On the Yankee Station Stories

by BOYD, WILLIAM

• ISBN13: 9780375705113
• ISBN10: 0375705112
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2001-02-27
• Publisher: Vintage

Summary

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.

Author Biography

William Boyd’s first novel, <b>A Good Man in Africa</b><i>, </i>won a Whitbread Prize and a Somerset Maugham Award; his second, <b>An Ice-Cream War</b><i>, </i>was awarded the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize and was shortlisted for the Booker Prize; <b>Brazzaville Beach</b><i> </i>won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize; and <b>The Blue Afternoon</b><i> </i>won the Los Angeles Times Prize for Fiction. Boyd lives in London.

Table of Contents

Next Boat from Douala	9	(18)
Not Yet, Jayette	18	(8)
Hardly Ever	26	(25)
The Care and Attention of Swimming Pools	51	(12)
Killing Lizards	63	(10)
Bizarre Situations	73	(11)
Gifts	84	(20)
On the Yankee Station	104	(26)
Histoire Vache	130	(14)
My Girl in Skintight Jeans	144	(8)
Extracts from the Journal of Flying Officer J	152	(11)
Bat-Girl!	163	(10)
Love Hurts	173	(12)
The Coup	185	(24)
Long Story Short	209