Random House, 2009
Hardcover, 246 pp, $25
Dysfunctional Maine family and a paintball game gone wrong
Lewis Robinson’s debut novel opens with lines from the final stanza of Wallace Stevens’ famous poem “Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird”: “It was evening all afternoon./It was snowing/And it was going to snow.” Stevens’ imagery fits the story that follows to a tee: this novel is as much about a Maine winter as it is about a dysfunctional island family and a paintball game that goes terribly wrong.
Chief protagonist Benjamin “Bennie” Littlefield lives with his brother William, called Littlefield, in the “Manse,” the former family homestead on Meadow Island, a causeway-connected community somewhere north and east of Portland. The father, called the Coach, has died; the mother has moved away. Bennie’s twin sister Gwen, a Vassar grad, is pursuing an acting career in New York City, but returns home in time to get caught up in another kind of drama.
All three siblings, “grandchildren of an original member of the Stock Exchange,” represent unfulfilled promise. If they once excelled in the biathlon, thanks to their coaching father, they now seem aimless. Fittingly, Bennie takes up with Helen Coretti, a Bowdoin grad who waits on tables at a local pub.
Bennie is an engaging character, a college dropout with a checkered career who works at the Esker Cove Animal Hospital where he mans the pet crematorium. He and his brother have a contentious relationship; the story progresses through a series of shouting matches and moments of reconciliation.
The book’s central scene takes place at the Dutchman, a low-maintenance 35-acre paintball park. When Bennie, Littlefield and their friend Julian decide to take on a group of sea urchin divers after hours in a snowstorm, the storyline takes a precipitous turn: Bennie ends up in the hospital after falling into a quarry and one of the divers, Ray LaBrecque, goes missing.
For the rest of the book, we join Bennie and Helen in their cross-state pursuit of the truth. If the narrative lags from time to time as Robinson stretches out the intrigue, the ending is worth the dead ends and flashbacks.
Water Dogs falls into the tradition of realist Maine fiction by writers like Christopher Fahy and Cathie Pelletier. Robinson is true to the reality of life in this northern state, from Skylarks and sprawl to a St. Patrick’s Day dinner at the Tavis Falls Grange (where Bennie and Helen learn that the town boasts seven Ray LaBrecques).
If Robinson employs a good deal of prose fill-narrative that provides information but little else-he also knows how to highlight the telling motif, like the “light blue heron” Coach was always looking for and which becomes a family obsession. With the award-winning Officer Friendly and Other Stories already under his belt, Robinson takes a strong first step toward establishing a name for himself in long-form fiction. There are some kinks to be worked out, but he’s well on his way.
Robinson will discuss Water Dogs and the Portland Stage Company will be presenting a dramatic reading of selections from the novel as part of the Maine Festival of the Book, April 3-5. Learn more about Robinson at www.lewisrobinson.com.
Carl Little contributes reviews and articles to the Working Waterfront and Island Journal.