The eagerly anticipated novel from the bestselling author of A Student of Weather and Garbo Laughs.
Harry Boyd, a hard-bitten... read full description
Harry Boyd, a hard-bitten... read full description
reviews
May 14, 2008
Hannah
rated it: 
A character in Elizabeth's book describes good script writing as having simplicity, directness, and intimacy. Late Night on Air achieves all three. Whether we love or hate the main characters by the end of the book, we also know them as well as our own skin. And we know something of the north--its timeless fragility, and its ability to both save and destroy those who venture there.
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Nov 22, 2008
Bonnie
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I laughed and I cried and I marvelled and I kept reading in one long sitting.
Very deserving of The Giller, in my opinion.
Very deserving of The Giller, in my opinion.
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Feb 05, 2009
Mary
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I almost didn't finish this book. The first 60 pages were tiresome to drag myself through. Then Ms. Hay caught me with something so "Northern Canada" that I was immediately hooked. It was a print out of messages that CBC used to read over the air -- things like " Joe Blogs, get in touch with the RCMP at Fort Rae for an urgent message from your brother Ron." or "To the Blogs family, Resolute Bay. Jannie had her baby. A boy, 7 lbs 2 ounces. Mom and baby are doing well and
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Jul 11, 2008
Kathy
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I admit that I have an affection for Canadian writers. This is a beautifully written book, the characters are rendered in much detail and the plot is believable. I liked the world she creates in her story and the setting of the radio station is interesting.
Once I bought the book and looked at the author's photo I think that I may have met her when I was in Canada attending a music workshop. There were a bunch of writers who were also having a workshop in the same space. Funny coinci More...
Once I bought the book and looked at the author's photo I think that I may have met her when I was in Canada attending a music workshop. There were a bunch of writers who were also having a workshop in the same space. Funny coinci More...
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Mar 31, 2009
Shannon
rated it: 
This book doesn't get much more Canadian: the Yukon, the weather, CBC radio and misfits and I almost forgot the McKenzie Pipeline Berger Commission. The descriptions of the weather make the weather one of the strongest characters in the book.
Unfortunately, the book is choppy: for the most part a sequence of disconnected scenarios. The promise of the radio station as a unifying theme is insufficiently developed; the shift to a wilderness adventure seems abrupt and not particularly c More...
Unfortunately, the book is choppy: for the most part a sequence of disconnected scenarios. The promise of the radio station as a unifying theme is insufficiently developed; the shift to a wilderness adventure seems abrupt and not particularly c More...
Feb 04, 2009
Toni
rated it:
In early 70's, Harry Boyd returns to Yellowknife to work at the local radio station, there he falls in love with Dido Paris, a novice broadcasters with a voice "like a tarnished silver spoon". Both are part of a cast of loveable eccentrics at the station. Reviving their pasts and what attracted them to the North is the centre of this story. Several affairs are set among the station staff and the story extends into the landscape where four of them embark on a six week canoe trip explori
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Jul 03, 2011
Janet
rated it: 
Loved this book, for many reasons. It didn't hurt that the themes reflected some of my biases: the worthy battle for the preservation of native language and culture in this vast country; the high value I place on CBC radio as the thread that runs through every community supporting and highlighting culture and helping us discover rich things about each other; the lament that TV has created a 'generation addicted to instant gratification'.
Hay's handling of language is skillful. She exercise More...
Hay's handling of language is skillful. She exercise More...
Feb 22, 2011
switterbug (Betsey)
rated it:
"...this summer of 1975 took on the mythical quality of a cloudless summer before the outbreak of war, or before the onset of the kind of restlessness, social, spiritual, that remakes the world."
In the Canadian Northwest territories, a place of harsh winters and summers of unrelenting light, the hamlet of Yellowknife remains like an anachronism. Population ten thousand, including native people that have lived on this land for thousands of years; it was their flesh and blood. More...
In the Canadian Northwest territories, a place of harsh winters and summers of unrelenting light, the hamlet of Yellowknife remains like an anachronism. Population ten thousand, including native people that have lived on this land for thousands of years; it was their flesh and blood. More...
Feb 02, 2011
Christie
rated it:
“Psychologically astute, richly rendered and deftly paced. It’s a pleasure from start to finish.” – Toronto Star
Canadian author Elizabeth Hay won the Giller Prize for her novel, Late Nights on Air. Obviously, you begin a book like this- one with a certain pedigree already attached - with a little trepidation. I mean, what if you hate it?
I am happy to report that this is a beautiful book.
Set in Yellowknife in 1975, the novel tells the story of the intersecting More...
Canadian author Elizabeth Hay won the Giller Prize for her novel, Late Nights on Air. Obviously, you begin a book like this- one with a certain pedigree already attached - with a little trepidation. I mean, what if you hate it?
I am happy to report that this is a beautiful book.
Set in Yellowknife in 1975, the novel tells the story of the intersecting More...
Jun 15, 2010
Jill
rated it:
If a heart is torn apart in the Canadian arctic and no one hears it, did it really happen? Elizabeth Hay would answer a resounding “yes.”
All of her characters – a diverse group of wounded lost souls who work together in a small Yellowknife radio station in the mid-1970s – are aching. Harry – the curmudgeonly acting manager with the cauliflower ear – has returned from a gig in television with its tail between his legs. Dido ran from the only man she ever loved – her own father-in-l More...
All of her characters – a diverse group of wounded lost souls who work together in a small Yellowknife radio station in the mid-1970s – are aching. Harry – the curmudgeonly acting manager with the cauliflower ear – has returned from a gig in television with its tail between his legs. Dido ran from the only man she ever loved – her own father-in-l More...
Sep 09, 2010
Manussawee
rated it:
This book, unfortunately, was a meh for me. It got off on a bad note with me, taking me a while to get into the story. Unlike other recent books, it couldn't convince me to like it more.
The story took place in Yellowknife, northern Canada, and it revolved around four main characters: Harry, Dido, Gwen and Eleanor. Each character had some emptiness inside their soul and was looking for something and/or someone to fill the void. Dido chose not to find herself but rather to lose her More...
The story took place in Yellowknife, northern Canada, and it revolved around four main characters: Harry, Dido, Gwen and Eleanor. Each character had some emptiness inside their soul and was looking for something and/or someone to fill the void. Dido chose not to find herself but rather to lose her More...
Aug 10, 2009
Zinta
rated it:
You’ve heard it said, “hurts so good.” About the writing style of Elizabeth Hay, I can say: cuts so soft. Her words, her turn of phrase, her sweet sentence construction, it is as precise and expertly sculpted as with a sculptor’s chisel or a surgeon’s scalpel. Yet soft. The sharpest knife enters your flesh with hardly more than a red line—and finds its target. The heart. The reader’s mind. There are no ragged edges here.
The setting for this novel intrigued me right away. The book wa More...
The setting for this novel intrigued me right away. The book wa More...
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Aug 09, 2011
This Arctic book about life in Yellowknife in the 70's is full of references to the Radio and CBC, the pipeline (what happened anyway), great scenery, animals, the Dene people, aboriginal rights, canoeing and people working at the station. The people are somewhat complex and interacting with themselves form interesting characters, even though they in themselves are not so interesting. In the end, you can see that the time spent up North was helpful in making a future life, which was elsewhere. T
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Feb 16, 2010
Tony
rated it:
The setting: A radio station in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, 1975. The frozen Canadian north is on the verge of major changes: the arrival of television, oil and gas exploration, heightened tensions between natives and outsiders.
For anyone who has a romantic yearning to go to or return to the northern wilderness, this book evokes all the lonely beauty of the land (and sky). And the author is absolutely on target in her portrayal of the misfits, dreamers, emotional refugees and nati More...
For anyone who has a romantic yearning to go to or return to the northern wilderness, this book evokes all the lonely beauty of the land (and sky). And the author is absolutely on target in her portrayal of the misfits, dreamers, emotional refugees and nati More...
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Jun 18, 2011
Mrsgaskell
rated it:
I found almost the first 200 pages or so of this book rather slow going but the Yellowknife setting kept me reading and ultimately my perseverance was rewarded. Overall, I decided that this was a very good book and parts were beautifully written. The book has an unusual cast of characters, perhaps exactly what one would expect to find among people who’ve escaped to the remote north, but the most interesting character seemed to be the North itself. The working of a radio station and the Mackenzi
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May 10, 2009
Kelly
rated it:
It recalled my joy in presenting on community radio: "You get to be invisible...You control the interview, you ask the questions, you say when it's over. The theatre world is packed with same kind of people. Extroverted introverts."
"Silence is an interviewer's asset. All you have do is wait, and the person feels obliged to fill the vacuum with a serious answer".
And this comment from Teresa a traditional land owner: "If someone is sitting across More...
"Silence is an interviewer's asset. All you have do is wait, and the person feels obliged to fill the vacuum with a serious answer".
And this comment from Teresa a traditional land owner: "If someone is sitting across More...
Aug 24, 2011
Zara
rated it:
The first half of the book sets down the foundation of flawed characters who slowly woo you into the landscape of the North, its isolation, yet the closeness and intimacy of their township, and the realism and authenticity of their unique, yet easily recognizable personalities. They are rich and substantial, lacking stereotype. And their relationships with one another reveal their longings, their failings, and their complexities---especially in the forms of love.
The latter half of th More...
The latter half of th More...
Jan 17, 2012
Laura
rated it:
So this book took me an enormous amount of time to read. I found it extremely slow moving and the not so candid hints that where dispersed throughout regarding a future "undoing" of a character is what kept me reading.
The book is very descriptive of the surrounding area so if you like nature and someone explaining the colors and light hitting the water and trees then you will enjoy this book. The characters are all good characters but like I said, the story itself is very slow mov More...
The book is very descriptive of the surrounding area so if you like nature and someone explaining the colors and light hitting the water and trees then you will enjoy this book. The characters are all good characters but like I said, the story itself is very slow mov More...
Nov 23, 2011
Suzi
rated it:
This book is great for Canadians who are in radio. It rang nostalgic for me, referencing all of the outlying areas of my hometown, Edmonton, Alberta, making me feel cold and home and the same time. The canoe trip through the Barrens, just north of where I grew up, was effective in that my memories of wilderness were awakened... though the descriptions were often to lengthy for me and the detail seemed like a distracted tangent versus integral to the story being told. Is was like Hay fit her pass
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Sep 13, 2011
A. J.
rated it:
This novel is deeply embedded in Canada's north. It conjured up the bleakness, isolation and danger of those distant lands in a convincing and fascinating way. I enjoyed every chapter.
I did find that there was a bit too much foreshadowing, which in the end seemed unjustified, but that's only a minor quibble. The background detail of disastrous Arctic explorations gave an interesting historical aspect, while the more recent impact of the 1970s Berger inquiry into the Mackenzie Valley ga More...
I did find that there was a bit too much foreshadowing, which in the end seemed unjustified, but that's only a minor quibble. The background detail of disastrous Arctic explorations gave an interesting historical aspect, while the more recent impact of the 1970s Berger inquiry into the Mackenzie Valley ga More...
Oct 01, 2010
Leah
rated it:
This exquisite novel captured my heart; the author's craft is dazzling as she tells her tale. Small details make the scenes come alive, but are carefully chosen so they don't overwhelm the reader, only the relevant descriptions are included. Hay is gifted with leaving just enough touches of foreshadowing to tantalize the reader and keep her engaged and begging for more.
Reading this book was a joy and makes me yearn to go canoing north of the sixtieth parallel (even though the mosquitoes More...
Reading this book was a joy and makes me yearn to go canoing north of the sixtieth parallel (even though the mosquitoes More...
Feb 09, 2011
Daniela
rated it:
Although I quite liked this book, I do have some criticisms. The first two thirds of the book is very character driven. An interesting group of individuals working at a radio station in Yellowknife during the mid 70s’; Hay does a great job of portraying life in a northern Canadian community. You could almost feel the cold and loneliness. I loved the characters, but the plot seemed to meander. Two characters (Dido and Eddy) were so mysterious and had almost an “evil” feel to them and yet Hay d
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Jan 20, 2011
Carole
rated it: 
Not only did I positively dislike this book, I was downright angry by the time I tossed it aside, unfinished. It was recommended by my husband, which is why I tried to read it, but certainly not my kind of thing. I don't know if it's good literature or not, but I've read some good literature in my life and this doesn't even compare--in style, in interest, in anything.
There appears to be no story, no plot. Just a wandering account of people living in Yellowknife, Northwest Territ More...
There appears to be no story, no plot. Just a wandering account of people living in Yellowknife, Northwest Territ More...
Jul 27, 2011
Elizabeth May captures the vastness and romance of the North in this beautifully written book set in the Yukon. At the same time she gives us a window into the drama of small town Canadian radio. She develops gripping and tragic characters and tells the tale of the judicial review of the northern pipeline, alluding to the difficult relationships between natives and the whites that come to light in this process. The main character Gwen develops in the course of this novel and her frustrated relat
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Nov 25, 2010
Shirley
rated it:
This book seems deceptively simple and folksy when you begin, but as you read you come to realize that there is an undercurrent there and that something catastrophic is going to happen sometime. This is a book written by a master character developer. Ms. Hay's characters are so realistic and so wonderful. The setting-Yellowknife NWT in the 1970's is also very unique and is the perfect backdrop for this story. Ms. Hay does not hesitate to explore deep subjects like love, rivalry, jealousy, friend
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Jan 21, 2010
Amanda
rated it:
This book is set in isolated Yellowknife, in the north of Canada. It details the shifting relationships of a group of people who work in the small radio station, most of whom are running from something. At the start of summer, four of them go on a canoe trip into the still-icy wilderness.
I took a while to get into this book. It spends a long time on characterisation, and it is easy to get caught up there. One annoying point is that the author keeps foreshadowing some disaster, which More...
I took a while to get into this book. It spends a long time on characterisation, and it is easy to get caught up there. One annoying point is that the author keeps foreshadowing some disaster, which More...
May 23, 2011
Emma
rated it:
I found the storyline a little choppy and disjointed at times, although that might have been deliberate on the author's part to prove something. I also was a bit confused in the end by Ralph's love for Eleanor, but again, that may have been deliberate.
I loved the prose. And I loved the description. And I loved the four main characters: Dido, Harry, Gwen, and Eleanor. They were all so real and so raw. I loved how believeable they were and how, even if I didn't like a character (ahemdi More...
I loved the prose. And I loved the description. And I loved the four main characters: Dido, Harry, Gwen, and Eleanor. They were all so real and so raw. I loved how believeable they were and how, even if I didn't like a character (ahemdi More...
Sep 28, 2011
Andrea
rated it:
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers.
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Jan 07, 2012
Tricia
rated it:
I found it difficult to get into this book until four characters started planning their canoe trip. I think the omniscient point of view put me off -- made me feel distant from the characters. The writing is skillful and lovely in parts, especially when Hay is describing the landscape and weather. I loved the beauty, drama and poignancy of the canoe trip. Readers who like loose ends tied up should have appreciated this book because Hay lets us know what happened to each of her characters after t
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Feb 11, 2010
Kristel
rated it:
This is a lovely book, though I was a bit annoyed by the foreshadowing. I might have given it 5 out of 5 stars (certainly anyway I wouldn't have wavered over 3 vs 4 stars, it would have been a solid 4) if Hay had exised every one of her "if they'd known what would happen that summer" statements. What I liked was the picture she painted of the place and the time and the people - there's a kind of precision about it, so that you feel immersed in all of it.
(I own two differen More...
(I own two differen More...
