Tribes

Preoccupied with dark and destructive passion, this lean novel by the author of War Zone , set within the London film industry, never quite leaves the ground. Protagonist Nick Burns, a young British producer, has achieved success via a combination of personal charm and controlled aggression. With his girlfriend, Jemima, Nick attends a new play that transplants the violence and hooliganism surrounding British soccer matches to a mythicized, tribal London. Fascinated, Nick seeks to produce a film version, meanwhile reinterpreting the manifestations of violence in nearly every aspect of his own life. Stuart's tepid narrative, however, evokes neither the setting nor the substance of its players nor the explosiveness that is its obsession. Throughout, Stuart prefers to describe rather than demonstrate both the motives of his characters and his own rather interesting ideas. Accordingly, his tale loses its subtlety and becomes anemic, taking on a tone that is more intellectual than dramatic. (Sept.)