`Come Up and See Me Sometime,' by Erika Krouse; Scribner.(Knight Ridder Newspapers)

Once upon a time, in the days before there were therapists on every corner, self-help books on the bestseller list and Prozac available for the asking, many people turned to fiction for clues as to how to live. In an ironic way, Erika Krouse's debut story collection harkens back to that era.

Although the stories are narrowly focused on their characters' dysfunctional lives and personalities, "Come Up and See Me Sometime" offers a great many lessons in how NOT to live. By the third or fourth story, chances are you'll be feeling well-adjusted, meaningfully connected and downright lucky to be yourself rather than one of Krouse's dour and disassociated characters.

This thin volume is jam-packed with emotionally crippled young women who tend to keep company with abusive, earring-wearing, earning-impaired boyfriends. The men have commitment issues, but _ and here lies the collection's biggest problem _ so do the women, although they never realize, much less admit, it. The women are completely adrift, with terrible jobs, no families to speak of, few friends and no interests. They move heavily through empty, arid lives without much care for anything or anyone, including themselves.

Krouse's writing is fluid, although her many one-liners are often forced. Her characters seem to think they are addressing a studio audience. In "My Weddings," the narrator chronicles a series of weddings she attends but dismisses the possibility of a ceremony of her own because "I couldn't stand to be around my family for a whole day."

"No Universe" is about an infertile woman who shepherds ...