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4.17 AVERAGE
4.17 AVERAGE
dark
reflective
sad
Small Boat is a powerful piece of writing.
It is a fictionalised account inspired by the tragic death of 27 migrants who were crossing the channel in 2022. Their boat sank mid-crossing and rescue was not sent in time to save them.
If you haven't read the book, don't read this review further because I will spoil it.
Our primary narrator worked in the call centre co-ordinating rescue operations, and the story opens with a confrontational interview between her and the investigating officer, trying to establish whether there was negligence or culpability on her part. Throughout, the police officer is disturbed by her lack of empathy and nonchalant attitude.
Despite a compellingly readable voice and her fascinatingly bloodless yet grandiloquent philosophising, something feels off.
Is this character a sociopath?
Her self-justifications don't feel quite right, giving the first section a taut psychology. For a subject so fraught with humanity, reading a narrative with so little is unnerving.
Part 2 gives us a heart-rending account of the plight of the migrants, further contrasting with our narrator's seemingly blazé indifference.
Then we have Part 3.
Part 3 contorts and recontextualises the rest of the book.
Gradually we realise that her adversary from Part 1 is, in fact, herself. The reason why her justifications feel so off is because they are all window dressing. She is actually being eaten alive by guilt.
Part 1, it now seems, is a conversation she is having with herself and we finally see her as she is: an exhausted woman, wracked with guilt, visualising herself as a monster.
Her actions were negligent, driven by empathy fatigue, and meant that 27 people would never be rescued. She knows this and is torturing herself looking for absolution.
Her narrative captures how quickly the catastrophic can seem to become mundane and the unbearable weight of responsibility that comes with working a job where you hold the lives of others in your hands.
In addition, our narrator is acutely aware of how little difference her actions make in the context of the wider world, and that helplessness spirals out and out in ripples until she implicates both the ocean as well as every one of us.
Broadly, this is a book about global inequality and the devastating impact of the collective impact of our refusal to look it in the eye.
And it is also about fallibility both on a systemic and individual level.
After reading too many comments sections, I only wish this sort of work had a wider readership.
It is a fictionalised account inspired by the tragic death of 27 migrants who were crossing the channel in 2022. Their boat sank mid-crossing and rescue was not sent in time to save them.
If you haven't read the book, don't read this review further because I will spoil it.
Our primary narrator worked in the call centre co-ordinating rescue operations, and the story opens with a confrontational interview between her and the investigating officer, trying to establish whether there was negligence or culpability on her part. Throughout, the police officer is disturbed by her lack of empathy and nonchalant attitude.
Despite a compellingly readable voice and her fascinatingly bloodless yet grandiloquent philosophising, something feels off.
Is this character a sociopath?
Her self-justifications don't feel quite right, giving the first section a taut psychology. For a subject so fraught with humanity, reading a narrative with so little is unnerving.
Part 2 gives us a heart-rending account of the plight of the migrants, further contrasting with our narrator's seemingly blazé indifference.
Then we have Part 3.
Part 3 contorts and recontextualises the rest of the book.
Gradually we realise that her adversary from Part 1 is, in fact, herself. The reason why her justifications feel so off is because they are all window dressing. She is actually being eaten alive by guilt.
Part 1, it now seems, is a conversation she is having with herself and we finally see her as she is: an exhausted woman, wracked with guilt, visualising herself as a monster.
Her actions were negligent, driven by empathy fatigue, and meant that 27 people would never be rescued. She knows this and is torturing herself looking for absolution.
Her narrative captures how quickly the catastrophic can seem to become mundane and the unbearable weight of responsibility that comes with working a job where you hold the lives of others in your hands.
In addition, our narrator is acutely aware of how little difference her actions make in the context of the wider world, and that helplessness spirals out and out in ripples until she implicates both the ocean as well as every one of us.
Broadly, this is a book about global inequality and the devastating impact of the collective impact of our refusal to look it in the eye.
And it is also about fallibility both on a systemic and individual level.
After reading too many comments sections, I only wish this sort of work had a wider readership.
dark
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Death, Racism, Xenophobia
Moderate: Trafficking
Minor: Genocide, War
challenging
reflective
medium-paced
challenging
dark
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
reflective
medium-paced
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
A really great quick read. Obviously it largely revolves around immigration issues and talking points, but specifically what I love about this book is how it begins with the perspective of one individual who you are immediately set against, but slowly grows and evolves into an almost fourth wall breaking confrontation. We are faced with the reality that the institutional struggles of immigrants and asylum seekers are a societally shared responsibility, yet we often do all we can to push these issues away in hopes that someone else will either deal with them, or take the blame.