I wanted to think that all people could have what they wanted, that there was no inherent conflict between competing interests, and that, if tragedies had to happen, they were not something mere human beings could control. I had been allowed to believe in man’s innate goodness for the twenty-two years of my life, and I had hoped to carry the belief with me to my grave. Even the horrifying moments (and there are some truly disturbing moments throughout) felt flat through Grace’s eyes as she ruminates about how this makes Grace feel, how this changes Grace’s view on humanity and what this makes Grace think about (seriously, I would not have been surprised if Grace had started speaking of herself in the third person, ala Lebron James). Yet, with all that promise, we’re bogged down in details of the toilet habits of the passengers and Grace’s rumination on humanity instead of an exploration of the sheer terror of floating in the ocean, alone at sea, uncertain if rescue will ever arrive. And the creepiness around the seaman, Hardie (the most interesting character by far), who takes command of Lifeboat 14. And the back-story with Grace and Henry and how they came to meet and marry. We’ve got the mystery of the ship’s explosion. Herein lies my problem with The Lifeboat: It’s trying to do a lot-too much for a 278 page novel. As the 39 survivors on the over-capacity lifeboat are adrift at sea as the events on the lifeboat unfolds while simultaneously the story flashes back to Grace and Henry’s courtship and sudden marriage.

Grace ends up on a lifeboat (there weren’t enough to go around-think The Titanic), perhaps thanks to some wheeling and dealing on the part of her husband, Henry. with her new husband suffers from an unexplained explosion, sinking the ship.

Grace is a newlywed when, in 1914, the ship she’s traveling on from England to the U.S. However, with its singular focus on Big Questions About Morality, I was left wanting more of everything: plot, character development, tension. Rogan has a wonderful story of writing for years and years before The Lifeboat was published and in a publishing climate where precocious twenty-somethings are getting all sorts of attention, it’s wonderful to see someone’s dream of being a published novelist become a reality after years of work on her craft. Charlotte Rogan’s much-hyped debut, The Lifeboat, is one of my biggest reading disappointments of the year.Īnd I feel like a complete jackass for saying that.

The lifeboat by charlotte rogan