Mitch Albom’s The Stranger in the Lifeboat is the #1 New York Times Bestseller, but I had a difficult time with it. I’m afraid I plodded through it. Albom specializes in parables, but this one just didn’t move me.
I did like the concluding paragraph. It fits for a fiction reader. “In the end, there is the sea and the land and the news that happens between them. To spread that news, we tell each other stories.”
Albom tells the story of a shipwreck. The Galaxy was Jason Lambert’s luxury yacht, filled with “important” people, a former President, an ambassador, entertainers, the wealthy. When some sort of explosion sank the yacht, only a small group of survivors made it to a raft. And, then tried to survive in the Atlantic Ocean.
Benjamin Kierney, a crew member from the Galaxy, writes in a notebook, telling the story of survival, and the man they fished from the ocean. When they said, thank the Lord we saw you, the man answered, “I am the Lord.” Believers and non-believers didn’t know what to do with that statement. Benji writes to the woman he loves to relate the account of life and death on the raft.
A year later, on the small island of Montserrat, a stranger reports to Inspector Jarty LeFleur that he found a raft washed up. LeFleur struggles with his own survival and loss of faith after his young daughter died. But, when LeFleur finds the notebook hidden on the raft, he reads Benji’s account, looking for his own answers.
I’m going to leave the ending and the story of the two men to readers who might want to pick up The Stranger in the Lifeboat.. For some reason, this book just didn’t move me the same way some of Albom’s earlier books did. As I said, I struggled to finish it. There was a resolution, but the characters just didn’t feel alive to me. As I’ve said countless times, though. It’s just my opinion, and I’m sure others will find what they’re looking for in Albom’s new book.
Mitch Albom’s website is http://MitchAlbom.com
The Stranger in the Lifeboat by Mitch Albom. Harper, 2021. ISBN 9780062888341 (hardcover), 271p.
FTC Full Disclosure – Library book.
The one book of his I’d recommend at all is TUESDAYS WITH MORRIE.
I liked Tuesdays with Morrie.
This is the first book I’ve encountered that has a video trailer. I guess it’s more common with the YA genre. Feeling old!
Don’t feel old, MM! Actually, book trailers have been appearing for some books for over seventeen years.I saw my first one when I was still in Florida. Now, I’m the one who feels old!
“In the end, there is the sea and the land and the news that happens between them. To spread that news, we tell each other stories.” I love this!
I do, too, Kaye. Those are my favorite sentences in the book.