["Something to Answer For"] is in fact a rarity—a first-rate novel about a major political subject. And a close look at the problems it has to crawl around and under may help to show why such books are rare….

Newby has managed to combine the cartoon method with conventional storytelling in a sort of third force. Actually, he has been working on this method for some time, but in a series of miniatures, using small events to parallel large ones. In "Something to Answer For" he wheels out the large events themselves—a breakthrough that, like the juggler's sixth plate, might spell disaster.

Newby's text is the Suez snafu of a few years back. He is content to use a single consciousness, although he splits it with an introductory blow on the head. So we cannot, after the first chapter, be sure when his hero, Jack Townrow...