Live at Five (Harvest Book) [Paperback]

David Haynes (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 15, 1997 | ISBN-10: 0156005034 | ISBN-13: 978-0156005036

Sparks fly when a black television anchorman looking for “real life” (and higher ratings) hooks up with a spunky young woman from the inner city in this “touching and wickedly funny novel” (Publishers Weekly) by one of Granta’s Best Young american Novelists.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The unlikely friendship between an African American TV newscaster and a struggling single mother, also black, lies at the heart of Haynes's touching?and wickedly funny?second adult novel (after Somebody Else's Mama, 1995; his Right By My Side, 1993, was cited by the ALA as one of their Best Books of the Year for Young Adults). Brandon Wilson, 38, anchors Channel 13, dead last in the news ratings in St. Paul, Minn. To boost viewership, the station manager sends an apprehensive Brandon to live in, and report from, one of the city's poorest neighborhoods. Moving into a shabby basement apartment, he meets Nita Sallis, the apartment manager, for whom every day is a balancing act: at 24, she juggles a full-time job, three children, night school and the needs of the building's tenants. Hassled and harried, Nita is vulnerable to the overtures of upstairs neighbor Sipp, a self-assured young man who tries to lure her into a lucrative drug deal. Although Brandon's nightly reports reveal a proud neighborhood, he remains convinced that he is missing the "real" story. When he learns of the drug deal, he envisions a ratings blockbuster, but Nita, who has impressed him with her resilience and spirit, stages a clever move that meets everyone's expectations and ends the novel on an upbeat note. Haynes lays down authentic characters, crisp dialogue and brisk narration; especially entertaining are the excerpts from Brandon's viewer mail. With this novel, Haynes should establish a reputation as a sharp-eyed observer of race and class issues. Author tour.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

The ostensible protagonist of this novel is Brandon Wilson, an African American news anchor in the Twin Cities, who faces a network executive sent in to shake up the station and increase ratings. His news show, Live at Five, is doing so-so in the ratings, and the network interloper, Dexter, decides that to improve ratings Wilson should play up his "blackness" by broadcasting from the black Summit/University neighborhood. There, he meets the true heroine of the novel, Nita, a single mother of three who manages the building from which Wilson chooses to broadcast. Her point of view is the novel's main delight, as she works to make everything come out in the most satisfactory way. Haynes's (Somebody Else's Mama, Milkweed, 1995) approach to the many issues in the novel, which include black-on-black as well as white-on-black racism, the role of the media in forming the public's perception of itself, and the relationships between men and women, is never preachy but highly instructive nonetheless. Recommended for all general fiction collections.?David Dodd, Univ. of Colorado Lib., Colorado Springs
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Mariner Books (September 15, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0156005034
• ISBN-13: 978-0156005036
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.1 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,264,228 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Life, love, race and TV, June 2, 2004

By 

Lynn Harnett (Marathon, FL USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Live at Five (Hardcover)

In this ascerbic novel of the TV, race and class, Haynes' African-American protagonist, Brandon Wilson, anchors the local news in St. Paul, Minnesota. Ratings are abysmal and a new producer has been sent to shake things up.

Brandon, 38, middle-class, ambitious and plagued by hair that never does quite what he wants, knows that St. Paul may be the height of his career. Or it may be the end if Dexter Rayburn, the new producer, decides the station will benefit by his firing.

Dexter is high-energy demonic. He gets in Brandon's face with jive talk, rap music and vulgar imagery. Brandon isn't "black" enough, he says. In the interests of ratings, he demands Brandon go live in the ghetto for a while, broadcast his show from there.

Queasy but excited too - it just might work - Brandon agrees, although he's never spent a day in the inner city and regards its inhabitants as ignorant and baffling. The plan is exploitation in the hopes of ratings.

Haynes introduces a varied and unsentimentalized cast. Chief among the ghetto inhabitants is Nita, young single mother of three, manager of the apartment building, store-clerk, night student. Beneath Nita's tough exterior is a tough interior - and some tired loneliness. She doesn't think much of the light-skinned, arrogant Brandon until a chance crisis breaks through both their shells, threatening Brandon's more traditional romance.

Haynes keeps a lot of balls in the air, juggling tensions between privilege and poverty, integrity and ambition, sound bites and real lives. He writes with humor and vitality and maintains suspense about choices right to the last page.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Live At Five is just as good the second time around, March 7, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Live at Five (Hardcover)

I've read this book twice and enjoyed it both times. What I appreciate most about this book is the look at life in the middle of the spectrum. Nita is poor, but her children aren't starving, they aren't homeless, or neglected. Instead you get glimpses of how life is harder when you don't have much money: the car not starting is stressful, not having a credit card is shameful, Ben and Jerry's is a luxury, the lack of options and crunch for time. While Brandon is the focus of the book I really liked Nita a lot. And the viewer comments at the beginning of each chapter are a hoot. I enjoyed the characters in this book, how they interact with each other and how their expectations about each other are colored by their own prejudices. I enjoyed Live at Five and would recommend it.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Live at Five, June 28, 2006

By 

Kenneth A. Pfeifer "k54" (Norfolk, VA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Live at Five (Harvest Book) (Paperback)

This book is an early offering from the pen of David Haynes. It contains earthy dialogue that is appropriate to his characters, but which seems, at times, to get in the way. The book contains his usual blend of third person narration and interior monologue/stream of consciousness. It also has the usual feisty older woman character and the female narration that is usually found in his books. I know that there is another "content" review for this book because I read it. I, therefore need not summarize the plot since there is enough of a summary in that review. In spite of its language, I think that young adults, particularly inner-city young adults would find this book relevant. It is easy to read; it contains the language with which our young people speak; it has a timely relevant story with an interesting moral dilemma at the end that would make for great discussion with a younger audience. In addition to this book I also purchased "Somebody Else's Mama" and "The Full Matilda." This provided me with an overview of Haynes' career to date. It also proved to be an interesting overview of the development of the writer as the works got better and better as they went along. There is familiar territory in all of them, which I would rate 4+ and 5 respectively, the "feisty" older woman become more sophisticated and erudite as she progresses toward "Matilda" who is finely, consistently, and subtly drawn. I had the good fortune to meet Mr. Haynes shortly after reading these three books. He is a delightful, charming, easy-going individual. At that meeting, he read from his (then)nearly finished new offering, which promises to be another 5. Fans of his should watch for its release soon.

k54