FRIENDS More Will and Magna Stories <i> by Stephen Dixon (Asylum Arts: 6.95) </i>

This slim volume of vivid short stories focuses on Stephen Dixon’s two well-known characters. In “Magna as the Good Woman,” a study in personal counterterrorism, the self-possessed Magna proves herself able to resist a would-be rapist, physically and psychologically. In five bitingly funny tales, Will, the ultimate writer manque, doggedly pursues his craft, despite a blizzard of personalized rejection slips--his work is so bad, form letters aren’t sufficient. Dixon’s characters have a rare vitality that makes them seem to live beyond the pages of these stories.