Mr. Sammler's Planet

by William Boyd

Book Overview

Mr. Artur Sammler, Holocaust survivor, intellectual, and occasional lecturer at Columbia University in 1960s New York City, is a aregistrar of madness,a a refined and civilized being caught among people crazy with the promises of the future (moon landings, endless possibilities). His Cyclopean gaze reflects on the degradations of city life while looking deep into the sufferings of the human soul. aSorry for all and sore at heart,a he observes how...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0670333190
• ISBN13: 9780670333196
• Release Date: January 1970
• Publisher: Viking
• Length: 313 Pages
• Weight: 1.05 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Much more than a short story

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

It is hard to become of age!

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

Fabulous book of short stories

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!

Brilliant piece of expository writing on a controversial war

Of all of the millions of words written about the contoversial war in Vietnam the ones in this book ring truest! Cdr. Nichols, a veteran of over 300 combat missions flown from carriers in the Tonkin Gulf and over 3,000 hours in the Crusader, knows how to bring the reader right into the cockpit with him. What a spectacular true story of a truly unusual war! Read it!!!