Goose River Press, 2006
A Lively Test Drive and Other Tales
There’s a lot to love about this book by occasional lobsterman, car mechanic, computer analyst, islander Harold van Doren. No average teller of tales, he grabs our attention from the start with his dry humor and love of all the characters he’s encountered on Isle au Haut over many years. It can’t be an easy task to write dialogue of Mainers, especially those in earlier times, without overdoing it or being one bit corny, but author van Doren does it just right. And just as strong as his love of the old timers is his love of the island’s coves, mudflats and views in all directions.
The best stories are of near-disasters involving internal combustion engines — cars needing repairs and, in one case, an unruly rototiller. One is of two islanders in the 1950s driving back from tending their herring weir and noticing that someone’s wheel was rolling by them going faster than they were. Passenger Maurice remarks to driver Del on the steep downhill, ” `By Gahd, Del, there goes somebody’s wheel!’ `Whose wheel do you s’pose that is?’ asked Del, only mildly interested. `I dunno…It looks kind of like our wheel.'” They soon find themselves bottomed out on the rear axle.
Another is of a test drive van Doren and an elderly islander take after repairing the ’50 Chevy. A normally pokey driver, the gentleman insisted on driving and floored it to his mechanic’s consternation, stopping only when it threw a rod. “As the speedometer needle inched past 60, I knew that my life was no longer in my hands but in the frail and unaccustomed grip of a seventy-year old who had just lost his marbles, bag and all,” van Doren writes.
In the rototiller tale, van Doren becomes obsessed with clearing a good-size rocky patch for a garden. After weeks with a spade (bent of course) and crowbar, he drags out the old rototiller, noting, “It had to get pretty bumpy for both the gas tank and the muffler to fall off at the same time.” Once he saw the blue flames, he hightailed it for the extinguisher, putting it back together later for more tilling.
Often reminiscing about his time as a young man summering on the island with his folks, van Doren strikes the right balance of telling small bits about his life. It’s refreshing that this humorous and touching book is not the traditional memoir type — we don’t get the exact chronological sequence and details. He simply tells us stories that stand out in his island life and others that he has heard about.
Van Doren has plenty of reflective moments and is quite philosophical without going overboard, literally and figuratively — plenty of lobstering, rowing and sailing vignettes are included. He writes about the self-sufficiency demanded of those born on the island in the early 20th century and the way their sense of self is or was deeply tied up with their unique birthplace.
The author’s own drawings that are scattered throughout the book highlight the humorous tales as well as the simple beauty of an island-dotted horizon. This reviewer sailed through the book eagerly, not wanting to put it down. One feels as if one has made new friends with these characters, some no longer around, as well as with another time without even setting a foot on this special island. q