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Loading... A Student of Weatherby Elizabeth Hay
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will love Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. It didn't hold my interest enough for me to finish the book jrbeach | May 8, 2009 |   By the end of this book I felt as if I had spent many seasons on the Canadian prairies and endured much harsh weather; as the book covers more than 30 years the passage of time is marked by a multitude of dust storms, droughts and freezing winters. Brrr! Not only does the weather keep changing but the action keeps moving backwards and forwards between Saskatchewan, Ottawa and New York. A bit hard to keep track of at times. But don’t get me wrong, I liked the book very much and enjoyed my trip to Canada. The descriptions of the natural environment (the weather, seasons, flora, landscape) are excellent. "Here you find almost every extreme. The coldest winters and the hottest summers, the longest days and the shortest, the richest soil and the poorest, the biggest views of the simplest skies, the least rain, the most wind, the best light and the worst dust in this best and worst of all worlds." Set in Saskatchewan in the 1930’s the story focuses on two strongly contrasted sisters and their rivalry to win the attentions of a handsome visiting weather expert, Maurice Dove, aged 23. The younger sister, Norma Joyce Hardy is no angel – at times she’s selfish, willful and ruthless, but she has an appealing directness, resourcefulness, a passionate curiosity about the natural world, and a thirst for knowledge, experience - and love. She’s only 8 years old but she becomes ‘imprinted’ on Maurice and spends the next 30 years hoping the love will be reciprocated, but it is not. "A child falls in love with a man, and the man is seduced by the intensity he has generated. Then his attention shifts to someone else. End of story." By the end of the novel Norma has outlived her mother, father, sister and brother. She’s glad to have survived, but she’s also gained some insight into her own deficiencies. Hay writes with intelligence, deft humour and the imagery is often superb. (  )RobinDawson | Feb 6, 2009 | One widowed cold father with two daughters one odd and unattractive the other beautiful and industrious put together with one handsome stranger with questionable intentions. Their lives go back and forth to New York and Canada covering some 30 plus years. The pages slip by easily as various secrets are revealed but have to say was disappointed in the ending as I expected some grand change of events and it was rather flat for the last chapter or so. (  )eembooks | Sep 17, 2008 | Here's a sample: "But does a piece of parched ground argue about the nature of a drop of water?" She's not really talking about weather. (  )picardyrose | Jul 18, 2008 | This novel portrays one woman from childhood into middle age whose obsession with a man 15 years her senior began when she was nine, and ended with a child born out of wedlock and an alienation from her sister, who was infatuated with the same man. This man's apparent charisma allowed him to find a way to make an indelible mark on both of the sisters' hearts. What a waste of both women's lives - one that ended tragically and too soon and the other left with the remnants of tattered relationships. ( )pdebolt | Jun 21, 2008 | 0.051 seconds to build listing  no reviews | add a review
Amazon.com Book Description (ISBN 158243123X, Hardcover)On the prairie of Dust Bowl Canada, two sisters fall down the same well, and the well is named Maurice Dove A Student of Weather is a brilliant first novel by acclaimed story-writer Elizabeth Hay. Already a best seller in Canada, it tells the story of the rivalry between two contrasting sisters and of the stranger who changes both their lives forever. Spanning thirty years, it opens in the Prairie Dust Bowl of the 1930s and, later, in the decades following the war, moves back and forth between Ottawa and New York City.Maurice Dove is a visitor to the Saskatchewan farm of widower Ernest Hardy. The relationship he forms with Hardy's daughters-the beautiful, virtuous Lucinda and the dark, intelligent, younger Norma-Joyce-gives rise to an act of betrayal that throws into relief the deep-rooted enmity between them. Norma-Joyce's life, from the time she is eight, is fuelled by her obsessive (and unrequited) love for Maurice Dove. Later, in pursuing her life as an artist, she makes discoveries about her past that bring the story full-circle. Hay's evocation of place is palpable, vivid; her characters at once eccentric and familiar. Norma-Joyce, once a strange, dark, self-possessed child, becomes a woman who learns something of self-forgiveness and of the redemptive power of art. Hay's writing is spare yet richly textured, dark and erotic. The physical and emotional landscapes she portrays evoke tragic and comic surprises, and teach us about the lasting imprint of first love. "Elizabeth Hay has intelligence coming out of her fingertips -integrity, insight, and wonder in every paragraph of her writing. She's a writer's writer, yes-but she has the advantage, too, of being a reader's writer. She connects. She stirs and provokes. May A Student of Weather receive all the accolades and readers this wonderful writer deserves." -Timothy Findley, Author of Pilgrim "What I admire most about A Student of Weather, and there is much to admire, are Elizabeth Hay's vivid, robust characters. Over and over they surprised me, and sometimes themselves, by their generosity, their meanness, their affections. I couldn't stop turning the pages of this passionate and intricate novel." -Margot Livesey, Author of The Missing World A brilliant exploration of the universal themes of pain and betrayal and survival, rendered with such a sure, deft touch that Hay seems to be discovering new literary territory." -Quill & Quire (retrieved from Amazon Fri, 24 Apr 2009 07:57:53 -0400) The first test round has been closed. Visit the Open Shelves Classification group for details. |
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