Friends: More Will and Magna Stories

by Stephen Dixon

In the ten stories that comprise Friends, Dixon, a two-time National Book Award finalist for his novels Frog and Interstate, writes with his unusual flair, wit, and gentle irony. Through Will and Magna, characters he first introduced in his first collection Time To Go, Dixon offers many insights into the complexities and richness of human relationships.

100 pages, Paperback

First published January 25, 2005

About the author

Stephen Dixon was a novelist and short story author who published hundreds of stories in an incredible list of literary journals. Dixon was nominated for the National Book Award twice--in 1991 for Frog and in 1995 for Interstate--and his writing also earned him a Guggenheim Fellowship, the American Academy Institute of Arts and Letters Prize for Fiction, the O. Henry Award, and the Pushcart Prize.

Reviews

[Allan MacDonell · Rating 5 out of 5]

People are nuts. All these civilized, cultured, educated metropolitan citizens you see are spun out of their minds, victims of twisting wormholes within their skulls. In novels and short stories beyond count, Stephen Dixon’s dialogue, monologues, inner monologues and inner dialogues grate against the containment of bland socialized sanity. The word spinners in Friends: More Will and Magna Stories are strangers and rivals, an assailant, an ex, arguably none of them friends at all, and all of them reminders that not only is the enemy of your enemy not your friend; neither is the friend of your friend.

[Jonathan Scheuer · Rating 4 out of 5]

This volume includes the very short "Cooked Goose," about a writer at the end of his tether, which is one of my favorite stories by any author. That story is in the Google Books preview of Friends. If it appeals, find any Dixon collection that you can. He's unique and excellent.

[David Markwell · Rating 5 out of 5]

This small gem of story collection reads more like a novel (and what else would we expect from Mr. Dixon). Really if you haven't read anything by this man you must.