TUESDAY NIGHTS AND WEDNESDAY MORNINGS

Manchester resident Riley writes fiercely and perceptively about the lives of young women in the British industrial town in this paperback original collection. The first piece, a novella titled "Sicknotes," is narrated by Esther, a 20-something autodidact who lives with her best friend, Donna. The two take delight in post-grunge irony, heavy drinking in public and in private, and inside jokes from literature ("Rise and shine, Raskolnikov," Donna tells Esther), but Esther's directionless frustration and self-consciousness feel as inescapable as the gray factory sky. The other stories, each only a few pages long, show Esther's contemporaries in similar wistful or destructive situations. In "Children," a woman's efforts to leave home are thwarted by her needy father; in the powerful "September," Jayne allows her older boyfriend, Daniel, to take advantage of her money and good will during a night out. The frustrating inertia of these characters, caught in pointless relationships and adolescent habits, is countered by Riley's passionate, gritty prose, which observes the ugly details of Manchester streets and bedrooms with loving originality. But when Esther, at the end of her story, determines she must "burst out of the cold bath... run downstairs in my widow's weeds," it is unclear whether her passion and angst will lead her to a fuller life or merely back to the pub. Agent, Giles Gordon. (June)