Late Nights on Air, by Elizabeth Hay is set in the CBC radio station of Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, and tells the story of its eclectic radio hosts. Harry Boyd is a former radio talent, who having failed at television finds himself more comfortable on late night radio, only to be thrust in the position of station manager. Dido Paris is beautiful, complicated, vulnerable, and attracted to older men, but not Harry, not really; her voice is almost too perfect for radio. Gwen Symon, just a kid, but courageous enough to drive all the way to the Yukon on her own, gets slotted in Harry’s late night spot till she can hold her own.

Do you hear the call of the north? It might be best to ignore it. The north is silent; silence will never do on the radio. It is dark; “There’s nothing worse than being in the dark.” Worst of all, nothing is concealed, not for long. The winter snow melts to reveal the garbage. And Hay does not foreshadow. She tells her readers upfront: Harry will lose his job, someone will die on a canoe trip. Open like the barrens, yet it can mislead. “The stillness fools you, because it’s never really still.” It cleverly misdirects you, and it’s easy to get lost.

Late Nights on Air would not have been my first choice for the Giller prize; still it was a good choice. The plot is slow at times, but the characterization is generally strong, and the story offers an intense moral survey of a proposed pipeline, as well as a rich description of the tundra on the fatal canoe trip. The reader is invited to share the allure and danger of the north.

http://johnmiedema.ca/2008/09/01/late... ( )

A book about lost love, missed opportunities, wrong turns taken, potential not realized -- and about the chance of getting it right after all. A very lyrical book with many sensory aspects -- and yet, I didn't like it nowhere near as much as I thought I would. Somehow the pane of glass between me the reader and the protagonists never shattered. I could appreciate how finely crafted this book was, but something stopped me from caring about the characters (with the possible exception of the poor fox killed for the sake of yet another metaphor).

A small radio station in a little town in the North of Canada, in the seventies, links the lives of the characters in this book. Some of them have just arrived in town and are new to their job, while others have been there for a while and are more experienced. All of them have gone there looking for a change in their lives. Dido, a beautiful European newcomer provides a focus for the first part of the novel. She has a natural talent as a radio broadcaster and is desired by several of her co-workers. Gwen, another young woman who has just arrived, is less attractive and has to work hard on her communication skills, and provides an interesting contrast to Dido, with whom she develops a strained relationship. Both of them have very different relationships with Harry, the boss, an older man who has tried his luck elsewhere but who has to come back north as he has failed to advance his career. Their lives are entangled with other characters who also work in the station, or are related to them, and the story progresses by shifting the focus from one character to another, driven by small incidents and big feelings. The depiction of a canoe trip by four of the characters during the summer is the best part of the book. Although the rhythms of nature rule the lives of the people in the book all the way through, it becomes more apparent in this section of the book, and the landscape and its moods become the main protagonist of the story. It is very evocative and very well observed: very beautiful!! The novel also contains some interesting ideas, such as a reflection on the way in which white explorers perceived the area, or the way in which the 'wilderness' is represented in their biographies and memoirs. It also makes reference to political issues such as who should have a voice when deciding if an area like that should be developed in a certain way, and the right of indigenous communities to have a voice and political representation. It is a thoughtful, poetic novel, which offers a good reflexion on personal relationships, in particular, towards the end, on how time changes the perception of those whom we have loved, and how much influence a brief encounter can have in our lives. ( )

I liked this book so much more than I expected to. It was given to me by a friend who wanted to know if it was accurate, since I grew up in Yellowknife, NWT, where the book's events take place. Actually, the book is set in the 1970's, around the time when my parents would have moved to the 'knife. I'll have to send the book along to my mom and find out if her descriptions of what the town was like at this time are accurate. I can speak from my own experience that her descriptions of the landscape are both accurate and poetic.

Hay's narrative style is compelling and insidious. I don't mean that in an entirely good way. Her style does have a certain pompous feel to it that I tend to find in "criticly acclaimed" novels. Early in the story, I kept noticing it and being annoyed. Within a few chapters, however, I was completely involved with her characters. She gets inside your head. Her understanding of character is such that the people in her books feel alive in all their glories and sorrows.

This book really captures frontier feel of Northern life that is close to unique in the last 50 years. I recommend this book for anyone interested in Canada's North, and also for anyone who just loves a well-written tale.

Side note: Late Nights on Air touches on many of the issues of the time, most notably land claims, native rights, and the Mackenzie Valley Pipeline. If you're going to read this book and you're not familiar with these issues, it might be worth hitting wikipedia before you crack open the book. ( )

A few thoughts:

I found this book very romantic in a less conventional sense... Reminds me of Joni Mitchell's Case of You song.

You might have to love Canada to love this book (though you may not love this book even if you do love Canada).

Some passages were a little heavy handed... but I think that this book resonated so deeply with my sense of romance, adventure and Canadianism that I don't care at all.

I think I'll read everything you ever write from now on, Elizabeth Hay ( )