Hungry

The six stories and one novella in this debut collection are sharply accurate slices of urban life that present an unvarying impression of isolation and unappeasable desire. All are tales of New York women and their crisply defined drives: hunger, sex and, occasionally, revenge. With a wicked wit, Torrey has laced these vignettes together with common talismans--answering machines and vibrators, gym bags and litigation bags, breaded fried foods and $6.99 Chardonnay. In ""Hungry,"" the protagonist vacillates between two lovers, an overly fastidious rich young man who takes her out for exquisite meals in beautiful restaurants, and a voluptuous slob who relishes junk food and thrills her in bed. A similar character in ""Sweat"" blots out such dilemmas by exercising compulsively late at night at the gym. The narrator of ""Snoop"" is a vibrator addict in a numbing relationship with a man who is addicted to porn. Unlike the others, the narrator in ""Parking Lot"" dares to try to lose her ambivalence about relationships by leaving her beloved city to live with a man in the suburbs. Alienated by the blandness of her new environment, she nonetheless gets an inkling that it takes an act of will to make a commitment and a home. ""Me and Mine,"" the collection's novella, retreats to the standoffish emotional territory of the earlier stories. ""Mine"" is the name the narrator gives to the self-absorbed attorney she serves as secretary. It's a funny and apt rendering of big-city office life. Though readers of these tales may feel buried under brand names, they will undoubtedly recognize the characters that Torrey places under a clear and merciless microscope. QPB alternate. (Mar.) FYI: Like the narrator of ""Me and Mine,"" Torrey is a legal secretary in New York.