SOURCE: “A Captive Not Quite Freed,” in The New Republic, December 16, 1957, pp. 18-9.

In the following review, Howe objects to Fast's Communist loyalties and offers unfavorable analysis of The Naked God.

The first though not least important thing to be said about The Naked God is that simply as a piece of writing it is extremely shabby: incoherent in structure, florid in diction, inflated and hysterical in tone. Since books of this kind are generally treated as “documents,” they seldom meet with such criticism; but I am enough of a literary man to believe that Fast's ineptitude is a significant fact in estimating the political meaning and value of his book.

It is true of course that other people, including many who were never Communists, also write badly; but the particular kind of badness found in Fast's book is not that of an amateur or novice: it is...