Short Skirts: Fiction

These beguiling, quick-pulsed stories waste little time on emotion: ``And she'd be left with nothing of his except a bar of Safeguard soap'' suffices to convey the impact of a miscarried relationship. Consumer goods are referred to by their brand names--Ben and Jerry's ice cream, Calvin Klein underwear--and concerned readers unsure as to which story mentions which product can consult an index ironically appended here. People are always coming or going: a husband drops his kids off with his ex-wife en route to Bermuda (``Scam''); a man commutes to work by plane (``Jet Lag''); a woman and her eight-year-old daughter travel to France after a divorce (``Marketing''). Despite its trendy patina, this debut collection contains more allusions to health food than to cocaine, and Field is a fluent fantasist. In ``Hot Spots,'' the steam from a tea kettle speaks and proclaims itself God; in ``Bosom Buddies,'' a newly dead soul is soberly informed, ``To get into Heaven, women have to have large breasts.'' (Sept.)