A Student of Weather

When a student of weather arrives at their home, both Lucinda and Norma Joyce tumble into a love for him, and the story begins there.

Norma Joyce is a wonderful character, and her character is often both a joy and hurtful to read. There is an extreme level of pathos and empathy to this work, and all of it important. The story meanders from Saskatchewan to Ottawa and even to New York as we follow Norma Joyce, and as the secrets of her family are uncovered, and her deceits and kindesses are explored, we find a woman of remarkable iron strength.

For myself, the benchmark of a good solid work of literature will always be a strong character base, and "A Student of Weather" definately has that. Between the Hardys, and the student of weather, Maurice Dove, for which the novel is named, there are no weak characters here. Ive re-read my copy a few times, and still find something new to its pages.

If you are at all a fan of recent-historical fiction, or simply a lover of strong characters, especially strong women, then this is a book for you. Elizabeth Hay is a name to watch out for.

The fact that there is no "moral" to the novel is another of its attributes. Has anyone else caught on to the fact that Norma Joyces surname might be significant? Or how about the Hardy family? - It should be apparent to anyone reading this novel with the slightest knowledge of English literature that Hays greatest literary influence, along with her character Norma Joyces, is Thomas Hardy, who is mentioned in the work several times as Normas favourite author. The book resembles nothing so much as Hardys Jude the Obscure - A feminine version of Somerset Maughams Of Human Bondage is another apt comparison. - The wonderfully told narrative maintains its artistic strength through its mirroring of reality. I can put it no better than Hay in her description of Maurices falling in temporary love/lust with Norma:

"Probably it happens fairly often, falling in love in a dream. You wake up with an appetite for someone you might not even like. But in the dream there was sex, and upon waking, the idea of sex, and from then on that person is on your mind in an entirely new way."

In other words, life, like a dream, just rather happens to one, for good or ill----And how accurately Hay describes it! Lets hope that the moralists out there dont discourage Hay from writing another novel, as they did Thomas Hardy after he penned Jude the Obscure.

Four stars because the book doesnt quite measure up to the masterpiece of which I feel certain Hay is capable of giving us.