Fellow Travelers

by Thomas Mallon

SOON TO BE A SHOWTIME LIMITED SERIES STARRING MATT BOMER, JONATHAN BAILEY, AND ALLISON WILLIAMS • A searing historical novel set in 1950s Washington, D.C.—a world of dominated by personalities like Nixon, Lyndon Johnson, and Joe McCarthy—and infused with political drama, unexpected humor, and heartbreak. • From the acclaimed author of Watergate and Up With the Sun
 
"Crisp, buoyant prose." — The New York Times Book Review

In a world of bare-knuckled ideology and secret dossiers, Timothy Laughlin, a recent college graduate and devout Catholic, is eager to join the crusade against Communism. An encounter with a handsome State Department official, Hawkins Fuller, leads to Tim's first job and, after Fuller's advances, his first love affair. As McCarthy mounts a 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 while moving between the diplomatic world of Foggy Bottom and NATO's front line in Europe.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction, Queer, LGBT, Historical, Gay, Romance

368 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2007

About the author

Thomas Mallon is an American novelist, essayist, and critic. His novels are renowned for their attention to historical detail and context and for the author's crisp wit and interest in the "bystanders" to larger historical events. He is the author of ten books of fiction, including Henry and Clara, Two Moons, Dewey Defeats Truman, Aurora 7, Bandbox, Fellow Travelers (recently adapted into a miniseries by the same name), Watergate, Finale, Landfall, and most recently Up With the Sun. He has also published nonfiction on plagiarism (Stolen Words), diaries (A Book of One's Own), letters (Yours Ever) and the John F. Kennedy assassination (Mrs. Paine's Garage), as well as two volumes of essays (Rockets and Rodeos and In Fact).
He is a former literary editor of Gentleman's Quarterly, where he wrote the "Doubting Thomas" column in the 1990s, and has contributed frequently to The New Yorker, The New York Times Book Review, The Atlantic Monthly, The American Scholar, and other periodicals. He was appointed a member of the National Council on the Humanities in 2002 and served as Deputy Chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities from 2005 to 2006.
His honors include Guggenheim and Rockefeller fellowships, the National Book Critics Circle citation for reviewing, and the Vursell prize of the American Academy of Arts and Letters for distinguished prose style. He was elected as a new member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2012.

Reviews

[Skip · Rating 3 out of 5]

I finished this novel last night. I was up early this morning to take it back to the library.
For some reason, I found this story so unnerving. So sad...Was any character truly happy? (Not that stories have to be full of happy people.)
In short, the McCarthy hearing chapters could have been better edited. It went on too long. And the whole time I was wondering if what I was reading was the true version or the fiction.

But the near-last line is the one that really tingles.
"Tell him I was happy enough. Make it easy on him."
Is it really enough to only love, and not be loved?

[Ray · Rating 4 out of 5]

So ostensibly this is a novel about being gay in the 50's in McCarthy-era Washington, D.C. I liked this book so much for its deeper themes about the sacrifice of self, and the willingness (or unwillingness) to be vulnerable that is required by love.

I won't go into a ton of detail on the plot, but at the surface-level it's your standard tale about two gay boys who are unable to realize their love and their relationship due to homophobia and social norms. It's also a part of another gay troupe in which inter-class struggles prevent a relationship from succeeding.

If you read enough gay fiction, you come across these troupes a lot, but what sets Fellow Travelers apart is a distanced, almost ironic perspective that allows the reader to assign other motives, and gain more complex understandings of the characters' behaviors.

Which basically boils down to, yeah it was hard to be gay in government in the 50's, but at the end of the day if your real issue is that you refuse to be vulnerable, and share your feelings, and be honest that you need affection and love, homophobia ends up just being window dressing to your core issues (and I certainly understand that sustained homophobia can cause emotional withdraw, but just trust me, there was more than that in this book).

I like the character of Mary a lot, although she wasn't very believable at times. Many characters felt like they could have walked into this novel straight from one written by Gore Vidal, but Mary in particular.

One other note, it's always interesting/pathetic to read about gays in any era (and it certainly happens today, like with Larry Craig) who align them selves with radical anti-gay politics and basically live in a constant state of self-hate. In this case, it was the two main characters' involvement with Sen. McCarthy, Roy Cohn, and the Cold War in general.

[Doug · Rating 1 out of 5]

1.5, rounded down.

Mainly this was a case of expectations not met - and a bit of a bait & switch. From the trailers and what I'd heard about the current miniseries based (presumably VERY loosely) on this, I was expecting a sexy, sudsy, gay romance, set against the backdrop of the McCarthy hearings and the gay panic scares of the '50's. What I GOT was a very boring rundown of all the political shenanigans of that period in minute (seemingly almost daily) detail, in which a quasi-romance is awkwardly shoehorned in periodically.

Not only was all the politics boring - it was also extremely hard to follow - not even consulting the Wiki page on G. David Schine could clue me in to what his real connection was to Cohn and McCarthy, and the author is either so obtuse or coy that I was left in the dark.

Even worse, I never really CARED about the romance between Hawk Fuller and Tim Laughlin, that is barely detailed; it's really only a few brief encounters before Timmy ships off to Europe and starts carrying on about his Catholic guilt, and Hawk finds solace not only in many other trysts, but then marries a woman he doesn't care about to give him a 'cover'. I'll admit the final few pages DID somewhat ameliorate all the tedium that had come before - and had the book been, say, 300 pages shorter, they might have made even more of an impact.

I almost DNF'd this halfway through, and now wish I had - and just watched the series instead.

[Kati *☆･ﾟ]

5+++ stars for the on-screen adaptation
⇢ mini series now complete to watch on Paramount+

It was beautiful, tragic and made me cry. Highly recommended.

“I’ve loved you my whole life. I’ve never loved anyone, but you.

You were my great, consuming love and most people don’t get one of those.

I did. I have no regrets.”

I hope the series gets at least one of those Golden Globes. ♡

[Louis Muñoz · Rating 2 out of 5]

Deeply disappointed, and more than a little repelled. I've been looking forward to this book a long time, so it pains me additionally to give it it's two-star rating. This is in fact my second Thomas Mallon book in 2023, the first being his latest, "Up with the Sun," which also put me off. Sad to say, there will NOT be a third Mallon book in my future.

More to come. Family is calling. (We're on a Thanksgiving family reunion in Puerto Rico.)

[Scott · Rating 2 out of 5]

This fully failed for me. Though it was overloaded with meticulously researched historical and political detail, only about 30% of that detail actually fit. The majority was name- and event-dropping miscellanea that was frankly exhausting.

The romance at the core of this book was difficult to read. When you peel away the extraneous nonsense and really examine the relationship between the two men, it's actually quite shallow. Worse, it doesn't successfully tie itself to the setting. The government calling out and ruining the lives of homosexuals happens around the two men, but it barely overlaps with their relationship. (I presented a theory at my book group that it is Hawk's psychological profile -- not the political landscape -- that precludes him from having a successful relationship with Tim.... or from being other than a giant cockface in general.)

It's a shame because the premise is brilliant and the author writes a good sentence. I just found this bloated in the wrong places.

[Drew Reads · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wanted to read this before our screens are graced by the new Showtime series with Matt Bomer and Jonathan Bailey based on this novel.

This is a sad tale following gay men, Hawk and Tim in 1950s McCarthy-era DC - with its homophobia, Catholic religious catechism, class, and social norms. It’s also about sacrifice of self and willingness (or unwillingness) to be vulnerable to love. It’s profoundly sad but unfortunately understandable given the time.

Tim is a young, fresh faced, deeply Catholic boy, new to DC and full of ideological zeal, working for a US Senator on the HUAC before, during, and after the Army-McCarthy hearings and McCarthy’s censure.

Tim meets Hawkins Fuller - slightly older, 28, who works for the State Department, Congressional Relations. Tim falls hard for the older Hawk, handsome & self assured. Tim idealizes Hawk and Hawk feels a need to be protective of Tim. However, given the time - their affair needs to be kept in secret.

Let’s be honest - Hawk is an ass most of the time to Tim. One can blame the era of the time and need to keep it secret as excuses for the way he treats Tim, but Hawks motives are more complex than the homophobia and fear of discovery. However noble, Hawk’s unwillingness to open himself to vulnerability is truly sad, because you feel he truly does love Tim deep down.

This books is wonderfully researched, showing a Washington overcome with distrust of its citizenry, and a federal workforce in fear of both Red and Lavender. There are A LOT of name drops and historical info that makes this a longer read than it’s 370 pages. I’m grateful I have a love of American History AND recently read Jame Kirchick’s non-fiction 𝙎𝙚𝙘𝙧𝙚𝙩 𝘾𝙞𝙩𝙮: 𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙃𝙞𝙙𝙙𝙚𝙣 𝙃𝙞𝙨𝙩𝙤𝙧𝙮 𝙤𝙛 𝙂𝙖𝙮 𝙒𝙖𝙨𝙝𝙞𝙣𝙜𝙩𝙤𝙣.

[Erik · Rating 2 out of 5]

More like a WASPs nest than a coherent novel, Thomas Mallon's "Fellow Travelers" has too many Tims, Toms, and Joes to make the story coherent.

"Fellow Travelers" tells the story of a State Department worker, Hawkins Fuller, who meets the love of his life, a congressional aid named Tim, and must balance this love with the impending McCarthy Red Scare trials and the Lavender Scare that resulted in the firing of hundreds of gay state department workers. This creates a tumultuous relationship that is flagellating for Tim who wants his love with Fuller to be open and honest.

Unfortunately, Mallon's book is far too verbose and with an overabundance of characters, none of whom are particularly introduced in depth, reading the book was a true challenge in just trying to piece together the various stories. Mix in what is ultimately a tad too conservative of a representation of queerness and this makes for a rather unfortunate read.

[Halcyon (sadly in hiatus) · Rating 2 out of 5]

“I seem to be always searching for something to lose myself in completely... It’s like we say in seminary — ‘beyond measure.”

Fellow Travelers is a book about love, betrayal and suppression of who you are amidst a time of being terrorized for being who you are. A case of political drama stretched through three decades of life in Central America, and describing a tragical love between two men who were worlds apart in their beliefs and ideologies.

Tim Laughlin, the tender soul who loved this intense kind of love, who went into life experiencing laughter and pain at its most pure sense but could never stay more than a moment with the man he fell for, and Hawklin Fuller, a man who struggled his whole life to hide the part of himself that he believed would be spat at, and destroy the carefully constructed name he had within the society.

"Hey, Skippy. Promise you won't write? "
"I won't."

The troubled romance during the witch hunt of the lavender scare, fueled by the anti-communist agenda in the 50s interlinked the lives of every human being drowned by the wave of repression. Dealing with themes of homosexuality, racism and tyranny at a prime time of political history, this book said it all but failed in having the faintest of impact because it was weaved with inaccuracies, and a messily written plot that focused heavily and unnecessarily on the trials that were tedious to read through and the only relief should have been the romance factor but even that was often painful to digest. Betrayals, infidelity and the agony of abandonment, it was toxicity at its core with a man who manipulated and another who let him in the name of love.
"I've loved you my whole life. I've never loved anyone but you. You were my great, consuming live. And most people don't get one of those. I did."
But even that was glossed over by the hefty passages of office talk that was far from the political intrigue I was promised.

P.S. The adaptation (mini-series) did it better. Jonathan Bailey has my whole heart.

[Christopher Saunders · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thomas Mallon’s Fellow Travelers fictionalizes the “Lavender Scare” of the 1950s, the purge of gay and lesbian employees from the Federal government in tandem with Joe McCarthy’s anticommunist witch hunts. Mallon’s novel follows two star-crossed lovers: Hawkins Fuller, a career State Department employee who measures his every thought, act and relationship in careful calculation; and Tim Laughlin, a naive, devoutly Catholic assistant to a Republican Senator who falls for Fuller while struggling to reconcile his faith and politics with his personal life. It’s a measured, sober mixture of historical fiction and gay romance that usually clicks: Mallon’s research is impeccable and he shows an uncanny ability to evoke the feel and texture of ‘50s Washington, from the sights, slang and cultural touchstones to the edge of unease and distrust to the political figures (Eisenhower, Nixon, McCarthy, Roy Cohn, etc.) who flit around the edges of the narrative. Mallon captures the central pairing as a less-than-ideal couple: Fuller lacks the will to embrace his identity (he marries a well-connected woman to hide his orientation), while Laughlin’s puppy love and personal conflicts make him ill-suited to navigate the shoals of gay identity in the buttoned-down Fifties. Both men are helped, hindered or covered for by Mary Johnson, an undersketched but worthy character who provides some balance to their clashing personalities and uneven relationship. If the book has a flaw it’s that it often feels too bloodless; like much of Mallon’s work, the characterizations are well-rendered in abstract but lack the passion and anguish to seem like real people. This makes the novel’s big twists and inevitable portrayals less impactful than they might be, an exercise in craft more than a truly compelling character study. Still, the book has enough strengths - excellent sense of time and place, political intrigue and struggles with identity, compelling love scenes, wry and lucid prose - to justify time invested.

[James · Rating 5 out of 5]

I just finished reading this book, and it’s ending was a culmination of the many little instances in which it tore at my heart these past couple weeks. As I finished the last sentence I felt one last jab to my heart, and a tightness in my throat. I guess I felt like crying. But it was worth the pain.
Beautifully written, every chapter felt like poetry. Yet like a lot of beautiful art, it was steeped in sadness and melancholy. Every so often the story took a turn in which it teased me with the prospect of lasting happiness for the core characters, but just as soon the hope was gone.
Essentially, it’s a love story. A love story that dare not speak its name, at least in 1950s McCarthy-era Washington. As such, it’s a story of a love that persisted for decades, though never had a chance to truly break through the dirt in which it was sowed, never having a chance to live in the light.
As painful as this was to read at times - maybe because the story of the ill-fated lovers of Fellow Travelers could have been that of any gay and bisexual men of that era, who lived in the shadows and suppressed their true nature in order to survive, personally and professionally- most of the time I didn’t want this story to end.
I really felt as though I had stepped into the lives of these people, maybe reading a memoir written over the course of five decades.
I’ll treasure this book, for the way it brought me to another time and place, and in the way it ensures that we will remember all those who had to be silent, who may have thought they’d be forgotten.

[Chris · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was a tough read for me. I thought it was well researched, but that's the problem. The author provided so much arcane political information that I could not really focus on the plot or create much passion for the characters. The story held a great premise but in the end, it was too dry and too dense for me to recommend it to friends.

[Kate Neuschwender · Rating 4 out of 5]

the epilogue - i am sobbing. those gay republicans just ruined my life

[Suanne Laqueur · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wanted to enjoy that more than I did, but honestly it was a chore to finish.

[Angus Meek · Rating 1 out of 5]

Awful. The politics is tedious and the 'love' story thin on the ground. The TV series is infinitely better.

[Thérèse · Rating 4 out of 5]

as a mini amateur historian i had a great time. as a human being with feelings no i didn't.

[Brett Glasscock · Rating 1 out of 5]

so bad its kind of unbelievable. billed as a gay romance against the backdrop of mccarthyism, Fellow Travelers is really just 300 pages of historical name and fact dropping.

this book's favorite rhetorical device? the appositive phrase. why? because it's constantly shoehorning in new names and events and places, interrupting any (and it wasn't much) momentum the novel had to explain to the reader what this new thing was.

at a certain point, Fellow Travelers becomes a day by day retelling of mccarthys subcommittee hearings. just baffling as a work of art. did Mallon intend to write a historiography, then realize he could sell more copies by making it gay? seriously, the "couple" gets together every few chapters at best. 95% of their relationship happens off the page, so we read only the now unconvincing explosive fucks and fights. and you sit through all that slog and you get to the last 5 pages that remind you, oh, Mallon can hook a reader and elicit feelings in them. but instead of giving you some grand payoff, it just leaves you asking, "why wasn't he doing this the whole time?"

[gemma · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was devastating. I feel hollow after finishing it.

I will say, if you are only looking for a romance novel, this book will disappoint. However, if you're looking for a glimpse into life during the Cold War, and all the complications that came from being anything other than a "morally upstanding citizen," this book is incredible. As an ex-history major, I was delighted to learn so much from both this novel and the research it inspired me to do. I'm immensely impressed by the amount of work I imagine Mallon put into it. Furthermore, as someone raised catholic, the complex relationship described between Tim Laughlin, God, and his sexuality was literally everything.

The Lavender Scare is an incredibly dark period of America's history, and I am grateful to Mallon for shining a spotlight on it. While difficult to digest, I am glad to have learned this piece of gay history.

The romance between Hawk and Tim was gut-wrenching, but also beautiful in it's own way. I need at least 2 business weeks to process everything, especially the final page.

[Nirvana · Rating 3 out of 5]

2/5*
If you are interested in political history of America in fifties, this is your book! But if you like me want to read this book because of its TV adoption staring Matt Bomer and Jonathan Bailey, I suggest you think twice, because TV sirease is way different and much better!
except for one line:
"I love you too!"

[Al · Rating 5 out of 5]

I once had a friend, a high school social studies teacher, who confided that he got all his history from historical fiction. I thought it a waste of time, having to suffer through enormous epic sagas when history in the hands of a great historian can be as dynamic as any fiction. However, Thomas Mallon's "Fellow Travelers" has made me rethink my position as maybe being too hastily dismissive. "Fellow Travelers" is historical fiction at its best, weaving the political events of Washington's "pink and lavender" witch hunt of the 1950's with a believable love story between a young Congressional aide and a older State Department career diplomat. You don't have to be an old-time Washingtonian to appreciate the brilliant period details, and you don't have to be gay to understand the looming tragedy in the relationship between Timothy Laughlin and Hawkins Fuller. To his credit, Mallon makes both men emotionally complex, especially Tim: "Timothy's blazing political belief matched, of course, the religious zeal, but to Fuller's mind neither had ever seemed to go with the simple freckled rest of him. He was like that Iowa schoolgirl Preminger had just picked to play Joan of Arc: no matter how hard she tried, once they released the picture you'd still be seeing a cornstalk instead of a burning stake." Highly recommended, especially if you are a political junkie.

[Melissa · Rating 2 out of 5]

I started the TV show prior to reading this and that probably hurt my enjoyment of the book because it just didn't feel the same. I may try again just reading vice listening to the audio, and I can pay attention better. But for now, the book is on hold. I can't say if I'll like the book, but the show was certainly captivating.

DNF about 3%

[Rick B Buttafogo · Rating 5 out of 5]

After watching the Showtime miniseries, naturally I had to read the book. While many similarities, there were also some major differences. The books focus is 1955-1957 during the McCarthy hearings. Tim and Hawk meet and the rest is history. There were many parts in the book that were beautifully done which I wished made it’s way in to the series (the cuff links, what “Skippy” meant and why Hawk nicknamed Tim it, Tim being an artist and writer, etc). The endings were different but both move you to tears. Without ruining it for those that want to read it, I will say the series made Hawk a much more likeable person towards the end than the book does. In the end what remains the same is Hawk was Skippy’s “great consuming love”. 💙

[paige (ptsungirl) · Rating 2 out of 5]

"I seem to be always searching for something to lose myself in completely: it's like we say in seminary—Beyond Measure."

[Capt. · Rating 3 out of 5]

The miniseries got me curious about the book so I bought it!
The series itself is a solid 9/10 for me so I was eager to dive in the thoughts of the characters I fell in love with and sadly I loved the series more.

My issue with the book isn’t related to the 1:1 adaptation that the series failed but more so the characters aren’t fleshed out as I hoped to be.

For example, Hawk, in the series you could FEEL and see his feelings for Tim, how the forbiddeness of their relationship is taking a toll on him and WHY he chose the actions he did knowing it will hurt Tim. And yes, I’m still a little salty about Hawk because of the number of times he continually hurts Tim but at the same time I understood him a little better.

But in the books, Hawk is one son of a b***ch!!! It’s like I’m looking at a different character. He’s so emotionless, he doesn’t care one iota about how his words and actions are affecting Tim, I can’t feel his remorse or his love. So long as he gets what he wants with Tim, he doesn’t care how it ends or how much he is hurting him!! I hate him so much why did the author write him this way 😭

Same goes with Tim, in the series he is this very sweet, religious, wide-eyed boy who is clearly obsess and in love with Hawk but despite that Tim has a little bit of backbone and although he keeps coming back despite being hurt, he stands on his ground for some things.

In this book, Tim is..oh boy. I could only think of one word, a doormat. He is 😭 and I want so much more for him because at his core he wants to feel love as much as he wants to give it.

The big change I could also think of is Marcus, I LOVE the change the show did, it explored the struggles of a black queer in the era compares with the book.

My most favorite part of the book was when Tim was dying and he made Mary gave Hawk a note to ease the pain.

“Let him know that I was happy enough. Make it easy on him.”
—> Oh Tim my boy you deserved so much more 🥹

[Scott · Rating 3 out of 5]

Way too much American political history, which is of marginal interest to me. Almost too well researched I.E. More historical detail than I wanted. It seems to me that Mallon could have replaced most of it with a standard historical reference and just kept the love story.
As for the love story, neither character is really sympathetic.
Hawk not all -- he has a bad case of internalized homophobia, which might have been interesting if presented as a product of time and place, but that connection is not really made at all. He's just a bastard from the get go.
Tim, the arch-catholic cold warrior is more sympathetic but so hard to relate to and ends up a pathetic and lonely old man in Rhode Island. He has little self-awareness.
Did anyone notice that hardly anything bad happened because of McCarthy? Sure, Tim lost a job but only because Hawk outed him. One or two off-stage actors got fired. I don't think this is historically accurate.
It's a sad story but in the end I just wanted to scream Get Out of Town and Get a Life, Boys. Go to San Francisco. There is more to life than Foggy Bottom.

[Andrew · Rating 1 out of 5]

I really wanted to like this one. But I just can't. The entire novel is plodding, boring, uninspired; it's populated with people I have no interest in knowing anything about. Hawk's uninteresting, bland charm; Tim's irksome, holy hand wringing. I get it: Roy Cohn was a complete and absolute shit, but even he had to have more of a pulse than every character in this novel.

[Shane Quinn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read this book! A times frustrating, at others just slow, it is a remarkable story of living and not living, of loving for the wrong reasons and of the suffocating era that was McCarthyite Washington.

[Brian · Rating 1 out of 5]

I love books with lots of subplots weaving in and out but unfortunately Mr. Mallon is no Charles Dickens. Not only could I not figure out the motivation for a lot of what happened, the paranoia and fear of being gay in the government during the 1950's just did not come through like it should have.

[Erick Adams Foster · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.75★

Un romance que por el contexto histórico y la naturaleza de los personajes pudo haber sido espectacular, pero que se quedó estancado en un montón de temas políticos que no aportan absolutamente nada a la trama.

[Mal Warwick · Rating 5 out of 5]

Only American history majors are likely to be aware that America’s first Red Scare was sparked in 1886 by the Haymarket affair in Chicago — a demonstration by workers calling for an eight-hour day which led to widespread persecution of men, usually foreign-born, who were perceived as anarchists. Thirty-three years later a wave of anarchist bombings in the wake of World War I induced Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer to recruit a 23-year-old named J. Edgar Hoover to locate and deport hundreds of anarchists, Communists, and other assorted leftists. Dial the clock forward nearly another thirty years to the anti-Communist frenzy following World War II that rose to a crescendo in the 1950s with the histrionic hearings presided over by Wisconsin Republican Senator Joseph McCarthy. Thomas Mallon’s novel, Fellow Travelers, skillfully recreates the mood prevailing in Washington, DC, during McCarthy’s witch-hunt, placing fictional characters in solidly researched historic circumstances.

America’s third Red Scare

To appreciate Mallon’s tour de force to the fullest, you might need to be in my age cohort (yes, north of 70). Reading Fellow Travelers was a lot like old home week for me: the book is filled with references to the federal officials, celebrities, and signature events of the 1950s. Since Thomas Mallon was born only in 1951 and would have been just nine years old when the decade ended, it’s safe to assume that he had to do a great deal of reading and research to recreate the flavor of those times.

It’s well known that McCarthy and his collaborators — as well as those who knuckled under to their strong-arm tactics — targeted not just Communists but anyone left of center, including outspoken liberals, progressive, and unaffiliated socialists. Anyone who resisted the Red Scare was placed in McCarthy’s cross-hairs and frequently lost their jobs as a result. Among them were not only officials in the State Department and the Army and Hollywood personalities, all of whom have received a great deal of attention, but also teachers and administrators on campuses throughout the country and employees in private companies as well. It’s less well known that gay men, too, were driven out of their jobs as “security risks,” presumably because they were vulnerable to blackmail. (Whether lesbians were also targeted is unclear in the context of this gay love story, and I have no personal knowledge to answer the question). The McCarthy years were one of the darkest periods in American history.

A gay love story set against the background of the Red Scare

Fallon deftly weaves together two themes in Fellow Travelers: the rise and fall of Joseph McCarthy and the love between two men, one of them a senior government official. There’s irony — perhaps what might be called a double entendre — in the title as a result, as the two central characters were “fellow” travelers on the unconventional path they’d chosen.

About the author

Thomas Mallon is the author of seven nonfiction books and eight novels as well as numerous magazine articles, critical essays, and reviews. I’ve previously reviewed his two most recent novels, Watergate and Finale (about the final years of Ronald Reagan’s administration). Both were outstanding works of political fiction.