Leapfrog Press, 2009
280 pages, $15.95
A timely novel
In lobstering lingo, a “ghost trap” results from the cutting off of a trap, accidental or otherwise.
What should work well—a functioning trap lowered in the water that catches and holds lobsters until hauled-goes missing in action when cut off, its line severed, no longer connected to the buoy bobbing at the water’s surface that allows for retrieval. A ghost trap, unseen, becomes lost and then forgotten.
That image is a central motif in the new novel of that name by Midcoast writer K. Stephens. The Ghost Trap (Leapfrog Press, 2009) is Stephens’ first published book. Her knowledge of the area where the story takes place, the stretch of Maine coast between Owl’s Head and Camden, is evident.
But Stephens’ acumen is also demonstrated in other details, like describing a character’s cognitive disabilities and, most outstandingly, with her superb limning of lobstering. Without sounding pedantic, exploitive, or condescending, she offers the reader a lot to think about, and provides a lot of information in an unobtrusive way.
Stephens creates a fictionalized coastal village called Petit Point for her microcosmic community where lobstering is the main activity. She looks at three generations of the Eugley family—grandfather, father, and thirty-something son, Jamie—who all fish for a living.
The book plumbs Jamie’s life in particular—his relationships with family, friends and fishermen, and with girlfriend Anja. Is Jamie a typical lobsterman? Stephens validates some expectations of what that “lifestyle” might include: the language and banter, drinking, loyalty to kith and kin, machismo, and physical toll on one’s body.
Anja, too, is a multifaceted character while representing a “type.” In her case, she’s brain-damaged from an accident. She goes to a day program, requires close supervision, and acts like, sounds like a young child instead of the professional artist and teacher she was. She and Jamie no longer share a bedroom, no longer anticipate a wedding. Their relationship has been redefined and readers watch Jamie struggle with the limits and demands her care imposes.
And that isn’t the only drama in his life. There’s been cutting of gear, a “trap war,” with increasingly hostile actions between Petit Point lobstermen and those from nearby “Courage.” With the events of this past summer—a lobsterman shot and seriously injured on Matinicus Island, three lobster boats maliciously sunk off Owl’s Head—Stephens’ story is a timely one, offering insight into what’s been described as an invisible war, part of the subculture of lobstering. In The Ghost Trap, it’s a world that feels pretty bleak, full of hard choices and life’s hard knocks.
Stephens doesn’t offer us any moralistic lessons from superhuman heroes here. It seems her story is really about people who become ghost traps; how a person could feel cast off, disconnected, useless, forgotten. She offers a number of characters who might be understood as experiencing that kind of limbo. Could some of them be restored to a meaningful life, rehabilitated, given a second chance? To answer that, we’d need a sequel. So, K Stephens, if you’re listening: I’m looking forward to what’s next.