Advise and Consent

Summary

The novel turns on the Senate's bruising confirmation fight over a controversial nominee for Secretary of State, tracking senators, staffers, and journalists as private vulnerabilities collide with Cold War stakes. Drury, a longtime Washington reporter, builds the plot from procedural detail—committee hearings, cloakroom bargains, leaked dossiers—rather than melodrama. The book set the template for the modern Washington political novel and inspired a long line of imitators.