I haven’t been reading much fiction lately, but I was in a bookstore a couple weeks ago and on impulse bought a copy of Late Nights on Air by Elizabeth Hay. It’s a Giller Prize winner, and I thought it had a lot going for it.

Much of the book is set in Yellowknife around the lives of people working at a radio station. It seemed to me this was an excellent backdrop to create a novel. I like radio and I sometimes I think it would be a lot of fun to do a radio show (just imagine Mister Anchovy Radio). In addition, it was set during the Mackenzie Valley Pipeline Inquiry, also known simply as the Berger Inquiry, in the mid-70s.

For me though, the novel never really came to life. I didn’t quite believe the characters, any more than I believed that four inexperienced canoeists would embark on a dangerous 6 week canoe trip into the Barrons. There were chapters and passages I enjoyed, and in particular the descriptions of Berger and his approach to the Inquiry was fascinating.

Tuffy P didn’t like this one either. Apparently we’re in the minority though, but what else is new.