Seascraper is set in what appears to be the early 1960s yet could easily be a century earlier because of the protagonist’s low-tech career. Thomas Flett lives with his mother in fictional Longferry in northwest England and carries on his grandfather’s tradition of fishing with a horse and cart. Each day he trawls the seabed for shrimp – sometimes twice a day when the tide allows – and sells his catch to local restaurants. At around 20 years old, Thomas still lives with his mother, who is disabled by obesity and chronic pain. He’s the sole breadwinner in the household and there’s an unusual dynamic between them in that his mother isn’t all that many years older, having fallen pregnant by a teacher while she was still in school.
Their life is just a mindless trudge of work with cosy patterns of behaviour in between … He wants to wake up every morning with a better purpose.
It’s a humdrum, hardscrabble existence, and Thomas longs for a bigger and more creative life, which he hopes he might achieve through his folk music hobby – or a chance encounter with an American filmmaker. Edgar Acheson is working on a big-screen adaptation of a novel; to save money, it will be filmed here in Merseyside rather than in coastal Maine where it’s set. One day he turns up at the house asking Thomas to be his guide to the sands. Thomas reluctantly agrees to take Edgar out one evening, even though it will mean missing out on an open mic night. They nearly get lost in the fog and the cart starts to sink into quicksand. What follows is mysterious, almost like a hallucination sequence. When Thomas makes it back home safely, he writes an autobiographical song, “Seascraper” (you can listen to a recording on Wood’s website).
After this one pivotal and surprising day, Thomas’s fortunes might just change. This atmospheric novella contrasts subsistence living with creative fulfillment. There is the bitterness of crushed dreams but also a glimmer of hope. Its The Old Man and the Sea-type setup emphasizes questions of solitude, obsession and masculinity. Thomas wishes he had a father in his life; Edgar, even in so short a time frame, acts as a sort of father figure for him. And Edgar is a father himself – he shows Thomas a photo of his daughter. We are invited to ponder what makes a good father and what the absence of one means at different stages in life. Mental and physical health are also crucial considerations for the characters.
That Wood packs all of this into a compact circadian narrative is impressive. My admiration never crossed into warmth, however. I’ve read four of Wood’s five novels and still love his debut, The Bellwether Revivals, most, followed by his second, The Ecliptic. I’ve also read The Young Accomplice, which I didn’t care for as much, so I’m only missing out on A Station on the Path to Somewhere Better now. Wood’s plot and character work is always at a high standard, but his books are so different from each other that I have no clear sense of him as a novelist. Still, I’m pleased that the Booker longlisting has introduced him to many new readers.
Also reviewed by:
Annabel (AnnaBookBel)
Anne (My Head Is Full of Books)
Brona (This Reading Life)
Cathy (746 Books)
Davida (The Chocolate Lady’s Book Review Blog)
Eric (Lonesome Reader)
Jane (Just Reading a Book)
Helen (She Reads Novels)
Kate (Books Are My Favourite and Best)
Kay (What? Me Read?)
Nancy (The Literate Quilter)
Rachel (Yarra Book Club)
Susan (A life in books)
Check out this written interview with Wood (and this video one with Eric of Lonesome Reader) as well as a Q&A on the Booker Prize website in which Wood talks about the unusual situation in which he wrote the book.
(Public library)
[163 pages]
Bookish Beck = Rebecca Foster. American transplant to England. Freelance proofreader and book reviewer.
Bookish Beck 
Sorry that this one was a miss. I love how you describe it saying “My admiration never crossed into warmth.” Love that! I’d not heard of this author until seeing the buddy read for the month and I hadn’t planned on reading it. But maybe I will add his debut novel to my TBR and give it a try. 🙂
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I feel bad that I can’t be more enthusiastic. The other reviews I’ve linked to are more positive!
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I appreciate you sharing honestly about your experience with the book! 🙂
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Well, mine is a touch more positive, but only because of the writing. Thanks for adding the link to my review!
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Thanks for the link, Rebecca. I’m sorry this one didn’t work so well for you as it did for me. It was my first Wood quickly followed by The Young Accomplice which could hardly be more different. I’m keen to read the others now, if only to compare them.
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It will be interesting for you to trace his development by going backward!
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I haven’t read any of his other books, although I’m reviewing this one soon. Something to look for.
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I’m not sure if any of the others have been published in North America. This prize listing may change that, however.
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Yes, I often have to buy books from England, though.
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What’s the most affordable way for you to do that?
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This book immediately made me into a Benjamin Wood fan and I’m keen to catch up with his other work now. In fact I’ve just embarked on A Station on the Path to Somewhere Better … Looking good, if disturbing.
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I’m glad you were converted. I’ve heard that one has challenging subject matter.
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The one I’m n, I think!
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I hope to read this after I finish my #CCSpin novella.
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I have this to read this month and I’m looking forward to it although I note that you admire it more than anything else!
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Ah, I’d been planning to read this but I’m wavering now as it does sound quite grim and distancing.
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You may like it more than I did! I think you’d enjoy the setting anyway.
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Lovely review Rebecca – nice insight into the father/ son dynamic between Thomas and Edgar. I had managed to forget that it was set in the 60s – feels quite timeless!
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Thank you. I agree — there are only tiny hints of the time period, so I had to Google it to make sure I wasn’t getting something wrong!
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“My admiration never crossed into warmth, however.” I, too, pulled out this bit and noticed that you said you felt badly that you couldn’t be more enthusiastic (which I understand, I have that feeling sometimes myself), but I didn’t sense a lack of enthusiasm, so I wonder if maybe it’s just that we actually wish we were both impressed AND warmed by the work. But is it necessarily a shortcoming of a work when we don’t find ourselves responding with both? Some stories, some styles… they can’t all be a perfect match for every reader, can they?
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When scoring books for book club, we’ve alternated between two category headings for this factor: “can’t put it down” and “compellingness” (is that a word?!). I wasn’t gripped.
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Thanks Bec for your review. Perhaps the judges of the Booker also failed to find something in the book as well. For me I loved it and it was my pick to make it to the short list and I probably would have had it in line for the win, but alas! For me I am glad to have discovered Wood, as he was new to me and even better to hear that you loved some of his other books more, so I will have to add them to my list!
My review is here.
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I’m pleased that he’s now known outside the UK.
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That’s very interesting. He almost sounds like Benjamin Myers, with every book so very different you can’t get a full rounded sense of him.
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An interesting comparison — they’re both sometimes known as regional/Northern authors. I think Myers probably has even more of a genre and tonal range.
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[…] year is the buddy read for #NovNov25. Rebecca’s post linking to everyone’s reviews is here. It begins […]
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Thank you for the link!
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[…] year we set two buddy reads for Novellas in November: one contemporary work of fiction (Seascraper) and one classic work of short nonfiction. Do let us know if you’ve been reading them and what […]
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[…] Wood and Sister Outsider by Audre Lorde as our Buddy Reads this year and it was great to see 13 of us reading and reviewing […]
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[…] Rebecca(Bookish Beck) […]
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