Peter Gzowski (1934–2002)

Reading this book was just like catching up with an old friend that you haven't seen for many years. I was a huge fan of Peter Gzowski's Morningside on CBC. I rarely listened to a whole show because of work but for a number of years CBC had "The Best of Morningside", an hour long show, on in the evening and I tried to catch that as much as possible. Of course, I wasn't alone; there were many devoted listeners.

There is probably a section in this book that will resonate with every Morningside show more fan. For me, it was the interviews with Robertson Davies. The first was when his book Murther and Walking Spirits came out. I believe that was 1991. Davies was seventy-eight then and at some point he said "I'm getting to be quite an old party." But three years later, in 1994, he published another book, The Cunning Man, and he came back to Morningside to talk to Gzowski about it. These interviews are just like gold to me because almost all of Davies' books I read after he died in 1995. I so wish I had been reading his books and listening to him when he was still alive.

Interviews with four other Canadian writers are included here: Alice Munro, Timothy Findley, Margaret Atwood and Margaret Laurence and each interview is a gem.

And there is so much more, letters from listeners, scripts of radio plays, a debate about whether Louis Riel should be pardoned, even recipes. I think I might try the recipe for the easy chocolate cake. One can never have too many chocolate recipes! show less

I used to listen to Peter Gzowski on CBC as much as I could. Given that I was working full time that wasn't much but the times I did catch him it was always worth it. In his obituary it was said he did 27,000 interviews during his time at Morningside. Gzowski knew just how to ask the questions the listener wanted to ask. And in writing this book he found out the information the reader would be wanting to know.

This book tells the story of a young man and woman from Estevan who survived a show more plane crash in Idaho. The other two people in the plane did not survive. The pilot, Norm Pischke, sustained a bad head injury and seemed disoriented. He left the plane when he thought he saw vehicles and never returned. The other person who died was Don Johnson, father of Donna and father-in-law of Brent Dyer, the survivors of the crash. He lived for a few hours after the crash, long enough to take his jacket off and put it over Donna so she would be warm. Donna and Brent were both badly hurt but after a few days they were able to walk around a bit. An inventory of their assets showed they didn't have much in the way of food and hardly any water. While an air search was mounted for them they eked out their food and tried to stay warm. When all their resources had run out they realized they would have to eat some of Don Johnson's body to stay alive.

There are parallels to the South American soccer players who crashed in the Andes whose story was told by Piers Paul Read in Alive. Gzowski discusses that event and other instances of cannibalism. As he points out there is no criminal nor moral wrong in eating another person when that person died of natural causes and the situation for food is dire. I remember reading Alive and wondering then what I would do in that situation. I believed I would probably eat human meat if I thought I could survive by doing so. However, in that case (at least as I recall) the survivors were not related to the dead people. The idea of eating parts of a relative, let alone a father, seems horrific to me. Donna and Brent were sustained by a belief in God and they felt that God would not have let them survive the crash only to die of starvation.

The two were not particularly religious before the crash but up there on the mountain top they discovered a deep connection to God. It certainly does appear that they were guided in the path they chose out of the mountains after they decided they would never be found if they stayed with the plane. Nineteen days after the plane went down Brent and Donna walked into an old mining camp near Challis Idaho and told the incredulous owners who they were.

This was a very interesting read that should make you ponder what you would do if you were in an accident. Hopefully, I'll never have to face that in person. show less

Known as Mr Canada, Gzowski is known chiefly for his CBC radio programs, of which Morningside is the most familiar. He worked at several newspapers and magazines. His genial, laid-back style and husky smoker's voice was familiar in many Canadian homes. This book is a retrospective of his work and includes the first article he wrote about Pierre Elliot Trudeau, dated 1954. The final essay in the collection is Life After Smoking written in June 2001, a year after he quit smoking. It was a sad show more reflection on the guy always seen with a cigarette in his hand. He died of emphysema just six months later. Revisiting Gzowski's Canada was a lovely journey back in time. show less

Morningside was the CBC's flagship morning program. Its host for many years was Peter Gzowski and his gravelly voice was welcomed into many Canadian homes. The back cover says "Each week almost one million Canadians listen to the CBC's most popular daily radio program." It includes letters, essays, poems and reflections from the listeners as well as specially commisioned pieces. Peter Gzowski annotates everything with his own observations.