Between Men

The eccentric ways of the movie industry are probed in a hard-edged first novel from an English-born actress-turned-journalist. The ``blase eighties'' find Alice, a 35-year-old recent divorcee and aspiring screenwriter, involved in a bittersweet love triangle with a much older, married film director and a law student in his early 20s. Angry at men in general, Alice finds that her only way to communicate with either lover is through sex, much of it obsessive and some of it tinged with violence. This is fiction as therapy session, told from Alice's viewpoint and relying heavily on revelations about her past to explain her current behavior. The characters are props designed to mark the heroine's psychic journey, and the two love affairs offer little to surprise or move the reader. As a novel seemingly intended to trace its protagonist's voyage toward self-awareness, moreover, this disappoints: Alice isn't especially well drawn or involving, and she doesn't learn much from her entanglements. While Lewis writes crisp, believable dialogue and observes filmmaking with an insider's eye, she fails to offer a fresh or especially entertaining look at the movie business. (Jan.)