We know as much as we know about the history of Maine islands thanks in large part to Charles McLane and his wife, the late Carol Evarts McLane. The couple devoted more than 20 years to researching and writing their monumental and invaluable four-volume study of the archipelago that stretches from the Kennebec River to Machias Bay.
Now McLane has drawn on his extensive knowledge to write a highly entertaining novel. Fear that the author’s expertise might get in the way of storytelling is quickly allayed. In agile prose he introduces us to Great Ram Island, a fictitious but familiar-feeling mid-Penobscot Bay island, and its residents – natives and rusticators alike – living, loving and lobstering in the years immediately following World War II.
The reader doesn’t really need the map of Great Ram and the list of islanders provided at the start (although it’s a handy reference). McLane’s deftly drawn characters and descriptive prowess suffice to keep the dramatis personae and their remote, weather-beaten environment vivid in the mind’s eye.
Favorite characters include the spirited Jennifer Dacey, a.k.a. “Jingle” (“she scrambled about so much when she was little, Winnie [her mother] tied a bell around her neck so’s we’d know where she was”). Jingle thrives on gossip, but she seems to understand the island community better than anyone. Other memorable individuals include Otis Lieberman, a Jewish lawyer from Portland, who helps the lobstermen mend their vigilante ways (and brings gefilte fish when he visits), and Turk, a headstrong but thoughtful islander who pulls his traps with balletic grace.
Compared to William Carpenter’s rip-roaring and expletive-rich account of Maine coast lobstermen in Wooden Nickel (2002), McLane’s chronicle of the lobster war that develops between Great Ram and its neighbor, Thorn Island, seems tame yet no less riveting. As incidents unfold and escalate – traps cut, a house set afire, boats stolen and rammed – you get caught up in this multi-generation conflict, wondering how it will ever be resolved when it seems part of the islanders’ blood and psyche.
In addition to his island erudition, McLane draws on other elements of his experience to add flavor to the story. His 30 years as a political science professor at Dartmouth help to enliven the heated discussions his characters engage in around Marxism and other topics of the day. The time he spent in Moscow studying Soviet foreign policy also comes in handy when describing an impromptu lesson in Russian.
In the end, however, McLane’s passion for Maine islands most determines the cast of his story. Like Ruth Moore and Ted Holmes, he renders this special terrain with a critical yet affectionate eye. Whether it’s a New Year’s Eve party at the church or a dinner gathering at one of the rusticator cottages, a farewell in the harbor (“Is anything more drawn out than a departure at sea?”) or an island funeral, McLane limns the settings and the social dynamics with flair. “The islanders are built into the landscape,” a character states, and as you read Red Right Returning you believe him.
Carl Little’s new book, The Art of Monhegan Island, is due out in the fall from Down East Books.