O'Rourke on McCarry, Fry on Wodehouse

P.J. O'Rourke calls Charles McCarry, whose praises I've sung a few times here and there in this blog, "the best modern writer on the subject of intrigue--by the breadth of Alan Furst, by the fathom of Eric Ambler, by any measure." He also reveals his explanation for "why McCarry has never achieved the popularity of John LeCarré, the author to whom he is most often compared."

McCarry has LeCarré's interest in ethical complexities and the tart style of LeCarré's early work. But, unlike John LeCarré, Charles McCarry knows right from wrong. His theme is never that the other side is just like our side except on the other side. McCarry's plots turn on the search for truth. The author and his heroes aren't in doubt about what the truth is: Good is good, and bad is bad.

Meanwhile, in the Guardian, Stephen Fry whets my appetite for Robert McCrum's bio of P.G. Wodehouse, soon to appear in the U.S. "No lover of Wodehouse will want to be without this masterly appraisal of the good life of a good man," Fry writes. "Who happened to be a very, very great writer indeed."