The Lifeboat

The Lifeboat is a novel by Charlotte Rogan which we read  for our book club. Now it seems that  I read a lot of book club books which I really don’t like, don’t think are  much good, and maybe don’t manage to finish;  perhaps I am a fussy reader, or maybe I’m not a very good reader, or maybe my book club friends like different books from me. Whatever… I really enjoyed The Lifeboat and thought it was an amazing book.

It won’t surprise you to know that it is about a lifeboat and the people who are in it, and it won’t spoil anything for you if you are going to read it to tell you that it is about the struggle between the forty people who escape in a lifeboat from a sinking ship. It centres around the experiences of one woman, Grace Winter who has ended up in the boat when the ship she is travelling on, The Empress Alexander, sinks in the Atlantic en route to New York from London. The disaster happens just before the first World War, and there are thoughts in the reader’s mind of the Titanic and the Lusitania and I think this is deliberate.

To me it had a dreamlike quality, but I don’t mean it doesn’t describe the trauma and ordeal that Grace and the other  survivors go through. Grace is a mysterious person, and I kept wondering whether I could really believe what she was telling us. The others are definitely portrayed through her eyes and it is fascinating to wonder about the motives, the characters, the actual events which happen… are they as Grace describes? Is she dreaming or delusional? Is she an innocent? Or is she guilty? The other characters are enigmatic… why do they do what they do? Do they hate Grace or love her, pity her or blame her?

I have written about endings, and how important they are… well this ending was puzzling, satisfactory; yes, it tied in with the character of Grace… but it left me thinking and puzzling… so  it was a good ending, a very good ending!

I recommend you read The Lifeboat, I’m sure even if you don’t enjoy it, you will want to discuss it with your friends!