The Congressman Who Loved Flaubert and Other Washington Stories by Ward Just

"I have always tried never to let people down without warning them." Senator Thomas Hayn in "Noone"

Our nation's capital in The Congressman Who Loved Flaubert and Other Washington Stories by Ward Just is filled with men and women who are disillusioned. A liberal Southern congressman co-sponsors legislation that he hopes will stall in committee. A foreign service expert is loaned to the CIA and can not regain his position in the State Department. A Pentagon aide regrets the Medal of Honor that he is awarded for leading his men into an ambush in Vietnam. A senator depends on the charms of his wife to sidetrack an investigative reporter. White House staff despises their replacements in the new administration. Everyone feels broken.

All of these stories were published in Atlantic Monthly in the early 1970s, but they still seem relevant. Color television is a luxury, everyone drinks martinis, and no one has a personal computer, but the political struggle is just the same. Long out of print, you will have to borrow this book from a public or college library.

Just, Ward. The Congressman Who Loved Flaubert and Other Washington Stories. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1973. There is no ISBN.