- Drury, Allen.
Come Nineveh, Come Tyre.
New York: Avon, 1973.
ISBN 978-0-380-00126-2.
-
This novel is one of the two alternative conclusions the
author wrote for the series which began with his Pulitzer
Prize winning
Advise and Consent.
As the series progressed, Drury became increasingly
over the top (some would say around the bend) in skewering
the media, academia, and the Washington liberal establishment
of the 1960s and 1970 with wickedly ironic satire apt to
make the skulls of contemporary
bien pensants
explode.
The story is set in a time in which the U.S. is involved in two
protracted and broadly unpopular foreign wars, one seemingly
winding down, the other an ongoing quagmire, both launched by a
deeply despised president derided by the media and opposition as
a warmonger. Due to a set of unexpected twists and turns in an
electoral campaign like no other, a peace candidate emerges as
the nominee of his party—a candidate with no foreign
policy experience but supreme self-confidence, committed to
engaging America's adversaries directly in one-on-one diplomacy,
certain the outstanding conflicts can be thus resolved and, with
multilateral good will, world peace finally achieved. This
eloquent, charismatic, almost messianic candidate mobilises the
support of a new generation, previously disengaged from
politics, who not only throw their youthful vigour behind his
campaign but enter the political arena themselves and support
candidates aligned with the presidential standard bearer.
Around the world, the candidate is praised as heralding a new
era in America. The media enlist themselves on his side in an
unprecedented manner, passing, not just on editorial pages but
in supposedly objective news coverage, from artful bias to open
partisanship. Worrisome connections between the candidate and
radicals unwilling to renounce past violent acts, anti-American
demagogues, and groups which resort to thuggish tactics against
opponents and critics do not figure in the media's adulatory
coverage of their chosen one. The media find themselves easily
intimidated by even veiled threats of violence, and quietly
self-censor criticism of those who oppose liberty for fear of
“offending.” The candidate, inspiring the nation
with hope for peace and change for the better, wins a decisive
victory, sweeping in strong majorities in both the House and
Senate, including many liberal freshmen aligned with the
president-elect and owing their seats to the coattails of his
victory. Bear in mind that this novel was published in
1973!
This is the story of what happens after the candidate of peace,
change, and hope takes office, gives a stunningly eloquent,
visionary, and bold inaugural address, and basks in worldwide
adulation while everything goes swimmingly—for about
twelve hours. Afterward, well, things don't, and a
cataclysmic set of events are set into motion which
threaten to change the U.S. in ways other than were hoped by
those who elected the new man.
Now, this book was published three and a half decades ago, and
much has changed in the intervening time, which doubtless
explains why all of the books in the series are now long out of
print. But considering the précis above, and how
prophetic many of its elements were of the present situation in
the U.S., maybe there's some wisdom here relevant to the changes
underway there. Certainly one hopes that used booksellers
aren't getting a lot of orders for this volume from buyers in
Moscow, Beijing, Pyongyang, and Tehran. I had not read this
book since its initial publication (when, despite almost
universal disdain from the liberal media, it sold almost 200,000
copies in hardcover), and found in re-reading it that the story,
while obviously outdated in some regards (the enemy of yore, the
Soviet Bear, is no more, but who knows where Russia's headed?),
especially as regards the now-legacy media, stands up better
than I remembered it from the first reading. The embrace of
media content regulation by a “liberal” administration is
especially chilling at a time when talk of re-imposing the
“Fairness Doctrine” and enforcing “network
neutrality” is afoot in Washington.
All editions of this book are out of print, but used copies of the
mass-market paperback are presently available for little more
than the shipping cost. Get yours before the bad guys clean
out the shelves!
December 2008 