The Mookse and the Gripes discussion

Small Boat by Vincent Delecroix (France), translated from French by Helen Stevenson (HopeRoad). 160pp

Expected English-language / UK publication date 23rd April 2025.
Likely to be brought forward.

The French title is Naufrage - shipwreck. Interesting to note the different associations brought forward by each title, with the UK tabloid-bogeyman term being a provocative choice for the English, while the French uses a more universal word that conveys a type of disaster that could happen to people of any background.

As I understand it part of the interrogation of the coast guard that forms the first part of the book - it’s a main part of the novel the failure of the French authorities to rescue the migrants - is why she did not give more priority to a migrant boat than she would say a yacht in trouble and she protests her training requires her to treat them the same

I could see that the universality of Shipwreck brings this out.

But I agree with you that Small Boat has added resonance here.

It will in time be interesting to compare this to Perfection as the migrant crisis and our response to it plays a crucial role there also.

My thoughts

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Very impressed with this so far

Hadn’t realised the UK enquiry into the events is taking place now - and close by where I work (indeed I walked past the building on Wednesday). One of the two survivors gave testimony this week.

https://cranston.independent-inquiry....

The opening statement on Monday of this week from the solicitor representing the bereaved:

Shortly after sunset on 23 November 2021, at least 33 people left dilapidated camps in Northern France. Many were exhausted, having already endured arduous journeys just to get there. They walked slowly under cover of darkness along abandoned train tracks to the long beach at Plage de la Digue du Braek, from where they would embark on what would be – for all but two – their final journey. The men, women, and children who crammed on to a small, unsafe boat that night were fathers, mothers, brothers and sisters; peoples’ loved ones; peoples’ friends. All made the journey in hope for the future. Kazhal Ahmed Khidhir Al-Jamoor left with her three children, Hadiya, Mubin and Hasti. Mhabad Ali Ahmed took a photo of herself and her friend Maryam ‘Baran’ Noori Mohammedameen, and sent it to her mother in Kurdistan: two young women smiling, just as anywhere else, sending a message of reassurance to a parent. These are just two examples. None could have possibly known the fate that would await them that night. This Inquiry will hear directly from ourc clients – the families bereaved by the events of the night of 23/24 November 2021 – of the profound impact of their loss. And it will hear from our client Issa Mohammed Omar, one of just two who survived, of the ordeal he suffered over 14 hours in the bitter, freezing, waters of the Dover Strait.

Thanks for sharing that. I just finished this last night and found every aspect of it to be compelling.

It’s harrowing reading but this is the testimony this week of one of the two survivors

https://cranston.independent-inquiry....

This was brilliantly done - agree it's compelling, a book I couldn't put down. Two to go but pretty confident this will be my winner.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Amazing review Paul and it’s good to start getting some balance as many of the top French language reviews have I think misunderstood the difficult but powerful decision the author has made to focus on the voice of the coastguard and not the victims.

One question though.

You interpret the second section as an imagined (almost forced/required) act of empathy by the coastguard … and I immediately see you are very likely correct.

However I also had assumed the first part is or may be also imaginary - and that she is interrogating herself. It’s why the police person is almost a mirror image of her and in the third part - which is the only real narrative part / she actually looks in the mirror.

Yes I had same thought re the first bit. She drops a lot of hints that way although almost too many ie if it is imagined it’s almost too unsubtle (have I mentioned she reminds me of an older me? Yes about 24 times).

Although repetition is rather a feature of the novel.

I also interpreted the first part to be imagined after reading the third part, but hadn’t thought about the second section in that way.

It makes sense though.

In the interrogation the real issue is her unwillingness to show the empathy that is being demanded of her and which she thinks clashes with her professional need for detachment - so it’s like a forced/demanded piece of imaginative empathy.

It definitely does make sense and like Paul pointed out in his review, is a good reason for why the second section is only 16 pages.

If anything I think book could have been better without the second section at all. But I think it had to be there or people would have complained that it didn’t tell the story - the UK version even comes with an intro to explain it a bit more.

Of course the fact that we - well me at least - need to be reminded of a story of 31+ people dying less than 3 years ago is itself rather part of the book’s point.

Finished last night. So many thoughts and emotions swirling that need to be straightened.

I will say that there is so much in this little book, and it makes me want to be a better person, so this is the best kind of literature.

What a fabulous comment.

Tracy wrote: "Finished last night. So many thoughts and emotions swirling that need to be straightened.

I will say that there is so much in this little book, and it makes me want to be a better person, so this..."

Yes that's a great sentiment

Finished last night. The novella also made me emotional and sympathetic. Really enjoyed his rhetoric and metaphors. I found it difficult to shorten the review and add all my thoughts (much left unsaid). I wonder how you did it.

Anyway, here are my thoughts to anyone interested.
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Good to see when asked "The book that made me want to become a writer" the author responds with Tristam Shandy as his first book and

The second was Thomas Bernhard’s Extinction, and then all other books by Thomas Bernhard. Long, violent, shocking monologues; delirious and desperate ways of speaking and telling; a very deep and dark conception of life; social criticism and bitter irony; and, each time, a singular voice and its variations – which is for me one of the most important features of my own writing. I have never felt more affinity with an author.

I am struggling to see the influence of either. Tristram Shandy had not even been born by the number of pages in which this is finished!

My copy of the finished book arrived today

This is really timely and relevant, and it also shows that the author is a philosopher who intended to craft a parable with one woman standing for society at large, but still, IMHO: very complex this is not. Not on the plot level, not aesthetically.

Meike wrote: "...but still, IMHO: very complex this is not. Not on the plot level, not aesthetically"

That sums up my view too - I wanted something more sophisticated given the reviews I'd read.

I wouldn't say generally sophistication is a strong point on this list (Reservoir Bitches I enjoyed but it's feminist Tarantino; Under the Eye of the Big Bird makes no sense it terms of its plot; Perfection is shallow by definition; On the Calculation is Groundhod Day with a bit of philsophy mixed in; Hunchback without the disability angle is porn fiction; Eurotrash is jokes about Nazi grandparents and being mistaken for another author etc etc)

Incidentally, I didn't read this as someone not doing their job. She did her job - that's her point. And interestingly the two survivors, and a relative of someone who died but was speaking to them, all blame the British coastguard not the French, who helpfully alerted the British authorities.

Society is the problem although the reader's left to examine their own culpability. One easy way to stop the drownings would be to organise secure boats to bring people across - but as a society we collectively want to make it fatally dangerous in order to act as a deterrent.

Paul wrote: "I wouldn't say generally sophistication is a strong point on this list (Reservoir Bitches I enjoyed but it's feminist Tarantino; Under the Eye of the Big Bird makes no sense it terms of its plot; P..."

I think no one here maintained that the novel is about a woman not doing her job, I think we are all in accordance that this is societal critique. And I strongly disagree on your Eurotrash take, of course! :-)

I disagree on Eurotrash too but I do agree this is a longlist of books which don’t have great deal of depth but more explore a single idea (generally effectively)

I did comment in my review that 'this woman is employed by French naval services to 'monitor maritime traffic and co-ordinate rescue', something which she simply fails to do' - but I agree that that's not what the book is about.

The main way to stop the dangerous crossings is to re-open legal asylum routes.

couple recent links that might be of interest!

The Books & Music That Inspired Small Boat By Vincent Delecroix: https://www.service95.com/small-boat-...

The Organisations Supporting Asylum Seekers In France & The UK: https://www.service95.com/organisatio...