America's Greatest Espionage Writer
The Crime Scene
By OTTO PENZLER
May 17, 2006
Upon the publication of Charles McCarry's most recent spy novel, "Old Boys," I wrote a column about him for The New York Sun (June 2, 2004), and, as the former New York Yankees manager Casey Stengel would say, you could look it up. In it, I described him as "the greatest espionage writer that America has ever produced."
I also wrote: "One of the great bafflements of contemporary literature is the fact that Mr. McCarry is not one of the household names whose books soar to the top of the bestseller lists."
A few weeks ago, a gentleman named Jacob Heilbrunn reviewed for the New York Times Book Review (April 2) the reissue of Mr. McCarry's splendid novel, "The Last Supper" (Overlook Press, 389 pages, $24.95). He wrote: "McCarry has written numerous novels, including the popular 'The Tears of Autumn,' but he has never been a household name."
In my column, I also wrote: "Mr. McCarry is the American [John] le Carre, equaling him stylistically but surpassing his English counterpart in terms of intellectual depth and moral clarity. While Mr. le Carre indulges in moral relativism, essentially suggesting that the spies of Western democratic governments are not noticeably more decent or ethical than those who work for totalitarian regimes, Mr. McCarry takes the opposite view. He recognizes that relentless duplicity, especially to those one loves, has a damaging effect on the psyche. Nonetheless, he endows his protagonists with a basic decency that even the onerous weight of a clandestine life cannot eradicate."
In his review, Mr. Heilbrunn writes: "Le Carre depicts the remorseless grind of life as a spy not as an end in it self, but to draw broader lessons about loyalty and betrayal. Still, McCarry never succumbs to a bogus moral equivalence in which Western operatives are as nefarious as their Communist counterparts."
These paragraphs seem to bear striking resemblance to one another, but please do not misunderstand. I am not suggesting for one instant (and I am emphatically not being sarcastic here) that Mr. Heilbrunn read my column and cribbed from it. His review was intelligent, moral, and praiseworthy in every respect. The point is that these observations are so obviously and importantly accurate that, when I necessarily reiterate them here while praising "The Last Supper,"I don't want anyone saying,"Uh, hello, I just read that."
The Overlook Press is reissuing Mr. McCarry's spy novels in hardcover, which is what they deserve, because they are as much a part of our national literature as the works of Mark Twain, Raymond Chandler, and Ernest Hemingway and deserve the permanence of well-made, durable volumes that belong on the shelves of anyone who thinks good books matter.
It is a trifle peculiar, however, for the publisher to reissue "The Last Supper" before reissuing "The Secret Lovers," which not only preceded it chronologically but features the same hero, Paul Christopher, some of whose experiences in the earlier book are alluded to in the latter. There is no way that I want to say anything to suggest you shouldn't drop everything and get a copy of "The Last Supper," which is a masterpiece, but I'd like to make a strong plea for you also to get "The Miernik Dossier," Mr. McCarry's first spy book and "The Tears of Autumn," possibly the greatest espionage novel ever written and certainly the most compelling effort to unravel the many secrets surrounding the assassination of President Kennedy. Then read them in the proper sequence, because it matters - not a lot, but still ...
Paul Christopher is the son of Hubbard Christopher who, in "The Last Supper," joins "the Outfit" (aka the CIA) in an attempt to find his wife, Lori, a member of a wealthy Prussian family who ran afoul of the Gestapo near the outbreak of World War II and disappeared. When Hubbard is killed, Paul, a poet (as is Mr. McCarry), also joins the Outfit in order to help find his father's murderer. The young man quickly learns that he is good as an intelligence agent and his career eventually takes him to Vietnam in the 1960s, as well as communist China - in a prison camp.
In its way, "The Last Supper" is a history of the Outfit. Not quite as obviously or as ambitiously as Robert Littell's excellent "The Company" (Overlook, 896 pages, $15), but at least as knowingly (Mr. McCarry was a deep undercover CIA agent during the years of Communist threat). From its individualistic beginnings during World War II to its bureaucratic bloating in the Cold War era and beyond, readers have the opportunity to see the organization in operation, mainly through the eyes of the heroic central figure.
As with all of Mr. McCarry's novels, there is a large cast of characters who rarely do what you think they'll do and who may fool you in the most astonishing ways. There are, too, quotable dialogue and pithy aphorisms galore.
One character expresses a certain frustration in his relationship with the Soviets. "What's it like, working for the Russians?" he is asked. "Maddening," he replies. "They are not a nation of watchmakers, the Russians. They do everything with a sledgehammer."
There is an illuminating moment when the difference is explained between an individual murder and one committed as a necessary action in the labyrinthine world of espionage. Mr. McCarry writes of a murderer: "He feels remorse, guilt, shame, self-disgust: He is an outcast; imprisonment is a relief." But, he continues,
The man who kills at the order of an intelligence service has none of these ... psychological problems: in committing a murder that in other circumstances would be regarded as the work of a psychopath, he has done his country a service and his country pays him, gets rid of the murder weapon, and folds him in its maternal embrace."
Does this seem cold? Maybe that explains why a spy might want to come in from it.
Mr. Penzler is the proprietor of the Mysterious Bookshop in Manhattan and the series editor of the annual "Best American Mystery Stories." He can be reached at ottopenzler@mysteriousbookshop.com.
Welcome back to ~Before We Were Blogging~! Today's episode features a link to a great conversation hosted at the [superlative] beatrice.com literary site between Overlook Press' highly beloved novelist June Watson and Juliet Marillier. Both live near Perth, Australia and both are writing trilogies.
Pens down! Here's the solution to this week's Japanese Puzzle of the Future! We hope you enjoyed Hitori! Thanks for playing our game!
Just to add to the great reviews for Rod Kedward's FRANCE AND THE FRENCH posted here, this front page review from the San Diego Union-Tribune just landed on my desk... Some choice quotes:
Everyone at The Overlook Press is psyched about BEFORE: SHORT STORIES ABOUT PREGNANCY FROM OUR TOP WRITER due out in April. Editors Heather Swain and Emily Franklin have assembled quite a table of contents:
Sudoku and Kakuro are sweeping the nation. But you wanna know what's next. You wanna be the first on your block who gets into the next big thing. You want the cute subway rider next to you to be all like "What the heck are you doing there, you smart and cute fellow subway rider??"
BOOKLIST January 1st & 15th, 2006:
Romance Reviews Today gives Jules Watson's Dawn Stag a 10 out of 10.
From the days before we were blogging (*before* we were blogging??): good word about Honky Tonk Parade by John Lahr from the always-glittering emdashes.
The treacherous bumps that have plagued the Overlook hallway have been removed today after many furious tool noises. I will miss the bumps tremendously. After today hallway tripping will be down 99%. Thanks to Ottessa and all who brought us to this glorious day. I am looking into acquiring plastic bowling equipment for after hours pin-tipping. --Jim
After we saw this in Gawker, we thought we'd give it a try with some of our new books. Will the magic title machine give us good news? Are Overlook's books titled to move?
[Elephant Trunk Trumpet Noise!] We're out of the office until Tuesday in honor of Martin Luther King. Until then, sample the crazy blogosphere buzz that THE 13 1/2 LIVES OF CAPTAIN BLUEBEAR by Walter Moers is accumulating.
Check out the great cover for Kiss for a Killer! And my hand! Honey is ready to take on a whole new generation of readers! Check out This Girl for Hire which is now available. Or Honey will shoot you! --Jim
2005, only recently departed, was a remarkable year for the Overlook Press. We published in all our traditional areas, and had some outstanding successes in fiction and history: everything from Robert Littell’s LEGENDS, and the reissues of the earlier works of Charles’s McCarry (OLD BOYS), to major works of history such as Hugh Pope’s SONS OF THE CONQUERORS and the continuation of Edward Albee’s collected plays, and some really odd books as Walter Moers' international bestseller THE 13 1/2 LIVES OF CAPTAIN BLUEBEAR. But what really broke the Overlook mold this year and took us far ahead was the curious phenomenon of Overlook being first out in America—and consequently the industry leader month after month after month—with that tantalizing and addictive Japanese puzzle that has swept the world, SUDOKU.
hat more difficult Japanese puzzle which will run along side it. I’m told that in Japan KAKURO is bigger than SUDOKU, who knows. From Overlook’s point of view this phenomenon I’ve noted above has performed a small miracle for our small but growing company. Originally launched with independent bookstores and chains like Borders, Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble and Books-a-Million, the SUDOKU craze became so great that sales fanned out to mass merchandisers who had the courage to be first with an unusual mass market product.
Overlook's Book of Sudoku came in as Bookscan's #110 best-selling book of the Year, outselling the latest Star Wars movie novelization! The force is with *us* it would appear! And exciting Kakuro news is forthcoming! Be the first on your block to get into 2006's puzzle craze.
We hope your holidays were delightful. The elephant is back in the building. Looking forward to 2006!--Jim
The Thousandfold Thought: The Prince of Nothing, Book Three
Here's a free Kakuro puzzle to take your mind off the hideous gridlock!
Like a snow day without snow, or a blackout with electricity...
Greetings from your puzzle maestro. Here's a free puzzle from our best-selling Sudoku books you can print out and solve this weekend.
Every week when we distribute copies of all the press our books have received around the office, we have a different elephant picture on the cover page. So here's our elephant picture of the week, commemorating our intern Molly's last day with us.
The Daily Candy e-mail newsletter featured WHEN YOU LUNCH WITH THE EMPEROR today...bet you didn't know that the author of the Madeline children's books shot at a waiter when he was 14 and working in a restaurant.
There's a front page USA TODAY Arts article about Overlook's The Book of Kakuro by Michael Mepham! Check it out! How prepared are you for the coming Kakuro rage?
