On the Yankee Station: Stories by William Boyd

by William Boyd

Wiliam Boyd, winner of the Whitbread and Somerset Maugham Awards, introduces unlikely heroes desperate to redeem their unsatisfying lives.

From California poolsides to the battlegrounds of Vietnam, here is a world populated by weary souls who turn to fantasy as their sole escape from life's inequities. Stranded in an African hotel during a coup, an oafish Englishman impresses a young stewardess with stories of an enchanted life completely at odds with his sordid existence in "The Coup." In the title story, an arrogant, sadistic American pilot in Vietnam underestimaets the power of revenge when he relentlessly persecutes a member of his maintenance crew. With droll humor and rare compassion, Boyd's enthralling stories remind us of his stature as one of contemporary fiction's finest storytellers.

Genres: Fiction, Short Stories, American, Collections, British Literature, Literary Fiction, Fantasy

217 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1981

About the author

Note: William^^Boyd

Of Scottish descent, Boyd was born in Accra, Ghana on 7th March, 1952 and spent much of his early life there and in Nigeria where his mother was a teacher and his father, a doctor. Boyd was in Nigeria during the Biafran War, the brutal secessionist conflict which ran from 1967 to 1970 and it had a profound effect on him.

At the age of nine years he attended Gordonstoun school, in Moray, Scotland and then Nice University (Diploma of French Studies) and Glasgow University (MA Hons in English and Philosophy), where he edited the Glasgow University Guardian. He then moved to Jesus College, Oxford in 1975 and completed a PhD thesis on Shelley. For a brief period he worked at the New Statesman magazine as a TV critic, then he returned to Oxford as an English lecturer teaching the contemporary novel at St Hilda's College (1980-83). It was while he was here that his first novel, A Good Man in Africa (1981), was published.

Boyd spent eight years in academia, during which time his first film, Good and Bad at Games, was made. When he was offered a college lecturership, which would mean spending more time teaching, he was forced to choose between teaching and writing.

Boyd was selected in 1983 as one of the 20 'Best of Young British Novelists' in a promotion run by Granta magazine and the Book Marketing Council. He also became a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in the same year, and is also an Officier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. He has been presented with honorary doctorates in literature from the universities of St. Andrews, Stirling and Glasgow. He was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 2005.

Boyd has been with his wife Susan since they met as students at Glasgow University and all his books are dedicated to her. His wife is editor-at-large of Harper's Bazaar magazine, and they currently spend about thirty to forty days a year in the US. He and his wife have a house in Chelsea, West London but spend most of the year at their chateau in Bergerac in south west France, where Boyd produces award-winning wines.

Reviews

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

Surprisingly entertaining. Thirteen stories with some funny, sad, creepy and poignant. Boyd is Scottish and grew up in Ghana and Nigeria, where his father worked as a doctor. Several of the stories draw on his experiences of Africa and boarding school. His imagination is brilliant and very dark at times.

Killing Lizards is about a young boy in Africa obsessed with his mother.

Not Yet, Jayette is a poignant story about a man living an aimless life and remembering when he was a successful child tv star.

Bizarre Situations was a creepy story which left you wondering who was the murderer.

Hardly Ever a boarding school boy’s adolescent sex obsession more fantasy than reality.

Next Boat from Douala a story about Morgan an English civil servant who contracts an STD and grows a conscience.

A young man in Nice learning French learns about life. Edward finds life will always give him gifts with some good some not so good. Gifts is a coming of age story.

My Girl in Skin tight Jeans a story for me about madness and a man who lives in a fantasy world with deadly consequences.

Histoire Vache a brutal story where a young man loses his virginity. Sad and distasteful but realistic.

On the Yankee Station is what happens to a bully when someone hates them. The setting in Vietnam on an aircraft carrier and the injustice of a pilots fixation on an innocent mechanic comes back to bite him.

Bat-girl creepy story where a woman gets off on making her boyfriend jealous.

Love Hurts hits the nail on the head. A man becomes obsessed with his wife who leaves him for a hippy. He cannot handle it and takes it to the next level.

The Coup with Morgan leaving Africa and trapped at the airport hotel during a military coup. He seduces a air stewardess and almost gets trapped himself.

Long Story Short is visceral using meta fiction. I wonder if Boyds brother did steal his fiancé! Good story.

[Greg · Rating 4 out of 5]

2007....

A couple of not so good stories towards the end, but most of them are great. Close to being a five-star book.

2018....

I read this book and I thought I was reading it for the first time. No memory of any of these stories, at all.
I'll leave the four star rating. I would probably give it 3 stars now. What did 11 years younger Greg like so much about this? They were ok stories. Maybe because they were stories written by a young William Boyd (emphasis on young) there was something that resonated.

Next time when I go to read a book that has been sitting on the shelf for a decade I should probably check Goodreads to see if I had already read it. Oppps.

[A.K. Kulshreshth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Stories without a connection (that I could figure), except that each of them is finely chiselled, and the range of settings will make sure you get taken to a place or two that you haven't been too (unless you're exceptionally well travelled). The title story is the most predictable; Bat Girl! has the most weird premise. The characters are a unique bunch, as one would expect from a writer of Boyd's calibre. The collection is more than the sum of the parts.

[Ryan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Probably the first book of short stories I bought, read, and liked. There are two stories featuring Morgan Leafy, the comic anti-hero of Boyd's first novel A Good Man in Africa. Some are spikily comic monologues, as with 'Not Yet, Jayette' or 'The Care and Attention of Swimming Pools', which exploit American slang and stupidity with equal success.

'Long Story Short' is the only piece of metafiction I have ever cared for. 'Killing Lizards' and 'Histoire Vache' are inspired apprentice pieces about teenagers questing for acceptance and sex. The only story that left me in the cold was 'Alpes Maritimes' - a story not included in earlier editions of the book.

I still remember many of this collection's images and phrases, even though over twenty years have passed since I first bought it. A Scottish creek is the 'colour of unmilked tea'; a woman feels her eyes 'spangle' with tears at the sight of her vulnerable teenage lover.

Perhaps not as sophisticated or as consistently polished as Boyd's later collections, but this early one snagged in my mind, when they did not.

[D · Rating 2 out of 5]

Some interesting stories that are fun to read. Some not so much. Unfortunately, there are more of the latter type.

[Jayne Charles · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’m not normally a fan of short story collections but an exception can always be made for the excellent writing of William Boyd. This is a good deal more conventional and accessible than the later collection ‘Fascination’ and I enjoyed it a lot more. Largely about sex (or a quest for it), the stories have a beginning, middle and an end, and are easy to understand. In some cases too easy – I was sure I must be missing something profound. I am constantly amazed by the breadth of this author’s range – from a washed up Hollywood child star to a bumptious RAF pilot to a girl working in the circus, he gets inside all their heads. Impressive stuff.

[Lucynell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very impressive variety of short stories here. There's comedy and there's creepy and it's all very enjoyable. The stories seem to grow organically so one may be surprised to be surprised if you know what I mean. A very strong 4/5.

[Gregoire Jones · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great fun. If you liked 'a good man in Africa' then you'll like this too. If you didn't you are pretty bloody humourless.

[David Hayes · Rating 2 out of 5]

My mistake. I don't enjoy short stories.

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fifteen short stories that cover a lot of ground and emotions. Boyd reminds me of Graham Greene with his themes- diplomats gone to seed in the tropics and also of Lawrence Osbourne with prurient interests abroad. Some shocking and surprising endings too.

[Alec Downie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I only picked up William Boyd, because I read he and Bowie were friends, yet none of his books appear on the Bowie 100 list.

His life has zero relation to my own in background and class, yet he was able to charm me with human observations that have no social boundaries.

I may delve into a full novel now.

[Loudon McAndrew · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was different from anything I have read before in that the variance in themes was such that you couldn’t guess what was coming next. Cannot rate it highly in literary terms but enjoyable enough

[zunggg · Rating 4 out of 5]

At least five of these stories are about men’s or boys’ fumbling efforts to get laid. About four of them are impertinent vignettes with unreliable or just plain crazy narrators. A couple more are absorbing mini-monologues from society’s fringes. All are characterized by the same narrative agreeableness I’ve found in the two other fiction and one non-fiction book of Boyd’s I’ve read: he writes fiction without making a song and dance about it and (mostly) puts plot and character ahead of literary posturing.

I think my favourite piece here is “Gifts”, in which an ingenuous undergrad relies on the kindness of strangers in the South of France. There’s something very calming about this strange tale, an absence of antagonism maybe, something zenlike almost, and it’s funny too. I was also quite taken with the antiheroic Morgan Leafy, who appears twice in this collection, and want to read “A Good Man in Africa” now for more Leafiness. The title story comes in for a lot of praise but for me it was the only real misfire, a predictable revenge yarn whose military dialogue is unconvincing (“get outa here an’ don’t come back or I’m gonna dump a giant shit on you, boy!”) But this book has something for most people. I thought it was a lot of fun.

[John McNair · Rating 4 out of 5]

I sure enjoy reading William Boyd! I don't read a lot of collections of short stories but I am glad a read this. But . . . why did he use article "the" in the title? I mean, Boyd is a highly accomplished British author, so it seems awkward to put "the" in the title. "On Yankee Station" makes more "English" sense to me. In any event, there are some really good stories herein, and some less so. A bit spicy at times but in a pleasantly thrilling way, and it never gets out of hand. Call it literary eroticism (and that's taking things maybe too far). An interesting final story where the author speaks to the reader in addition to telling a story, as a way of explanation or revelation. Leaves one wondering where lies the truth. They say "write about something you know", and if that's the case Boyd's like story must be fascinating!

[Kenneth · Rating 1 out of 5]

Well, that was unexpectedly terrible. I can't say if it has always been poor or if it has just aged very poorly. Most likely both. There are really only a couple of stories, if one is generous, that passes muster, even if not convincingly so. The others are largely puerile, dull and repetitive.

Hard to reconcile this is the same author who has written Brazzaville Beach, An Ice-Cream War and A Good Man in Africa.

[John Benson · Rating 2 out of 5]

This collection of short stories is one of William Boyd's earlier books. While I have enjoyed so many of his novels, I found most of the stories in this book to be fairly disappointing. I think I will stick to his novels from now on.

[Robert Hepple · Rating 4 out of 5]

First published in 1981, 'On the Yankee Station' is a collection of 16 short stories. Sub-genres vary, whilst the plots are a mix of the conventional as well as a couple that seem to go nowhere, but all are incredibly well written. Enjoy.

[Behrooz · Rating 4 out of 5]

was good.

[Jean-Pascal · Rating 3 out of 5]

Un recueil de nouvelles sympathiques mais inégales. Il est amusant de constater certains thèmes ou certaines manières récurrentes d'une nouvelle à l'autre.

[Simon Pert · Rating 5 out of 5]

Always a fan of William Boyd's writing and this collection of 15 tales are brilliantly written.

[Philip · Rating 5 out of 5]

On The Yankee Station by William Boyd is a series of short stories, the longest of which provides the title for the set. This particular story is a superb piece of short fiction, much more than a short story, confronting, in less than twenty-five pages, several big issues and, at the same time, drawing its characters in considerable, complex detail. Set on an aircraft carrier in the South China Sea during the Vietnam War, it describes the antagonistic relationship between two crew members.

Pfitz is a pilot, conscious of and grateful for his perceived and actual status, a status he does not hesitate to assert to his advantage. But this tendency is sometimes exercised to excess. It is as if he needs to feel the elevation of his status in order to bolster his own self image. In short, he is a bully. This characteristic begins to dominate his thoughts and actions when events conspires to question his own competence, his right to that nourishing status.

Lydecker is a member of Pfitz’s ground crew. Suffice it to say that Lydecker is not at the intellectual end of the fighting machine. Neither does he hail from privilege. Quite the contrary, in fact. Lydecker, had he not joined the navy, would probably have grown into a complete bum, at best one step up from a down-and-out. Even in the armed forces he can only aspire to the most menial of tasks, but he is at least thorough and tries to keep his nose clean. But for Lydecker events conspire to heap suspicion on his competence, a suspicion constantly fuelled by a torrent of abuse and accusation that flows from Pfitz, the pilot it remains his responsibility to service.

Pfitz likes his job. That much is clear. He takes a particular liking to napalm and delights at the idea of heaping tons of the stuff from his jet onto the population of rural Vietnam. He takes involved interest in technical improvements to his preferred weapon, improvements that ensure the fireball sticks firmly to anything it encounters, thus guaranteeing that it will burn right through. If he were closer to the action, one feels that Pfitz would delight in the smell, the mixture of burning organics saucing the suggestion of roast pork emanating from oxidised human flesh. He takes that kind of pride in a job well done. Lydecker is demoted, effectively humiliated by the time he gets an opportunity for some shore leave.

During his week in Saigon he remorselessly pursues two forms of recreation, one out of a bottle, the other between whatever sheets are on offer. But there is one girl who is different, staying remote from the business of others, busying herself about her own affairs. She is treated with apparently universal and complete contempt and she alone amongst the bar hangers-on is never on the menu, her meat not for sale. Bullied himself in the workplace, one might expect Lydecker to sympathise with her plight. But he treats her with as much – if not more – disdain than the rest and, eventually, it is more out of spite than either sympathy or desire that he insists on a session with her, forces himself on her merely to underline his right to assert assumed control.

What Lydecker subsequently experiences with that girl changes his view of the world just a little, but enough to influence events elsewhere, his new-found conscience constructing a plan he might employ back on board. In a short story, William Boyd illustrates class systems embedded in the USA’s professedly classless society. He confronts the so-called clinical nature of modern warfare by identifying the blunderbuss of terror that maims everything in its indiscriminating line of fire. He characterises sadism, vengeance, conscience and retribution. He draws sketches of exploitation, both economic and social, and illustrates how communities, even whole societies, can be seen as built on a crass and ruthless assertion of domination for domination’s sake. And all of this happens in less than twenty-five pages. Other stories in the set are also of a very high standard. To review them all would reproduce the book, no less, for they are succinct, often surprising, sometimes humorous pieces which together form a supreme achievement.

[Joanna · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was unsatisfied with this collection, which seemed like a loose jumble of underdeveloped ideas, the broadest connection between them being Boyd's adolescent preoccupation with sex. My favourite of the collection was undoubtedly 'Long Story Short', separated from the pack by its succinct and satisfying plot, and its intentionally fragmented structure, reminiscent of the "Adult Video" story in Boyd's later, superior collection "Fascination". The other stories which worked for me were the two about Morgan Leafy, the antihero of "A Good Man in Africa", which benefitted from the previous work, in that Leafy is a rounded character in a well drawn environment. However, the remainder of the stories were a little weak, a little two dimensional, none of them leading anywhere especially surprising or interesting. In short, if you are going to read a William Boyd, read one of his good later works, don't waste your time on this journeyman anthology.

[Geoff · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was the second book of Boyd's that I'd read. After reading An Ice-Cream War I was ready to be disappointed but this book of short stories was excellent. I was gripped by the title story in which an American pilot with a penchant for napalm is paid back for his brutality by one of his mechanics. In another tale a cruel young boy is forced to look closely at himself when he sees his mother having a affair. The stories in On The Yankee Station are superbly told and one or two different enough to make them quite memorable.

[Henry Douthwaite · Rating 3 out of 5]

A Good Man in Africa is one of my favourite books. It ticks all the boxes and to find that there were more tales of the classic anti-hero Morgan Leafy excited me greatly and I haven't been disappointed. Two short stories involving Morgan mixed in with 11 others and on the whole they are all very fascinating and told with the authors enthralling ability to draw you into a rather filmic world he manages to create so simply. A quick read and very satisfying.

[Mike Tracy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not quite as satisfying as "Any Human Heart," but definitely readable- Mostly character sketches of unremarkable characters doing less-than commendable things that mark turning points in their lives. For the American reader these stories give us a nice sense of the exotic brought down to street level. Even in the heart of Africa during a coup, there's a sense of everydayness in a pleasurable way.

[Andy Weston · Rating 4 out of 5]

Usually not huge on short stories, but this was about the only thing left thing left by Boyd that I hadn't read. It's an early collection of many of his favourite topics. Enjoyable, but I'm going to stick with the longer versions.

[ashok · Rating 4 out of 5]

Look out for the 2 short stories in this featuring "Morgan Leafy" .. that famous flabby civil servant from "A good man in Africa"....

[Mary · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although I prefer novels, I reallyed enjoyed a lot of these short stories, he's a good writer.

[Des · Rating 5 out of 5]

Within seconds you are hooked into each of these short stories. All little William Boyd gems. Glad I picked this one up.

[Sharon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sue, I'm not a lover of short stories but dear William did not disappoint. You must read this one. I own it so can load to you next time I see you.