Capable of Honor

It's nothing short of uncanny how this political novel written from December 1964 to December 1965 anticipates the violence and passions of the 1968 Democratic convention in Chicago. Here the scene is the Cow Palace in San Francisco (Daly City, actually), where the party in power is trying to renominate its current President, whom we already know from the two earlier books in the series. The first one, Advise and Consent, is one of the great political novels, perhaps the greatest one of all even, while the second, A Shade of Difference, is readable but tedious. This one, which shares most of the same characters of the first two books is nearly as good as Advise and Consent and is just as unput-downable.One of the great strengths of Advice and Consent and, I think, the reason for the fascination that it holds on the reader, is that the author appeared to be deeply ambivalent about Robert Leffingwell, the man nominated to be Secretary of State. For 100 pages he shows the reader just why he *should* be accepted by the Senate. Then new information comes out and there are 100 pages of why of he *shouldn't* be confirmed. Then *more* information comes out and our viewpoint shifts yet again. In other words, Leffingwell was mostly an attractive character but with some very human character flaws. Right up to the very end the reader genuinely doesn't know whether he should be confirmed or not. The other main characters in the book were similarly depicted (except of, course, for the despicable Senator Fred Van Ackerman).In A Shade of Difference Drury lost his compassionate and understanding viewpoint and drew his characters in much clearer black and white tones. There were good guys and bad guys and in spite of the book's title there really weren't many shades in their characters. They were all good or all bad.Here in the third book Drury to some degree recaptures the skill and humanity he brought to Advise and Consent. Robert Leffingwell is back as a semi-major character and this time he seems to have moved out of Drury's disfavor into a far more positive role. And one of the other major characters of the book, the Governor of California, who first seeks his party's Vice-Presidential nomination, and then the Presidency itself, is also depicted in first quite favorable terms that then gradually shade off to gray. It is a believable portrait of a basically good and decent man who is, nevertheless, an overly ambitious politician.The other main strength of the book is the narrative tension that Drury creates as he depicts the struggle for the nominations. There is genuine tension here, because it's a real struggle for real goals, just as it was in Advise and Consent. And just as it was *not* in the second book, in which the various votes and rollcalls at the United Nations were clearly contrived and struggled to capture the reader's interest.The *real* problem with this book, and why it's only a 4-star book instead of a 5-star, is the totally un

If you can't understand why conservatives still complain about the liberal media in this day of talk radio and cable news shows, read this. Published in 1966, this is a great characterization of the way the mainstream media--primarily the major tv networks and newspapers--attempted to set the parameters of acceptable political opinion in America at the time. And why many conservatives believe that, for those two news sources at least, not much has changed.

. . .of an outstanding series.In "Advise and Consent", Allen Drury brought us into the inner workings of the US Senate. In "A Shade of Difference" he brought us into the inner workings of the United Nations. He continued his excellent "Advise and Consent" series with a book that touched upon the overwhelming power of the media to form and force public opinion, and did so in a context (that of a violently divided Presidential nominating convention) which resonates true today.When Mr. Drury was writing, his main fear was the communist threat. His books need to be read and understood in that context. However, don't think for a moment that his books are not timely today. Take a look at the political and journalistic situation surrounding the 2000 Presidential election, and one can easily see how insightful Mr. Drury was. (20 years in the newspaper business did him some good!)I'm sorry that we have lost Mr. Drury -- I would have enjoyed his take on recent events in the US.

At first glance one might look at this tale of a bitterly divided political convention centered around America's Cold War commitment in a Third World country, and the ensuing violence as a conservative's reaction to the 1968 Democratic Convention. But what makes this novel so remarkable is that it was written nearly two years *before* the spectacle of Chicago in 1968. Drury's blatant political conservatism has often caused his works to be sadly overlooked for their prescience and insights into American society given the prevailing bias of critics, but "Capable Of Honor", like the rest of the "Advise And Consent" is a masterpiece of political novels.