Jack Trap is an awe-inspiring mixture of Irish, English, Aborigine, and even Tierra del Fuegan. But he looks Aboriginal.
Admired by a few, hated by many, he is needed by more than care to admit it. Trap affects everyone. He is a shifting product of the back streets, passively resisting poverty and racialism, occasionally indulging in bursts of aggression.
Peter Mathers knows Trap, as he knows his background. Out of Trap he has fashioned Trap the symbol - around which lurk a variety of characters who represent the different aspects of an oppressive society. There are entertaining tales of his unlikely forebears; his father Wilson, who was unlucky enough to look white; his grandmother from South America; and his cedar-cutting grandfather, Armstrong Irish Trap.
Peter Mathers deals gently with the underdog, reserving his most vitriolic satire for the affluent conformists. His original style and humour make Trap a biting, very funny novel.
