This is the latest in a series of occasional posts featuring books I read years ago about which I was wildly enthusiastic at the time, wanting to press a copy in as many hands as I could.
Way back in my bookselling days I remember being given a proof of Elizabeth Hay’s Garbo Laughs. It was pleasant enough but didn’t make a huge impression on me. Years later, now working on a magazine, I was sent a copy of Late Nights on Air and became completely enthralled by it. It’s about a group of people operating a radio station in a Canadian backwater which may sound a little dull but Hay’s writing and characterisation are such that it’s utterly entrancing.
In the summer of 1975, Harry has returned with his tail between his legs from his television job in Toronto and falls for the seductive voice of Dido who has the late night slot. Dido is the object of a great deal of quiet desire at Yellowknife’s radio station staffed by a collection of misfits and blow-ins. Nothing much happens in the novel aside from a summer canoe trip with four of the characters but it draws you in with its wistful tone and gorgeous descriptions of the Canadian wilderness. It’s a book suffused with a quiet loneliness and longing. Hay intimately acquaints her readers with her cast of mildly eccentric characters so that by the end of her novel you’ve come to care deeply about what happens to them. It’s an absolute gem, recognised as such by the Giller judges who awarded it their prize in 2007.
What about you, any blasts from the past you’d like to share?
You can find more posts like this here.
I love the idea of a book suffused with a quiet loneliness and longing, and the cover seems to offer a perfect match to the tone of the book. I think I remember you mentioning Elizabeth Hay before, I think it might have been in reference to His Whole Life (if I’m not imagining it?)? I remember thinking then that Hay sounds like a writer I should read and this, too, feels like something that would be right up my street. I might need to go search the library catalogue, thanks 🙂
Well remembered, Belinda! I liked His Whole Life but this one’s my favourite of Hay’s. Gorgeous, wistful tone to it. I hope you find it.
Oh, how you make me want to read this book! I will… really I will. I have also just acquired her newest!
Oh, please do, Naomi, and I hope you enjoy her new one. Is that His Whole Life or does she have another one out over there?
His Whole Life. 🙂
Ah, I’m being over eager!
I don’t know this author at all, but this sounds wonderful. Beautiful cover too!
Lovely, isn’t it? I think she’s not been promoted much over here but her writing is beautiful. This is my favourite of hers.