Late Nights on Air: Amazon.ca: Elizabeth Hay: Books

Product Description

From Publishers Weekly

After being fired from his latest television job, a disgraced Harry Boyd returns to his radio roots in the northern Canadian town of Yellowknife as the manager of a station no one listens to, and finds himself at the center of the station's unlikely social scene. New anchor Dido Paris, both renowned and mocked for her Dutch accent, fled an affair with her husband's father, only to be torn between Harry and another man. Wild child Gwen came to learn radio production, but under Harry's tutelage finds herself the guardian of the late-night shift. And lonely Eleanor wonders if it's time to move south just as she meets an unlikely suitor. While the station members wait for Yellowknife to get its first television station and the crew embarks on a life-changing canoe expedition, the city is divided over a proposal to build a pipeline that would cut across Native lands, bringing modernization and a flood of workers, equipment and money into sacred territory. Hay's crystalline prose, keen details and sharp dialogue sculpt the isolated, hardy residents of Yellowknife, who provide a convincing backdrop as the main cast tromps through the existential woods. (Apr.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

Review

#1 National Bestseller

“Elizabeth Hay has created her own niche in Canadian fiction by fastening her intelligence on the real stuff — the bumps and glories in love, kinship, friendship.”
— Toronto Star

“Hay exposes the beauty simmering in the heart of harsh settings with an evocative grace that brings to mind Annie Proulx.”
— Washington Post

"Dazzling....A flawlessly crafted and timeless story, masterfully told.” — Jury citation, the Scotiabank Giller Prize

“Exquisite….Hay creates enormous spaces with few words, and makes the reader party to the journey, listening, marvelling….” — Globe and Mail

“This is Hay’s best novel yet.” — Marni Jackson, The Walrus

“Invites comparison with work by Alice Munro and Margaret Atwood. Outside Canada, one thinks of A.S. Byatt or Annie Proulx.” — Times Literary Supplement

“Written by a master storyteller.” — Winnipeg Free Press

“Psychologically astute, richly rendered and deftly paced. It’s a pleasure from start to finish.” — Toronto Star

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Customer Reviews

21 Reviews

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4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(5)
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Average Customer Review

3.4 out of 5 stars (21 customer reviews)

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16 of 17 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A time, a place, a people beautifully rendered!, Dec 7 2007

By

Cindy Stroud (London) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)

This review is from: Late Nights on Air (Hardcover)

This book manages to do something not many can, last one I can remember doing this good a job is "Lonesome Dove" by Larry McMurtry. That is bring into sharp focus the characters and relationships of a time and place in such a way that you truly believe them to be real people, and then take these people and cast them against a wild landscape. The story is as much about the how the characters relate to each other as to how they relate to their environment. In "Lonesome Dove" McMurtry takes a cast of well rendered characters and takes them on a cattle drive from Texas to Montana. "In Late Nights on Air" Hay introduces us to the people who work at a Yellow Knife radio station in the wild and wooly Canadian North. Once I started this book it was impossible to put down! Another book that captures a slice of life in a wild place I recommend is "Across the High Lonesome" I did not think it as strong as this novel but still a worthy read.

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20 of 23 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Dissapointing for a Giller Prize Winner, April 13 2008

By

NorthVan Dave (BC, Canada) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)

This review is from: Late Nights on Air (Hardcover)

I finished Late Nights On Air by Elizabeth Hay this past weekend. I decided to read this book because it won the Giller Prize in 2007. Did I like this book? Yes. Was it a great book? No. Did it deserve to win the Giller? Maybe. Would I recommend the book to someone else? Not sure.

The book though is most definitely what I would categorize as "Chick Lit". There's nothing wrong with Chick Lit, especially if you're a woman. But as a guy, obviously I don't read a lot of the particular genre.

What I liked most about the novel is the focus it gave to the CBC. As someone who has been interested in the inner workings of the Mother Corp, I thought Hay did a great job of explaining the politics behind the scenes. She also did a good job of explaining the loneliness that takes place in northern Canadian communities, and how the winter seasons can drag on and on and on.

So what didn't I like? Specifically I was not a fan of how Hay wrote about the First Nations. She tried to portray them as being "one" with the landscape and therefore deserved some type of special treatment by the Berger Commission looking in to the proposed oil and gas pipeline. Whatever. I would have enjoyed the book more if Hay had focused more on the story line and less on politics.

Read this book if you're interested in life in Northern Communities. Read this book if you like reading novels that have won the Giller. Don't read this book if you're expecting the great Canadian novel.

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12 of 13 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Deeply Moving and True to Life, May 25 2008

By

Teddy (Richmond, BC) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)

This review is from: Late Nights on Air (Hardcover)

Its 1975 Yellowknife where Harry arrives on the scene to temporarily manage the small town radio station, back where his radio career started. When he arrives, he is enchanted by an exotic and sensual female voice on the air, that of Dido. He falls instantly in love but finds out that Dido is more than what her voice portrays.

There is also Eleanor, the wise and supportive receptionist, Gwen the woman who drove cross-country hoping for a producer job behind the scenes, but instead is put on as an amateur announcer, and there is Ralph the book critic and photographer. Of course, Yellowknife is also a central character with its beauty and biting cold.

In the background, we learn about the real life controversy of the proposed Mackenzie River Valley natural gas line, which threatens to go into the Arctic and destroy native people's land. We also learn the rich history of the extraordinary explorer John Hornby, which prompts Harry, Eleanor, Gwen, and Ralph into an ambitious and difficult 6-week journey through the harsh climate on foot and by canoe.

Throughout the entire book Elizabeth Hay allows us to get to know and love the richly-textured characters that come to life. I felt as if I was part of the book as I was reading it. Having to bundle up when reading about the harsh winters and in awe of the beauty both sounds and sights that Hay paints. The characters seem like people who are true to life, which makes the book very readable and believable.

Hay won the prestigious Giller Prize for this work and I couldn't agree more. This book is a must read and will appeal to readers of literary fiction, fine character studies, and historical fiction alike. This was my first voyage through Elizabeth Hay and it has left me yearning for more by this outstanding author.

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Most recent customer reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars "Northern Frontier, Northern Homeland"
This was the title of the Mackenzie Valley Pipeline Inquiry in 1975-1977. The title takes into consideration the diverse perspective of the different groups of people living in... Read more

Published 23 months ago by Friederike Knabe

2.0 out of 5 stars Eloquently written, but extremely boring
I don't understand how this book won awards. When I received it as a birthday present, I couldn't wait to read it. I absolutely love Canadian literature. Read more

Published on April 5 2010 by AJ