Story outline
The novel follows the life of Jack Trap, a man living on the outskirts of Melbourne in the 1960s. Trap is of mixed Irish, English and Aboriginal background, in his forties and fat. He joins with a small group of outsiders and travels to a mining lease on Cape York to form a co-operative community.Critical reception
In ''The Canberra Times'' Maurice Dunlevy found that the attempted satire fell well short of its target: "''Trap'' is a first novel and reads like one. It attempts to be satirical, shocking and avant garde — succeeds only in being naive...His irony is too heavy, his targets are too obvious and he never cuts deeper than satirical revue."References
1966 Australian novels Miles Franklin Award-winning works Cassell (publisher) books 1966 debut novels {{1960s-novel-stub