they fall into clichés (plus, the author assigns a verbal tic - that of repeating the same exclamation two or three times in a row in the same sentence - to several characters, which contributed to flatten everybody's personality); moreover, inevitably enough, the society it portrays is one that has disappeared decades ago, and reading the dialogues - especially those in social situations - you feel like you are watching an episode of the Debbie Reynolds Show.
Since when the book was written, the man has conquered the moon, the Berlin wall has fallen, Communism has disappeared from the face of the earth, the internet and digital era have seen their dawn and rise, the Simpsons have replaced the Debbie Reynolds Show; yet, the political world, its dynamics, its psychology is still the same as 6 decades ago. You could easily replace the names of the characters, refresh a bit the prose and you would have a novel on politics of the XXIst century.
Whether, this is depressing, funny or just interesting, I leave it to personal reflexion; but that is one of the values of this book in my view.
Personally I don't think the book has an educational role in explaining the functioning of the Senate and of politics in general; maybe this was the case when the book was published, but I believe the awareness of how these things function (from all the work going on at committee level, the negotiations, the lobbying, the blackmailing, etc) is pretty high nowadays; with that said, I found the book of higher quality than House of Cards.

David Rees

US Politics

Reviewed in Australia on November 12, 2020

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Very current even though written some time ago

Roy Krahn

A Lesson For Congress

Reviewed in Canada on October 8, 2015

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One of the great novels on the machinations of the American Congress. A real page turner.

glory

The best novel about American politics ever written in my view

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 13, 2015

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The best novel about American politics ever written in my view. Have seen the film numerous times and love it but the book is, of course, more in-depth. As an American it rings true particularly how dirty American politics can get. This is a re-read for me though I originally read it over 50 years ago, together with the 3 further novels in the series. I enjoyed it as much the second time as the first. Would highly recommend.

One person found this helpful

Amazon Customer

Very relevant right now

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 13, 2019

Verified Purchase

This book gives an enthralling picture of the workings of the US Senate at a time when the Cold War was seen to be a big threat to the USA. Written with an eye for the ridiculous as well as the political drama, its as relevant today as it was back then

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