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nini23 's review for:
Small Boat
by Vincent Delecroix
tense
Books can be assessed by how they linger on in our minds. By this metric, Small Boat has been singularly effective in having the female protagonist's voice pop up in my head even 2 weeks and 5 books later. It also made me go hunting after some cavalier comments about English Channel boat migrants that I remember a British parliament candidate made [https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/reform-uk-asylum-rwanda-channel-boats-b2533923.html]. In the search for culpability(or a scapegoat), public discourse and dehumanising language used toward these boat migrants play a huge part. Also to be considered are the different deterrent techniques used by various countries eg hostile environment, offshoring to a distant third country, pushbacks, border walls, detention, non-recognition of the Geneva Convention for Refugees etc.
Adopting the same language of drowning, waves and safety in her own life during the interrogation, those facing the front lines of the crisis bear the brunt of compassion fatigue, system stress, burnout and public denouncement. As a naval coastguard officer on dispatch, she has to maintain professionalism and objectivity in the face of a constant barrage of desperate calls for help and rescue. Should she have promised them that they would be saved? There is a suggestion in her blurred stressed memories of that fateful night whether the higher ups in the control room ordered her to delay help for that particular boat to 'teach them a lesson.'
Are there the same search and rescue services for rich billionaires with yachts compared to migrants overloaded in flimsy dinghies? Do they get the same treatment? This is a question that this book raised. My mind casts to that submarine adventure outing for a small ultrawealthy group that ended in disaster off our shores and the vast extensive transnational resources that were mobilized in the subsequent underwater search. Médecins Sans Frontières, on the other hand, has ceased search and rescue operations in the Mediterranean Sea with its rescue boat due to putative governmental policies that made it untenable to continue [https://msf.org.uk/article/msf-forced-end-search-and-rescue-operations-central-mediterranean].
Like Socrates, this short but thought-provoking lashing book pricks us to consider difficult questions. The cause and effect. Many segments are searing, such as the soliloquy that opens with "I did not make them leave...." or that French philosopher's quote 'the majority of humanity's problems stem from man's inability to sit quietly in a room.' Helen Stevenson's English translation of this French philosophical work by Vincent Delacroix is excellent. A strong timely contender for this year's International Booker.
Adopting the same language of drowning, waves and safety in her own life during the interrogation, those facing the front lines of the crisis bear the brunt of compassion fatigue, system stress, burnout and public denouncement. As a naval coastguard officer on dispatch, she has to maintain professionalism and objectivity in the face of a constant barrage of desperate calls for help and rescue. Should she have promised them that they would be saved? There is a suggestion in her blurred stressed memories of that fateful night whether the higher ups in the control room ordered her to delay help for that particular boat to 'teach them a lesson.'
Are there the same search and rescue services for rich billionaires with yachts compared to migrants overloaded in flimsy dinghies? Do they get the same treatment? This is a question that this book raised. My mind casts to that submarine adventure outing for a small ultrawealthy group that ended in disaster off our shores and the vast extensive transnational resources that were mobilized in the subsequent underwater search. Médecins Sans Frontières, on the other hand, has ceased search and rescue operations in the Mediterranean Sea with its rescue boat due to putative governmental policies that made it untenable to continue [https://msf.org.uk/article/msf-forced-end-search-and-rescue-operations-central-mediterranean].
Like Socrates, this short but thought-provoking lashing book pricks us to consider difficult questions. The cause and effect. Many segments are searing, such as the soliloquy that opens with "I did not make them leave...." or that French philosopher's quote 'the majority of humanity's problems stem from man's inability to sit quietly in a room.' Helen Stevenson's English translation of this French philosophical work by Vincent Delacroix is excellent. A strong timely contender for this year's International Booker.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death, Xenophobia