[In his novel The un-Americans Mr. Bessie] tells of two journalists, both of whom sympathised with the Republican Government in Spain, both of whom came home to write about their experiences there, and both of whom joined the Communist Party in about 1939…. Both are hauled up in front of an Investigation Committee. Francis, poor squashy liberal, more or less collaborates; staunch Ben is recalcitrant and goes to prison. Mr. Bessie is obviously a fair journalist himself (Ben, Francis, or Francis-Ben?), and his descriptions of the Committee's sessions are interesting. But about Spain he is terrible—nagging and prolix when writing, like Ben, about the People, or sickeningly sub-Hemingway among the empty bottles and crowded sleeping-bags. Important themes like the witch-hunt in American need credible protagonists. Mr. Bessie's characters are merely mouthpieces….

Simon Raven, "Upstairs, Downstairs …," in The Spectator (© 1957 by The Spectator; reprinted by permission of The Spectator), Vol...