The Waterman: A Novel of the Chesapeake Bay [Hardcover]

Tim Junkin (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 9, 1999

Set along the shores of the Chesapeake Bay, this first novel tells the story of Clay Wakeman, who spent his boyhood on the water and finds he can't leave it. When his father is lost in a storm off the Eastern Shore, Clay drops out of college to take possession of his father's boat and his work as a waterman, that is, as an independent commercial fisherman.

Since the old boat constitutes his sole inheritance, Clay starts out small. He recruits his oldest friend, Byron, a traumatized Vietnam vet, to join him in a crabbing business. Just as they're breaking even, Hurricane Agnes roars in to ruin the salinity of the eastern Bay waters. Agnes forces them across the Bay to set their crab traps along the Virginia shoreline and to move in with Matt and Kate, Clay's uppercrust friends from college.

It's in these unfamiliar waters that their real troubles begin. Clay falls irrevocably in love with the spoken-for Kate; Byron's demons pursue him with even greater vengeance; and out in the Bay the partners stumble onto a drug running operation. Lines are drawn by the dealers. And, at the very end, in a riveting boat chase, Clay comes very close to losing the battle . . . forever.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

"Washington DC 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...Junkin's strong sense of life on the water, and particularly on the Chesapeake, redeems his freshman guacheries and suggests promise in his work to come."

From Kirkus Reviews

Debut novel from a Washington, D.C., lawyer that tries to give an insider's view of life among the watermen who work the Chesapeake Bay. Clay Wakeman, a 20-year-old college boy at Georgetown, leaves school and moves back home when his father, George, vanishes without a trace from the Miss Sarah, the Chesapeake Bay crab trawler hed worked off for years. In his will, George has left the Miss Sarah to his son, a legacy that Clay sees as an opportunity to give up on college altogether and make a life for himself on the Bay. His Georgetown classmate Matty, and Matty's girlfriend Kate, think this is a genuine and courageous way to live, but Clay is more modest: the Bay is what he knows best. So he teams up with his childhood pal Byron and sets off to follow in his father's footsteps. By 1972, though, its hard to make a living from crabs: the Bay is fished out, and the waters are increasingly polluted. Clay considers running pleasure cruises for a shady businessman named Brigman, then decides instead to move his operations farther afield to Virginia, where the waters are better. But life soon becomes complicated. Byron stumbles onto a drug-running operation that makes use of inland waterways to evade the Customs patrols, and Clay and Kate find themselves in love. This means troublewith Matty, with the cops, and with Brigman (who turns out to be even shadier than he appears).Can Clay find his way back to shore? There's no better navigator in the world than a waterman born and bred, after all, but the Bay can swallow you in a wink. Too long, too slow, too obvious, and too full of nautical lingo (``Barker . . . gave Clay the foresail sheet, and his brother, Earl, the main. Byron was to work the jib sheet . . . ) to stay afloat. Landlubbers steer clear. -- Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 300 pages
• Publisher: Algonquin Books; 1st edition (January 9, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1565122305
• ISBN-13: 978-1565122307
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #290,870 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A wonderful story, May 31, 2000

By 

Jonathon Scott Fuqua (Baltimore, MD) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Waterman: A Novel of the Chesapeake Bay (Hardcover)

Tim Junkin's The Waterman, written in a clear, beautiful prose, was a wonderful, sometimes exhilarating read. A book that celebrates the strength and determination of youth, it also explores the odd, unexpected ways of relationships, and the unforeseen repetitions of life. More than that, though, it's just a fun, involving story that sweeps you up and holds your stomach before grabbing your throat. The scenes vary enormously while the dialogue is pitch-perfect. All of it is welded together by Mr. Junkin's ability to tell a good story. The protagonist made me yearn for my youth, for hours on spent on the water, the summer sun heating it up so that it resembles a sloshing, melted pool of colored glass. He brought back the smells and the heat and the thrill of being young and strong and living off something so much larger, with so much history and soul. I rarely look back at early adulthood, but The Waterman rattled the hazy corners of my memory and actually made me nostalgic. I highly recommend this book to anyone seeking an elegant, strong read combined with luminous observations and a flawless voice.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Very nice book, January 13, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: The Waterman: A Novel of the Chesapeake Bay (Hardcover)

The tale is surprisingly low on action, and moves at a meandering pace. Yet Junkin does a wonderful job of drawing you into the waterman's life, and life on the bay. Spartan prose and credible, interesting characters make it a rather intoxicating read.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A robustly crafted plot of suspense and danger, February 10, 2001

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Waterman: A Novel of the Chesapeake Bay (Hardcover)

Clay Wakeman was born and raised on the Chesapeake Bay. He drops out of college when his father is lost in a storm off the Eastern Shore in order to take possession of his father's boat and work as a waterman -- an independent commercial fisherman. Clay's friend Byron joins him in a start-up crabbing business, and just as they are breaking even, Hurricane Agnes roars in to ruin the salinity of the eastern Bay waters, forcing Clay and Byron to crab along the Virginia shoreline. Here their real troubles begin as Clay falls irrevocably in love with Kate, Byron's post-traumatic stress kicks in with a vengeance, and the boys stumble onto a drug ring. The Waterman is a riveting, exceptionally written, highly recommended novel of well drawn characters, great background detail and flavor, and a robustly crafted plot of suspense and danger.