Pulitzer Book Club Inclusion Guide
"Advise and Consent" by Allen Drury
INCLUSION MILESTONES
1960
• Greensboro Four stage civil rights movement sit-in prompts Woolworth to serve first Black customer at Greensboro counter
• FDA approves first commercial birth control pill
AUTHOR INSPIRATIONS
Stanford grad Drury was a former Senate reporter during the FDR and Truman administrations; he wrote for the NY Times as well as Washington Evening Star.
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Featured Reader
– Share your key take-away about inclusion in this book in a sentence or two.
– Write a paragraph or two (up to 250 words) to describe your thoughts on exclusion/inclusion in the book, why you related or did not connect with the book, and why you think reading, inclusion and dialog about inclusion matter.
– Identify the name and website address of a cause you support with an inclusive mission.
Dirty politics, communism, Senator's personal life, shape Senate confirmation hearing
Supreme Court justice finds/steals envelope that contains a secret which reveals the prejudice of the day as well the integrity of all privy to the contents of that envelope.
Political fiction published a few years after the McCarthy communist hearings and a month before the U.S.S.R. becomes the first to land a spacecraft on the moon.
Long book at 616 pages or 33+ hours. Slow-ish narrator might trigger play-back speed-up. Feels like a filibuster at times
Be true. Reflect your principles in your actions; overrule ambition, retribution, expediency, and quid pro quo.
99 of 100 senators are male. The one woman in the senate is “grandmotherly” and “might” be equal to her peers; other women are secretaries and wives who stand by their man or melt under pressure. Communist link is a national security threat. Sexual orientation is a potential career wrecker; serial one-night stands are OK and manly. President refers to Russians as commies and uses an ethnic insult to describe the Jewish senator who appears to be the only non-WASP in power. Witness repeatedly dragged into gutter via mental illness in an open Senate hearing.
It’s all about who you’re eating with and who sees you; the food isn’t that important. Attention must be paid to alcohol, however; those who sense upcoming ugliness might opt for a heavy pour of whiskey, those who want to keep their wits about them will want ginger ale, and network news broadcaster might require multiple cocktails.
“That’s the only way anything ever gets done in the American government. When it suits the purposes of enough people.”
Somebody’s private office with a back door so you can exit unnoticed; beware of the guard dog secretary in the outer office.
How are women and Jewish people portrayed in the novel?
Obviously this trip is to The Capitol. Have your SO drop you off a few blocks from your destination so you can decide whether or not to do the right and obvious thing. Side trip to Jefferson Memorial to think big thoughts and plan your political future with your partner.
1962 “Advise and Consent” film.
“Advise and Consent” is the first of a six-book series that includes “A Shade of Difference,” “Capable of Honor,” “Preserve & Protect,” “Come Nineveh, Come Tyre: The Presidency of Edward M. Jason,” “The Promise of Joy”