Synopses & Reviews
Washington, D.C., in the early 1950s: a world of bare-knuckled ideology, hard drinking, and secret dossiers, dominated by such outsized characters as Richard Nixon, Drew Pearson, Perle Mesta, and Joe McCarthy. Into this fevered city steps Timothy Laughlin, a recent Fordham graduate and devout Catholic eager to join the crusade against Communism. A chance encounter with a handsome, profligate State Department official, Hawkins Fuller, leads to Tim's first job in D.C. and after Fuller's advances his first love affair. Now, as McCarthy mounts an increasingly desperate bid for power and internal investigations focus on "sexual subversives" in the government, Tim and Fuller find it ever more dangerous to navigate their double lives. Drawn into a maelstrom of deceit and intrigue, and clinging to the friendship of a beautiful young woman named Mary Johnson, Tim struggles to reconcile his political convictions, his love for God, and his love for Fuller an entanglement that will end in a stunning act of betrayal.
Moving between the Senate Office Building and the Washington Evening Star, the diplomatic world of Foggy Bottom and NATO's front line in Europe, Fellow Travelers is energized by high political drama, unexpected humor, and genuine heartbreak. It is Thomas Mallon's most accomplished and daring novel to date.
Review
"The weakness of many historical novels is that the history is reduced to a theme park in which the characters cavort but represents little more. The historical import of McCarthyism helps Mallon avoid that pitfall to a significant degree: The personalities of his characters are securely tied to the environment in which they exist and represent varied potential responses to it." Chicago Tribune
Review
"[A]n enthrallingly detailed and disturbingly relevant look at a bottom-barrel-scraping time in American history." Miami Herald
Review
"This is Mallon's best historical novel, period, and better than most contemporary novels of any stripe." Philadelphia Inquirer
Review
"[A] compelling tale and a convincing picture of an era in which the most important wardrobe item for many in Washington was a mask." St. Petersburg Times
Review
"The political drama, colorful characters, betrayals, and backstabbing of Washington politicians come alive in this recommended historical novel." Library Journal
Synopsis
From the highly acclaimed author of Bandbox and Dewey Defeats Truman comes a searing historical novel about the competing claims of faith, love, and politics during the McCarthy era.
About the Author
Thomas Mallon is the author of two previous novels, Aurora 7 and Arts and Sciences, as well as four works of nonfiction, among them Stolen Words and A Books of One's Own. He is currently literary editor of Gentlemen's Quarterly. He lives in New York City.