LIONS THREE: CHRISTIANS NOTHING

Title wins: Novel loses-- not even a close tie with this author's first, How Many Miles to Babylon. Although her wisecracks break as sharp as ever and some of the same characters appear, this book lacks point and suffers from a tacky construction due to the unhandy narrative devices -- letters and tape recordings. Hal Cleveland, a feature writer who gradually disappears from the novel apparently leaving his tape recorder behind, searches out Miss Barbara Denver for an article. She is a sometime stage star and wife of a prominent financier. She is now hiding out in stodgily uxorious sin with Jim Nations, sometime star football player. Turning their larger than life backs on all that glitters, the two (and baby makes three) are avoiding Barbara's vengeful reject. All they want is privacy. But she talks to Cleveland and it's all about as private as group therapy with Dr. Ellis-- a lot of communal gab about supremely satisfying sex to be made public at a later date. A series of fantastically contrived villainies by Barbara's legal husband leaves Jim Nations, quarterback turned crane operator, paralyzed. The question? Will the sun also rise again? Here's a new switch on the symbolic happy ending -- after superhuman effort, he makes a successful trip to the men's room all by himself alone. It misses the heart and lands around the kidneys -- a short chopping blow for sensitive readers and a ticklish sensation for those who like their blather bawdy.