Swimming the Channel

Novelist Neville (Last Ferry to Manly) makes her first U.S. appearance in a work distinguished by unlikable characters and unresolved dramas. Featured in four separate sections-ranging from 1969 to 1993, in London and Paris-is a cast of self-absorbed, compulsive characters unable to let go of the past. British Paul Radcliffe, whose ``too-good looks had always been an embarrassment,'' reveals to adoring Tess that even though he's married to Alison (with whom he's had daughter Grizelda), he's still in love with sultry Beth, who is married to one of his former colleagues. After tragedy strikes, Tess wonders whether she will disillusion Alison about her late husband. This and other questions (With whom is Tess's mother, Aurora, having a passionate affair?) grow tedious, mainly because of the narrowness of characters who are oblivious to a world beyond themselves. While Neville writes about sex with a refreshing directness, her protagonists' superficiality deprives the novel of weight. (Dec.)