By now you know the story of Charlotte Rogan. Princeton educated, a mother of triplets, the wife of a lawyer, a quiet writer in the quiet hours, Rogan had written several novels and tucked them away before she finally, "practically on a whim," according to
the New York Times story, sent what would become
The Lifeboat to an agent. The rest is history. After twenty-five years of writing in near secret, Rogan has become an overnight success.
I read
The Lifeboat yesterday. I remain in the thrall of its intelligence. There's not a sloppy sentence in this book, nor an excess line. Grace, its heroine (?), is masterfully complex, and so are the issues that unwind across these pages. It is 1914. A ship has gone down in the Atlantic. A crowded lifeboat is cast about on open seas. Easy rescue doesn't come. Survival is at stake—but whose, and at what cost, and what will the civilized say about the surviving later, in a court of law? Who is sane, who is acting, what is true, and what are the options if there is no land in sight and water is short and dangerous factions have formed? Is it possible
not to choose a side? Can we ever adequately explain, even to ourselves, the choices we make in extreme, inhuman moments?
Rogan further complicates her story by further complicating Grace, the young woman, recently married, who is on trial with two others when the book begins. Grace has, in some ways, bludgeoned her way into the high society she craves. She has gained her husband at the expense of another woman. She may have gained this seat on the lifeboat at the expense of something else. Is she a good person? Do we root for her? Are any of us untainted?
Psychologically taut, finely paced, quietly but masterfully suspenseful,
The Lifeboat, despite its setting on the high seas, never leaks from itself, never goes off on a stray tangent. It's a remarkable debut, as focused a novel as I have read in a long time.
Robert Caro discusses "The Passage of Power," his latest book about Lyndon Johnson.
Oprah Magazine calls Charlotte Rogan’s debut novel THE LIFEBOAT “The One Dazzling Novel You Need to Read This Month.”
The Lifeboat by Charlotte Rogan
From Oprah:
The Story of a Shipwrecked Soul
Grace Winter is a survivor. Whether adrift on the Atlantic in a leaky, overcrowded vessel or on trial for murder, Grace, the narrator of Charlotte Rogan’s riveting debut novel, The Lifeboat (Reagan Arthur), knows how to take care of herself. In 1914 she’s traveling on a luxury liner with her husband when the ship begins to sink. Henry gets his beloved wife onto a lifeboat and disappears into the chaos. The novel unfolds as 22-year-old Grace, now in prison in Boston, recalls her three-week ordeal at sea, including the events that led to her being accused of murder. Grace remains unemotional, despite the often horrifying details. She concludes, for example, that if another passenger “hadn’t beaten people away from the side of our boat, I would have had to do it myself.” We get occasional glimpses of Grace’s previous life; facing a future of servitude after her family lost all its money, she schemed to steal wealthy Henry from his fiancée. And we see her in court, cast as the frightened damsel facing an all-male jury. But the narrative stays focused mostly on her experience in the boat, the tension deliciously building as the passengers grow hungrier, thirstier, and more desperate. The lifeboat is, of course, a familiar metaphor for ethical dilemmas. But Grace is not so easily defined. While not one to agonize over issues of morality, she is neither evil nor innocent. Rather, she is blindingly pragmatic; as she says in court, “It did not occur to me that I might have to sacrifice myself.”
— Karen Holt
We’re reading this one now. Bookfinds review to come. Has anyone read THE LIFEBOAT? What are your thoughts on this critically acclaimed novel?
Ah, yes. This is on the tbr list!