THE LIFE OF A MAINE LOBSTERMAN

A heartfelt, rustic memoir by a seafaring New Englander.

Gove’s posthumous memoir, which he was working on until his death in 2020, presents a homespun account of Maine fishing life. The author was born in 1930 and raised on Eagle Island by his grandparents Laura and Earl; his parents were largely absent. He attended a local one-room schoolhouse, but he got his real education from his grandfather, who’s in the fishing business. His earliest games were lessons in that trade, such as setting up small lobster trap buoys with friends and pulling them back “to get the periwinkles.” By the age of 7, Gove had his lobstering license, and by the age of 10, he was hunting ducks. In high school, he met his lifelong love, Rose, and after they married, they moved to Stonington, where they raised two daughters. Gove continued to work as a lobsterman until his retirement at the age of 89. Gove comments on shifts in the industry—grumbling, for instance, about the fact that standard cotton twine was replaced with “nylon stuff” and about how he dislikes vacationing “summer people.” The author also tells of learning to fly a plane in middle age, going on air- and water-rescue missions, and winning boat races in “Maine’s version of NASCAR” in his beloved Uncle’s U.F.O. vessel when he was well into his 80s. The stories in this memoir were recorded by Gove and then transcribed, organized, and edited by several others, but they feel true to their original oral format. For example, it intriguingly retains the author’s Downeast accent, with wise aphorisms such as “The longer I go the less I know,” and “If it weren’t for good friends and being a good friend, this world would not be a good place to live in.” That said, the looser style can be difficult to follow at times; the text tends to ramble and digress, dropping in unfamiliar names and terms. That said, there’s a sense of immediacy that’s sure to make readers feel as if they were right in the room with Gove as he told his tales.

A warm and authentic chronicle of living and fishing in Maine.