Dangerous Men

Most of the male characters who appear in the 11 stories in this collection--which won the 1995 Drue Heinz Literature Prize--are as dangerous to themselves as they are to others. In the title story, Becker achieves the perfect blend of humor and menace as three tripping teenagers stumble though Boston on the night of Nixon's resignation, undecided about whether to go ``fag''-bashing or do their music homework. Violence--or the threat of it--figures heavily in these stories. In ``Magister Ludi,'' Duney, a straight-laced high-school senior, goes to a quarry for a swim with Riggy, an older musician whom she barely knows; when his pursuit of her threatens to turn forceful, she gets scared until she realizes she can swim circles around him (``she thinks she has never felt more in control in her life''). In ``Taxes,'' Pretzel, a black teenager who runs errands for an elderly Jewish man, must decide whom to defend when his brother tries to rob his employer. On the goofier side, there's ``The Handstand Man,'' in which 30-something Jimi-John Houser tries to save a dying romance by turning the living room of his tiny New York City apartment into a beach. Becker's cast includes aging, struggling musicians, drifters and petty criminals. In smooth, careful prose, he delineates his ethnically diverse characters with lucid empathy and renders moments of their lives taut and compelling. (Dec.)