A Thing of State

by Allen Drury

In their conduct of foreign policy, modern American presidents must never utter threats they can't - or won't - enforce, make promises they can't - or won't - keep, or renege on their commitments to their allies. This is the underlying premise of the powerful new political novel by Allen Drury. The battle for strategic advantage, for the world's headlines and broadcasts, and for domestic political advantage, as the President prepares to run for a second term, forms the basis of this informed, sophisticated, and fascinating novel of present-day politics in all its tricky variations from Washington to Greater Lolome City, with the United Nations a major stop along the way.

Genres: Fiction

Hardcover

First published September 1, 1995

About the author

In 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)

Reviews

[Warren · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not his best work. Thinly drawn characters, but the plot moves fast. Seems particularly relevant with the current incumbent of the White House

[David · Rating 2 out of 5]

If you had asked me my opinion of this book when I read it in 1995, I wouldn't have had anything good to say about it. But, in the post-9/11 world, it has much more relevance.

[Joyce Cresswell-wargo · Rating 1 out of 5]

An interesting premise that made you think, but it was a slow boring read.