Lucy on the West Coast and Oth

Nine vastly different female protagonists narrate this debut short-story collection, each placed firmly in late-20th century North America amidst a backdrop of social ills--from AIDS to urban decay. Catholicism has a recurring role, especially in ""Consecration',' in which a cheerleader in a Bronx Catholic junior high is inexplicably attracted to the school slut. Lesbianism also appears in almost every story--whether as a central theme, as in ""Nuclear Family,"" narrated by a teenage daughter who must come to terms with her dying mother's lesbian lover; or as an incidental characterization, as in ""Accommodations,"" in which the lesbian older sister is peripheral to the story. Caschetta examines the turning points in her characters' lives, those moments when they are pushed into action or resistance, thus transforming their existences and how they view the world. In the title story, spacey Lucy Fernandez, who works at a San Francisco day-care facility for the retarded and yearns for a more dramatic life, constructs a fantasy world in which she has both AIDS and an identical twin living a significantly more exciting life on the East Coast. Edgy prose often contributes to the wit and contemporary feel of these tales, but sometimes the voice is ill matched to the narrator, as in ""Old Country,"" in which the speaker, an elderly Italian immigrant, sounds absurdly young and of the moment. In the simpler, more straightforward tales, voice and action merge, however, and the transforming points are clear and sharp. (Oct.)