The Waterman: A Novel of the Chesapeake Bay

Washington, D.C., lawyer and ex-waterman Junkin's first novel is a commendable effort that charts a belated coming of age in dangerous and tragic circumstances. Junkin sets his earnest but often meandering narrative in what lately has been Christopher Tilghman country: the Chesapeake Bay vicinity in 1968. Returned home from college to search for his father, who has been lost at sea, Clay Wakeman goes against everyone's advice, takes over his father's fishing boat and becomes a waterman. He partners with close friend Byron, a drunkard and thoroughly screwed-up Vietnam vet. In a well-developed love story, Clay explores his mounting passion for Kate, the longtime girlfriend of his friend Matty, a photographer. Though Kate shares Clay's feelings, Clay has qualms about the nascent affair, not only because it would mean betraying Matty, but because as a child he once stumbled on his father in an act of infidelity. Clay and his boat survive the crisis of Hurricane Agnes, but the storm decimates Chesapeake Bay's crabbing trade, so Clay and Byron move down the coast to Virginia Beach, where they find that the local watermen and law enforcement are territorial and hostile. Clay and Byron have a long-standing dream of salvaging shipwreck treasure, but self-destructive Byron stumbles on another sort of treasure, large quantities of cocaine. At this point the story, sluggish with too many supporting characters and copious information about crab fishing and boat operation, turns lively, with a long suspenseful boat chase along the Virginia/Maryland coast. This exciting trajectory leads to a surprising and moving denouement. The narrative is muddied by clumsy dialogue, with characters who mostly blurt, stammer and interject, but Junkin's strong sense of life on the water, and particularly on the Chesapeake, redeems his freshman gaucheries and suggests promise in his work to come. Author tour. (Sept.)