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1 internautes sur 1 ont trouvé ce commentaire utile :
The beauty and violence of the North all rolled into one., Mai 14 2009
Late Nights on Air is not a page-turning, breath-taking, unable-to-put-down book. Rather, it is a book meant to be read slowly and leisurely, much in the same way the story itself unfolds. Hay introduces us to the North, where days and nights blur together and people come and go. Her characters are rich and her descriptions of the North are vivid. This is not a book with intricate plots or a lot of action; rather it is a portrait of common people living their lives the best they can in a world that is both insular and isolated. I enjoyed this book and found Hay's descriptions of Yellowknife and the Barrens powerful. If you enjoy novels that are character driven and in which the land itself becomes a prominent character, then I think you'll enjoy Late Nights on Air.
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1 internautes sur 1 ont trouvé ce commentaire utile :
Not what I hoped for, Mai 5 2009
I really wanted to love Late Nights on Air. I generally enjoy stories that take place in Canada, and always feel a sense of pride about the way that the country is portrayed. Unfortunately, that is the only thing that I really did enjoy about this book. Elizabeth Hay describes the great North as a true thing of beauty, and provides great insights into the lonely, isolated feeling of living in a Northern town.
However, I found the story to really drag on, especially in the first two-thirds, and I had to force myself to read on. The story does pick up for the last third, and I found myself enjoying the characters and the storyline more. But for the first two-thirds, I really wondered where Hay was going to go with the story.
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0 internautes sur 2 ont trouvé ce commentaire utile :
Late nights on air, Déc 28 2008
Not worthy a prize, poorly styled and due to that misses the message of the book. A waste of time
It is a pity that the Giller prize commitee can not do better on their choises.
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2 internautes sur 3 ont trouvé ce commentaire utile :
Giller Prize ??, Juil 4 2008
How this book could have won the "ScotiaBankCorporateLabelOfTheYear" Giller Prize is beyond me. Am I supposed to sympathize with any of these characters? Or is the point of the novel to make me despise them, two dimensional card board cutouts, all equally? The prose is overblown and just made me cringe. Occasional nice bits of imagery and a certain feel for the north didn't do enough to overcome the cringe-worthiness of this endeavour. Story telling? God no, a collection of emotions spread out over many, many pages.
Maybe it won the prize for the title? Late Nights on Air. Good title.
I'm giving it one star because it won the Giller Prize, and didn't deserve it. Oh yeah, and because I hated it. I picked up Oil! by Upton Sinclair immediately after throwing this down and was blown away by the quality of the story telling compared to Late Nights on Air.
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5 internautes sur 6 ont trouvé ce commentaire utile :
It Has Some Hot Moments, Jui 22 2008
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 exploring the Artic wilderness.
Not only it is my first experience reading a novel by Elizabeth Hay, it is also my first one set in Northern Canada. I have never been to Yellowknife or to the Artic, Ms Hay's descriptions of the area are most interesting and in many ways "exotic". Her chosen words are throughout the novel colourful and pleasant, she is very soft spoken. The novel is more than a story around a radio station, which was the only form of entertainment at the time; it is about history of the area and the lives of the local inhabitants. The characters are a group of "shy" faceless performers who are outgoing when alone in front of a microphone. The book has a romantic streak about it with its share of hot moments portrayed very modestly, leaving a lot to the imagination, the same can be said about the description of the canoe trip. I was left often wondering if parts of the story were missing and did I arrived at the right scenario. Although I found the book to have had its appealing moments it missed intrigue and mystery leaving my mind to wander way too much, for that reason, at times I was bored and contemplated abandoning it.
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16 internautes sur 17 ont trouvé ce commentaire utile :
Deeply Moving and True to Life, Mai 25 2008
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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4 internautes sur 5 ont trouvé ce commentaire utile :
slow starting...., Mai 20 2008
I found this book quite hard to get into. It took me a couple tries without getting too bored and giving up, to really get into it. Once I did, I found that the second half of the book was very well written and much more interesting. I wouldnt say this was an exciting read in any way. All in all, it was just another book I think I could have done without.
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17 internautes sur 19 ont trouvé ce commentaire utile :
Dissapointing for a Giller Prize Winner, Avril 13 2008
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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3 internautes sur 6 ont trouvé ce commentaire utile :
Worthy of the Giller Prize, Mars 16 2008
Late Nights on Air is a beautiful book to read. I enjoyed the descriptive language that Hay uses to describe the wilderness of the north. The story of the characters is complex yet also representative of many workplace friendships and their evolution over time. The author hints in the early pages of the book of a tragedy that will occur. This leaves the reader looking for what is likely to unfold as the group of friends takes an historic journey. The ebb and flow of the lyrical language provides a rewarding literary read. Truly worthy of its recent Giller Prize win, this book is well worth the time spent enjoying its pages
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8 internautes sur 9 ont trouvé ce commentaire utile :
Slow moving plot and too many quirky characters are a disappointment in this prize winning novel, Mars 7 2008
I really wanted to love this novel...heck, I would settle for even liking this novel. After all, as other reviewers have pointed out, it is the 2007 Giller Prize winner. However, Late Nights on Air is a complete disappointment. Admittedly, I had high expectations for this novel, as it is a prize winner, but it falls short in the slow pacing of the plot, a totally unsatisfying conclusion, and the inclusion of too many stereotyped and marginal characters.
The novel's setting is Yellowknife, and author Elizabeth Hay's imagery does evoke both the desolate beauty and cruelty of the physical environment. Unfortunately, the main plot and several secondary subplots that are interwoven together never really generate any tension or excitement until perhaps the last third of the novel in which four characters take a six week canoe trip. The ending leaves most of the flat, kitchy characters in unpleasant circumstances. I am not against sad endings by any means; however, the sadness that surrounds most of these characters is the similar to the sorrowful and isolated circumstances in which many of them begin, and in some cases, even worse. As the characters are not dynamic, transformations do not occur, and it is hard to care about or relate to many of them. As one of the students in my English class pointed out, the characters seem too similar to characters from 90s television show Northern Exposure and current Canadian comedy Corner Gas. If you like these shows, you may like the characters in this book. I am not a fan of the shows or this book!
The struggles of Canada's north are important issues that often get ignored by politicians, the mainstream media, and many people living in the country's urban and suburban areas. The novel is effective at demonstrating the poverty, isolation, and environmental concerns that people living in the far north must deal with on a daily basis. However, the novel falters with stilted dialogue spoken by inauthentic characters and storylines that take too long to develop. [Amy MacDougall]
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