Point of View

Charlotte Rogan tells her novel “The Lifeboat” in the first-person reflective omniscient perspective from the point of view of Grace. In the prologue, Grace explains that what she is now recounting is the written experience surrounding the time spent on Lifeboat 14. This is being done at the request of her lawyers, who hope that recollecting the past will help Grace to remember it more fully, and to recall important details. As such, writing after the fact, Grace is able to spend time thinking about, describing, and explaining her thoughts and actions during the encounter. She is also able to provide contextual information not available to her at the time. For example, she is able to explain that the lifeboats are barely afloat even though they are not at capacity because the ship’s company cut costs by diminishing the size of the lifeboats but never...