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Advise and Consent #6
The Promise of Joy
What will President Knox do when confronted by the most awesome challenge of atomic war between Russia and China.
445 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1975
18 people are currently reading
154 people want to read
About the author
Allen Drury
59 books48 followersIn late 1943, Allen Stuart Drury, a 25-year old Army veteran, sought work. A position as the Senate correspondent for United Press International provided him with employment and insider knowledge of the Senate. In addition to fulfilling his duties as a reporter, he kept a journal of his views of the Senate and individual senators. In addition to the Senate personalities, his journal captured the events of the 78th & 79th Congresses.
Although written in the mid-1940s, his diary was not published until 1963. "A Senate Journal" found an audience in part because of the great success of "Advise and Consent," his novel in 1959 about the consideration in the Senate of a controversial nominee for secretary of state. His greatest success was "Advise and Consent," was made into a film in 1962. The book was partly inspired by the suicide of Lester C. Hunt, senator from Wyoming. It spent 102 weeks on the New York Times' best-seller list. 'Advise & Consent' led to several sequels. 'A Shade of Difference' is set a year later. Drury then turned his attention to the next presidential election after those events with 'Capable of Honor' & 'Preserve & Protect'. He then wrote two alternative sequels based on a different outcome of an assassination attack in an earlier work: 'Come Nineveh, Come Tyre' & 'The Promise of Joy'. In 1971, he published 'The Throne of Saturn', a sf novel about the 1st attempt at sending a manned mission to Mars. He dedicated the work "To the US Astronauts & those who help them fly." Political characters in the book are archetypal rather than comfortably human. The book carries a strong anti-communist flavor. The book has a lot to say about interference in the space program by leftist Americans. Having wrapped up his political series by '75, Drury began a new one with the '77 novel 'Anna Hastings', more about journalism than politics. He returned to the timeline in '79, with the political novel 'Mark Coffin USS' (tho the main relationship between the two books was that Hastings was a minor character in 'Mark Coffin USS's sequels). It was succeeded, by the two-part 'The Hill of Summer' & 'The Roads of Earth', which are true sequels to 'Mark Coffin USS' He also wrote stand-alone novels, 'Decision' & 'Pentagon', as well as several other fiction & non-fiction works. His political novels have been described as page-turners, set against the Cold War, with an aggressive USSR seeking to undermine the USA. Drury lived in Tiburon, CA from '64 until his '98 cardiac arrest. He'd completed his 20th novel, 'Public Men' set at Stanford, just two weeks before his death. He died on 9/2/98 at St Mary's Medical Center in San Francisco, on his 80th birthday. He never married.--Wikipedia (edited)
Although written in the mid-1940s, his diary was not published until 1963. "A Senate Journal" found an audience in part because of the great success of "Advise and Consent," his novel in 1959 about the consideration in the Senate of a controversial nominee for secretary of state. His greatest success was "Advise and Consent," was made into a film in 1962. The book was partly inspired by the suicide of Lester C. Hunt, senator from Wyoming. It spent 102 weeks on the New York Times' best-seller list. 'Advise & Consent' led to several sequels. 'A Shade of Difference' is set a year later. Drury then turned his attention to the next presidential election after those events with 'Capable of Honor' & 'Preserve & Protect'. He then wrote two alternative sequels based on a different outcome of an assassination attack in an earlier work: 'Come Nineveh, Come Tyre' & 'The Promise of Joy'. In 1971, he published 'The Throne of Saturn', a sf novel about the 1st attempt at sending a manned mission to Mars. He dedicated the work "To the US Astronauts & those who help them fly." Political characters in the book are archetypal rather than comfortably human. The book carries a strong anti-communist flavor. The book has a lot to say about interference in the space program by leftist Americans. Having wrapped up his political series by '75, Drury began a new one with the '77 novel 'Anna Hastings', more about journalism than politics. He returned to the timeline in '79, with the political novel 'Mark Coffin USS' (tho the main relationship between the two books was that Hastings was a minor character in 'Mark Coffin USS's sequels). It was succeeded, by the two-part 'The Hill of Summer' & 'The Roads of Earth', which are true sequels to 'Mark Coffin USS' He also wrote stand-alone novels, 'Decision' & 'Pentagon', as well as several other fiction & non-fiction works. His political novels have been described as page-turners, set against the Cold War, with an aggressive USSR seeking to undermine the USA. Drury lived in Tiburon, CA from '64 until his '98 cardiac arrest. He'd completed his 20th novel, 'Public Men' set at Stanford, just two weeks before his death. He died on 9/2/98 at St Mary's Medical Center in San Francisco, on his 80th birthday. He never married.--Wikipedia (edited)
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
October 25, 2025
Advise & Consent, based on the Pulitzer Prize Winner by Allen Drury
A different version of this note and thoughts on other books are available at:
- https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list... and http://realini.blogspot.ro/
Advise & Consent is a formidable political drama that is at times as tense as any thriller worthy of its name.
This spectacular film benefits from a stupendous original material that has won the Pulitzer Prize in 1960.
The director Otto Preminger has been three times nominated for an Academy Award and has been at the helm of films like:
- Anatomy of a Murder and Exodus
Henry Fonda is tremendous as always in the role of Robert Leffingwell and so is Charles Laughton, even if the latter seemed somewhat tired.
The president has nominated Leffingwell to become his next secretary of state and the Senate committee must decide on this proposal.
There are machinations and behind closed doors negotiations that are familiar and relevant to this present day.
Over the past couple of days, the American House of Representatives has passed a bill to repeal Obama Care.
This is only going one third of the way, as discussions and polemic will ensue in the Senate, but I can’t help but think that what is going on right now in those white marble halls must look very similar to what we can see in Advise and Consent.
Furthermore, the pick of The Donald- a president that does not resemble the one in this movie, frail as he is, but Trump acts more like a Disney cartoon- was also a very controversial one and behaves in a strange manner, at least towards the press he avoids.
Robert Leffingwell is supported by most of his own party as is to be expected, but he is furiously opposed by Senator Seabright Cooley from Alabama and portrayed prodigiously by Charles Laughton.
The nominee has some skeletons in the closet, even if they pale in comparison with what is publicly known and yet ignored by the fans of the narcissist who boasted about grabbing women by their pussy and walking in the dressing rooms of teenage contestants of beauty pageants just because he can get away with…well, it turns out almost anything.
The contrast between what bad things people in the movie do and what this unscrupulous, ridiculous monster has done and still got promoted to the most important position in the world is overwhelming.
Robert Leffingwell had some sympathy in his youth for communist ideas and I abhor that, having lived for twenty five years under a communist regime.
But there is a joke that says that:
- Who is not a communist when young has no heart, but who is still a communist when old has no brains
I would rather have no one entertaining commie thoughts, young or old, but having made a mistake in youth does not mean that that person should be stigmatized for life and comparing still with real life, voters have forgiven thousands of times more in the case of a man who is in real life the leader of the free world.
- Some leader!!!
In the film, the Senate committee is led by another man who is accomplished, scrupulous and idealistic now.
Alas, there is something in his past that would create a lot of trouble if it came to light and blackmailers speculate that.
I cannot help but jump to reality yet again and think what that would do to a politician in this day and age.
Homosexuality is not illegal anymore in America, but it is regarded differently in the Bible belt and The West and East Coast.
It is preposterous to see what can damage the career of a politician on screen, decades ago and how much voters can take without disgust when they elect someone to the highest office and even more disappointing is to find out that those same supporters are not disappointed by the lousy performance of this clown, in his first one hundred days in office, but on the contrary they are still enraptured.
Indeed, as Bill Mahler said on his show:
- It does not matter what Trump does, they will still vote for him…actually the orange man himself has said as much
Advise & Consent is a stunning movie.
A different version of this note and thoughts on other books are available at:
- https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list... and http://realini.blogspot.ro/
Advise & Consent is a formidable political drama that is at times as tense as any thriller worthy of its name.
This spectacular film benefits from a stupendous original material that has won the Pulitzer Prize in 1960.
The director Otto Preminger has been three times nominated for an Academy Award and has been at the helm of films like:
- Anatomy of a Murder and Exodus
Henry Fonda is tremendous as always in the role of Robert Leffingwell and so is Charles Laughton, even if the latter seemed somewhat tired.
The president has nominated Leffingwell to become his next secretary of state and the Senate committee must decide on this proposal.
There are machinations and behind closed doors negotiations that are familiar and relevant to this present day.
Over the past couple of days, the American House of Representatives has passed a bill to repeal Obama Care.
This is only going one third of the way, as discussions and polemic will ensue in the Senate, but I can’t help but think that what is going on right now in those white marble halls must look very similar to what we can see in Advise and Consent.
Furthermore, the pick of The Donald- a president that does not resemble the one in this movie, frail as he is, but Trump acts more like a Disney cartoon- was also a very controversial one and behaves in a strange manner, at least towards the press he avoids.
Robert Leffingwell is supported by most of his own party as is to be expected, but he is furiously opposed by Senator Seabright Cooley from Alabama and portrayed prodigiously by Charles Laughton.
The nominee has some skeletons in the closet, even if they pale in comparison with what is publicly known and yet ignored by the fans of the narcissist who boasted about grabbing women by their pussy and walking in the dressing rooms of teenage contestants of beauty pageants just because he can get away with…well, it turns out almost anything.
The contrast between what bad things people in the movie do and what this unscrupulous, ridiculous monster has done and still got promoted to the most important position in the world is overwhelming.
Robert Leffingwell had some sympathy in his youth for communist ideas and I abhor that, having lived for twenty five years under a communist regime.
But there is a joke that says that:
- Who is not a communist when young has no heart, but who is still a communist when old has no brains
I would rather have no one entertaining commie thoughts, young or old, but having made a mistake in youth does not mean that that person should be stigmatized for life and comparing still with real life, voters have forgiven thousands of times more in the case of a man who is in real life the leader of the free world.
- Some leader!!!
In the film, the Senate committee is led by another man who is accomplished, scrupulous and idealistic now.
Alas, there is something in his past that would create a lot of trouble if it came to light and blackmailers speculate that.
I cannot help but jump to reality yet again and think what that would do to a politician in this day and age.
Homosexuality is not illegal anymore in America, but it is regarded differently in the Bible belt and The West and East Coast.
It is preposterous to see what can damage the career of a politician on screen, decades ago and how much voters can take without disgust when they elect someone to the highest office and even more disappointing is to find out that those same supporters are not disappointed by the lousy performance of this clown, in his first one hundred days in office, but on the contrary they are still enraptured.
Indeed, as Bill Mahler said on his show:
- It does not matter what Trump does, they will still vote for him…actually the orange man himself has said as much
Advise & Consent is a stunning movie.
September 23, 2020
A dynamic exciting and thought provoking ending, to the advise and concent series.
Orrin Knox rises to the occasion aganist the clamor of the media and impossible odds aganist a world shattering crisis.
Orrin Knox rises to the occasion aganist the clamor of the media and impossible odds aganist a world shattering crisis.
October 31, 2018
What happens when a strong patriot is elected President, facing a divided country and a hostile media. Written during the Cold War, but with echoes of current events.
September 4, 2025
Really good ending to one of my favorite series. Still outlandish in many ways, but an interesting dystopian view. Wish Orrin got a happier ending, but I choose to believe his gamble worked and he did launch the world closer to peace.
June 12, 2018
6 out of 10
September 4, 2018
Gripping, but scary.
August 12, 2009
Interesting concept: Drury has two endings--each a full-length novel--conclusion to his Advise and Consent series. The other, Come Nineveh, Come Tyre: The Presidency of Edward M. Jason, takes exactly the same set up, at the end of Preserve And Protect; A Novel--a bomb explosion at the rally for a unity presidential ticket--and runs out the possibility that the hard, conservative candidate survives. Judging by the title and the tone of Drury's writing, you don't have to read the book to know how it turns out.
It was okay.
It was okay.
December 30, 2012
After some of his more energetic and engaging works (Advice and Consent), this one fails. It's stuffed with what seems like every left-over factoid he recalls from his professional life. Good editing might actually have pulled several gripping boooks out of this bulk.
March 5, 2009
Semi realistic account of a post apocalyptic world.
June 13, 2014
Second ending to Preserve and Protect
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews