Point of View

In The Last Supper, Charles McCarry uses an anonymous and omniscient third-person narrator. It is told in the past tense but dialogue is used extensively. This switches naturally between past, present, and future tenses. The narrator is positively inclined towards the protagonist, Paul Christopher, his parents, Hubbard and Lori Christopher, and his lover of two years, Molly Benson. A few characters are painted rather consistently evil including, of course, Japanese, Nazi German, and later Soviet enemies. There is a sniveling officer who turns out to be not only a Red but also a homosexual, which in the 1950s is considered villainous and a preening and aggressive investigative reporter.

The narrator is ambivalent towards Barnabas "Barney" Wolkowicz, a character in focus more of the time than any other. Barney is a physically ugly character whose musical talent regularly causes amazement. He is ill-treated early in the novel...