Political Fiction, the Spirit of Age, and Allen Drury

The President of the United States, says the Constitution, cannot act in many specified instances without the "advice and consent" of Congress. But "advice" is not a strong word. And taking or not taking advice is a fairly nebulous situation . . . creating an instability, a fundamental ambiguity, at the very heart of power, between the Congress and the President. It is this instability, and this wide-openness, that allows the free play of the more intangible types of power that begin where the constitution breaks off: sex, personality, and character. Things which are left out of civics textbooks are what Allen Drury took as his subject in such novels as Advise and Consent, A Shade of Difference, and Capable of Honor.