Look at It This Way

Cynicism worthy of author Martin Amis and convoluted plotting reminiscent of TV's Fawlty Towers blend in this darkly comic yarn. Narrator Tim Curtiz, an American expatriate, writes a hip, caustic column about London for a New York magazine. One of his contacts is ``Simba'' Cochrane, who became a minor celebrity during the 1930s after killing a berserk lion with his pen-knife. Tim becomes obsessed with the lion-as-symbol, which he sees echoed in Britain's unicorn-and-lion, a London Zoo scheme to euthanize African lions, an elderly lion's escape from captivity and urban lion-sightings. Meanwhile, Tim acts as spokesman for the ``American Eagle'' credit card, and supplements his own story with views of other Londoners' lives--although everything, no matter how far-ranging, slyly reconnects with his lion fixation. British author Cartwright ( Interior ) pours on the witty metaphors, offers barbed remarks on England's class system and immigrant population and entangles subplots (one character, for instance, goes from a sleazy investment-banking career to a sleazy Thai kick-boxing scam). Droll, verbose and unmistakably British in approach, this novel will be familiar yet delightful fare for fans of BBC-style situation comedy. (July)