Poor Clem

THE TROUBLED AIR (418 pp.]--Irwin Shaw--Random House ($3.75).

The honest liberal stumbles on, carrying his heavy cross, in Irwin Shaw's new novel. This time the poor fellow is Clement Archer, radio director. He is really honest, really liberal: when a scandal-happy sheet accuses members of his troupe of being party-liners, he sets out to find the "facts."

Yes, admits the show's leading lady, she's a party member. No, says the leading man (and Clem Archer's best friend), he's nothing of the kind. After some more questions, Clem decides that the accusations have been, at best, wild and indiscriminate. He joins a public campaign for "freedom of the air." Poor Clem; his case, and his career too, blows up when the leading lady puts the finger on the leading man as the secret party boss for radio who has been, playing Clem for a prize sap.

At the end, a defeated but wisened Archer confronts his old friend. "There was nothing personal" in it, says the old friend. To which the stung liberal replies: "I'm a funny man. I believe that whatever two human beings do to each other ... is personal."

The Troubled Air makes two points, not new but still good: 1) when loose accusations start flying around, innocent people may be hurt; 2) liberals should not let their passion for freedom blind them to Communism. Unfortunately, Shaw makes these points more as a pamphleteer than a novelist. His book moves smoothly, but his characters are papery and stiff. For all his craft and good will, Novelist Shaw never quite creates the illusion that he is writing about people who breathe air, or even listen to what's on the air.

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