On the Yankee Station: stories [Import] [Hardcover]

William Boyd (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 186 pages
• Publisher: William Morrow c1981, 1982; First Edition edition (1981)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0241104262
• ISBN-13: 978-0241104262
• Shipping Weight: 11.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)

More About the Author

William Boyd is the author of ten novels, including A Good Man in Africa, winner of the Whitbread Award and the Somerset Maugham Award; An Ice-Cream War, winner of the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize and shortlisted for the Booker Prize; Brazzaville Beach, winner of the James Tait Black Memorial Prize; Any Human Heart, winner of the Prix Jean Monnet; and Restless, winner of the Costa Novel of the Year.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars It is hard to become of age!, October 20, 2001

By 

Jacques COULARDEAU "A soul doctor, so to say" (OLLIERGUES France) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: On the Yankee Station: Stories by William Boyd (Hardcover)

A collection of stories about initiation. Killing Lizards is a marvellous story about a young boy shifting from killing lizards, as phallic symbols, to blackmailing his mother to get the love he wants from her, especially since the blackmailing tool shows the father does not control the mother any more.

I also loved Hardly Ever, as a frustrated initiation to sex for a teenager. His initiation is purely superficial, unable that he is to go through it, in spite of a real possibility he goes to sleep on (he goes to sleep, with a girl, when that girl is ready for more), but it is always compensated verbally by some bragging about with his school pals.

Gifts is even stranger. The young student is unable to get through his initiation and has to satisfy himself with some gifts. Everyone of his conquests presents him with personal or confidential elements. His poverty, caused by some postal strike, makes this experience even funnier, funny-strange, because the poorer he gets, the more private gifts he receives.

Boyd is a strange writer about frustrated, and even twisted, initiation for teenagers. Fascinating how they can live on this frustration that becomes their everyday food, or even fodder, the brain being more or less negated.

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fabulous book of short stories, April 5, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: On the Yankee Station: Stories by William Boyd (Hardcover)

This book was given to me by my college English professor. Even though it is out of print, it is worth finding and reading. The stories are short and reflect upon what emotions and feelings one goes through while growing up and going through this thing called life. I enjoy reading this book while around the pool and relaxing since the stories are short and not demanding of hard concentration. The reading is at a moderate level and the plots often provoke an assesment of the readers' own life and his reactions to situations. A very good book!