Trap, by Peter Mathers (1931-2004), is not an easy book to read. Published in 1966, it won the Miles Franklin award, which is why I have it in my collection, and why I chose it as a title for the 2010 Classics Challenge, which I like to do with all-Australian titles. However (and it pains me to say this) I did not enjoy reading it at all.
Mather’s landscape is an Australia familiar and yet remote. In 1966 Robert Menzies had finally retired (my mother wept!) and Australia had its first new Prime Minister since 1949. There was conscription of boys too young to vote yet there was electoral support for the war in Vietnam. Aborigines had yet to be recognised in the Constitution, much less as the indigenous owners of any land because of the bizarre legal fiction that prior to European settlement Australia belonged to no one (terra nullius) . Post-war migration had brought European migrants, but they were expected to assimilate rather than retain any aspects of their culture. Asian, African and Pacific Islander immigration was restricted by the White Australia Policy. Australia was insular in more ways than one.
Into this claustrophobic society comes Jack Trap, an enigmatic figure about whom the narrator, David David has been assigned to compile a dossier. An urban mixed-race Aboriginal, Trap is both dispossessed and powerful because he refuses to conform to expectations. He is notorious, but unknowable.
His name, of course, is symbolic. He is entrapped himself but he also traps others and there also is a particularly horrid sequence where he takes a job engineering the gallows trapdoor for a judicial hanging. (The last man hanged in Australia was Robert Ryan in 1967, a hotly contentious issue that led to the abolition of the death penalty.)
The narrator is tasked with finding out about Trap because he is an obstacle to a significant development project. He is feared because he has penetrated the veneer of respectable Melbourne and with occasional bursts of violence he terrifies its citizens – though more often he uses lechery and deceit to express his contempt.
The slums and pubs of sleazy of pre-slum-reclamation Melbourne are contrasted with the glittering world of society. (Well, glittering for 1967 Melbourne, that is. Not a patch on society glitter of the 21st century). There are sour portraits of all types of rapacious industrialists and crooked politicians complete with darkly comic exposés of their shallow, fruitless lives. The exclusionary policies of labour unions are exposed; the pioneer history of Australia consists of the violent exploitation of Aboriginal women and massacres of Aboriginal communities as a deterrent. Racism is all-pervading, both subtle and overt. Women are objects but they are also complicit in the complacency of their society. The pessimism is unrelenting.
All of this is expressed in terse, staccato prose. Here’s a sample:
Two women’s magazines spread coloured photographs over their centre pages. The daily papers were generous. Sally’s dark skin went well with her fawn linen dress and lots of guests envied her. She was pleased to read of herself as Mrs S. Coffs of New South Wales. The Steels didn’t like this for it suggested that Sally was a family friend and not merely an employee invited out of motives both generous and democratic.
The general regretted the lack of colour television. He resolved to mention the need for colour channels to the Prime Minister the next time they met. The glories of country life should be well advertised in order to stop the drift to the cities. (p142)
I found this prose style wearisome after a while, and the plot is hard to follow. Mathers is so busy having a go at the objects of his scorn that he leaves the hapless reader floundering in a morass of characters and sub-plots from Trap’s sordid family history. The book was probably innovative in 1967 and it had an important message for its time – but it hasn’t worn well, in my opinion.
Some aspects of Trap’s story draw on Mather’s varied background. According to Wikipedia he studied agriculture at Sydney Technical College and worked in a variety of occupations including clerical work, gardening and landscaping, jobs in the wool and chemical industries and as a researcher in the UK before becoming a writer of plays, verse and novels. These experiences give Traps’s travels around Australia authenticity.
After the success of Trap, Mathers spent a year in the US on a writing fellowship but returned to Australia the following year and published his second novel, The Wort Papers in 1972. It was apparently also a satire.
I think Mathers’ work is long out-of-print. I bought my copy of Trap through Biblioz but there are also some at AbeBooks where – although the book is obviously rare – you can pick up paperbacks for a song or (if you are so minded) the occasional first edition for a modest price.
I can’t find any reviews of this book online.
©Lisa Hill
Author: Peter Mathers
Title: Trap
Publisher: Cassell Australia 1966
ISBN: none
Source: Personal copy, purchased via AbeBooks.
ANZ LitLovers LitBlog 
What a shame you didn’t find this book enjoyable. It has faded from the limelight hasn’t it? I’ve never heard of it (which isn’t a big surprise to anyone really). Your description of the plot made it sound really interesting, and I was thinking “why have I never heard of this book?”. And then I realised why with your comments on the writing. Still an interesting post on an interesting slice of Miles Franklin history. I’ve already learnt something today, so maybe I can go back to bed on this misty cold Sunday morning….
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By: Louise on August 1, 2010
at 8:48 am
Hi Louise:)
Misty and cold where you are too, eh? I think our tanks might be overflowing after this morning’s downpour, but the sun is making an effort, so hopefully the day will turn out well.
I really wish I could find another review of Trap somewhere, I don’t like to criticise a book without having an alternative opinion from somewhere. It won the MF after all so there must be people out there who thought it was terrific.
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By: Lisa Hill on August 1, 2010
at 10:41 am
I thought I’d point to this review of the novel by comparison: http://www.ariel.ucalgary.ca/ariel/index.php/ariel/article/viewFile/944/919
Best wishes, Adam Dutkiewicz
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By: Adam Jan Dutkiewicz on February 12, 2015
at 8:52 am
Here’s one from the author Vincent Buckley: http://www.ariel.ucalgary.ca/ariel/index.php/ariel/article/viewFile/944/919
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By: dutkiewiczarchive on February 12, 2015
at 8:54 am
Hello, Adam, what a great article that is about Mathers on your blog – was it meeting Mathers that made you choose him for your essay?
It’s certainly a comprehensive review – I take it that Ariel was some sort of literary review journal? Anyway, I agree with what Buckley says about the prose: “What dominates the narrative structure is the possibility, even certainty, of moment-to-moment interruption; in this, the prose presents edgy and distracted lives” – I think that’s why I found it so hard to follow.
Your comment reminds me that I have been neglecting my project to read all the Miles Franklin winners. I shall try to redress that soon because I think it’s important to do what I can to add to the online presence of our literary heritage…
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By: Lisa Hill on February 12, 2015
at 10:38 am
Hi Lisa – I went through a time in my 20s when I read as many post-war Australian novels as I could. I found I enjoyed the humour and satire of authors like Dal Stivens, Mathers, David Ireland and later David Foster and Peter Carey. Most of these are out of favour now. I attended a creative writing summer school with Glenda Adams around that time too. I regarded Mathers as the most interesting case, as his stylistic experimentation and the range in his novels really appealed to me. One of the funniest pieces I’ve ever read, apart from Flann O’Brien’s ‘The Poor Mouth’, was a Mathers’ story called ‘Rain’, which has never been published. It was related material to ‘The Wort Papers’ but he claimed he could not get the ending right. It was the length of novella in itself. I have recently been re-editing ‘The Wort Papers’ and the collected stories originally published as ‘A Change for the Better’. I’m not sure the estate is interested in having the books available agin, however.
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By: Adam Jan Dutkiewicz on March 10, 2015
at 9:39 am
Yes, from what I recall ‘Ariel’ was a literary journal. I noticed since posting originally that one of Mathers’ friends, the academic John McLaren, has since published a book on the Melbourne literary world in the late modern era. I’ll see if I can find the link.
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By: dutkiewiczarchive on March 10, 2015
at 9:42 am
http://www.scholarly.info/book/331/
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By: dutkiewiczarchive on March 10, 2015
at 9:43 am
Oh, I do get cross with literary estate gatekeepers sometimes. There’s a book I reviewed on this blog once, (no names, no pack drill) where the Lit Executor pounced on something I said and so unpleasantly that I swore never to review another book by that author again – at least until the LitEx is dead and buried too, that is. So it does the dead author no favours at all.
I mean, why wouldn’t they want a book re-issued? I can understand that sometimes an author has said that they don’t want a work published (Patrick White springs to mind) but once a book has hit the stores in the first place, it makes no sense to prevent re-issuing it.
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By: Lisa Hill on March 10, 2015
at 9:54 am
They might just think it’s not worth the trouble. I do know that ‘Trap’ was re-released POD by SUP about 15 years ago.
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By: dutkiewiczarchive on March 10, 2015
at 10:09 am
But it’s their job to go to the trouble! I’ve been an executor twice, it’s an awful lot of trouble, especially with the estates of artists where there are ongoing royalties, but hey, they shouldn’t agree if they’re not willing to do the hard yards. After all, they can always offload the trouble to a state executor if they can’t be bothered…
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By: Lisa Hill on March 10, 2015
at 2:42 pm
I’ve done my best but am getting a little tired of metaphoric doors getting slammed in my face.
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By: dutkiewiczarchive on March 10, 2015
at 7:55 pm
http://sydney.edu.au/sup/books/projects_cal_about.html
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By: dutkiewiczarchive on March 10, 2015
at 10:12 am
check out these titles, Lisa – lots of Australian classic novels.
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By: dutkiewiczarchive on March 10, 2015
at 7:56 pm
I’ve reviewed some of them: https://anzlitlovers.com/category/publishers-australia/sup-sydney-university-press/ and also a fair few of the Text Classics series.
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By: Lisa Hill on March 10, 2015
at 8:29 pm
[…] other is Peter Mathers Trap, which, yes, Lisa has also reviewed. She found it hard going, but how wonderful that we have a review available online. Bloggers […]
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By: Monday musings on Australian literature: Miles Franklin Award, the first decade (1958-1967) | Whispering Gums on April 4, 2016
at 11:31 pm
Hi Lisa. Just reviewed Trap on GR and I have made use of your excellent review. Funny How we agree but come out the end with different feelings on such an idiosyncratic book.
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By: fourtriplezed on October 6, 2018
at 6:03 pm
I am ecstatic that someone else has reviewed Trap too, and you know, you are right about it being relevant today. This review is eight years old now, and things have changed so much since then. The race and migration debate is certainly much more toxic than it was in 2010, which (while no party is guilt-free) I put down to the politics of Tony Abbott and Co.
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By: Lisa Hill on October 6, 2018
at 6:50 pm
I agree with you. Sadly many 50 something year old males (my generation and beyond) pine for the perceived better days of their youth and forget they too were once more tolerant and even progressive. (Maybe they weren’t either)
I am hoping to find the Wort Papers one day.
I have found a couple of further internet comments that may be of interest.
https://journalhosting.ucalgary.ca/index.php/ariel/article/viewFile/32027/26089
http://latrobejournal.slv.vic.gov.au/latrobejournal/issue/latrobe-83/t1-g-t10.html
.
.
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By: fourtriplezed on October 6, 2018
at 7:52 pm
*sigh* I’ve just looked at this morning’s headlines at the ABC and at the Guardian, and the news is all either hate-filled, or inane pop culture rubbish that used to fill the women’s magazines and now masquerades as news. Deeply depressing. If I actually want to know what’s happening in the world, I have to struggle through the French news sites with my inadequate French.
Thanks for the links, the middle one has commented here before, but I will check out the others. That Latrobe Journal covers some very interesting topics, I have one on my bedside table from a couple of years ago. (We used to get a copy with our Friends of the SLV subs, but I stopped belonging to that when they engaged marketing services and every event became about hassling us for more money).
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By: Lisa Hill on October 7, 2018
at 11:41 am
[…] I collect Miles Franklin winners but have yet to acquire a copy of Trap by Peter Mathers (1966). As you can see if you click the link, there is no Wikipedia article about this novel, which has been out of print for more than 30 years. If Peter Pierce should chance upon this blog post of mine, I hope he will take up the challenge of writing something about it, because he obviously thinks highly of the novel. (Update 10/6/16: I acquired a copy of Trap, and reviewed it here). […]
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By: La Trobe Journal (Victorian Writers), edited by John Arnold | ANZ LitLovers LitBlog on July 19, 2019
at 4:21 pm