Modern Morality Play

Let me begin with the simplest fact: Allen Drury has done it again. In A Shade of Difference he has triumphantly duplicated the formula—and, predictably, the success—of his Pulitzer Prize-winning best-seller, Advise and Consent.

In the earlier book, the setting was the U. S. Senate, and the protagonists were its leaders and various other major figures on the Washington scene. Now the focus has shifted to the General Assembly of the United Nations, and the central conflict is fought out on a world stage. But the author’s technique remains exactly the same. He paints the picture swiftly, and on a gigantic scale—reminiscent, almost, of one of those huge Mexican murals: crowded, heroic, oversimplified no doubt, but nonetheless powerful and readily intelligible. Principal characters are brought sharply to the fore, and realized in wholly convincing detail; the rest are sketched swiftly and economically, and all—big and small alike—act out their roles in the glamorous goldfish-bowl of the UN, or on the heights of power in Washington. (Many of the key scenes take place in the General Assembly itself, or in the glossy Delegates’ Lounge overlooking the East River.)

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About the Author

William A. Rusher

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Let me begin with the simplest fact: Allen Drury has done it again. In A Shade of Difference he has triumphantly duplicated the formula—and, predictably, the success—of his Pulitzer Prize-winning best-seller, Advise and Consent.

In the earlier book, the setting was the U. S. Senate, and the protagonists were its leaders and various other major figures on the Washington scene. Now the focus has shifted to the General Assembly of the United Nations, and the central conflict is fought out on a world stage. But the author’s technique remains exactly the same. He paints the picture swiftly, and on a gigantic scale—reminiscent, almost, of one of those huge Mexican murals: crowded, heroic, oversimplified no doubt, but nonetheless powerful and readily intelligible. Principal characters are brought sharply to the fore, and realized in wholly convincing detail; the rest are sketched swiftly and economically, and all—big and small alike—act out their roles in the glamorous goldfish-bowl of the UN, or on the heights of power in Washington. (Many of the key scenes take place in the General Assembly itself, or in the glossy Delegates’ Lounge overlooking the East River.)