Call number
FIC SHI
Collection
Genres
Publication
Knopf (2021), Edition: 1st Edition, 608 pages
Description
Fiction. Literature. Historical Fiction. HTML:NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER â?˘ A TODAY SHOW #ReadWithJenna BOOK CLUB PICK â?˘ The unforgettable story of a daredevil female aviator determined to chart her own course in life, at any cost: an â??epic tripâ??through Prohibition and World War II, from Montana to London to present-day Hollywoodâ??and youâ??ll relish every minuteâ?ť (People). After being rescued as infants from a sinking ocean liner in 1914, Marian and Jamie Graves are raised by their dissolute uncle in Missoula, Montana. Thereâ??after encountering a pair of barnstorming pilots passing through town in beat-up biplanesâ??Marian commences her lifelong love affair with flight. At fourteen she drops out of school and finds an unexpected and dangerous patron in a wealthy bootlegger who provides a plane and subsidizes her lessons, an arrangement that will haunt her for the rest of her life, even as it allows her to fulfill her destiny: circumnavigating the globe by flying over the North and South Poles. A century later, Hadley Baxter is cast to play Marian in a film that centers on Marian's disappearance in Antarctica. Vibrant, canny, disgusted with the claustrophobia of Hollywood, Hadley is eager to redefine herself after a romantic film franchise has imprisoned her in the grip of cult celebrity. Her immersion into the character of Marian unfolds, thrillingly, alongside Marian's own story, as the two women's fatesâ??and their hunger for self-determination in vastly different geographies and timesâ??collide. Epic and emotional, meticulously researched and gloriously told, Great Circle is a monumental work of art, and a tremendous leap forward for the prod… (more)
Media reviews
Shipstead [...] writes with precision on both macro and micro levels, bringing a sure-footed fluency to descriptions of landscape, potted highlights of aviation history and close-up details of people and places [...]
The start of Shipstead’s book — her third, after “Seating Arrangements” in 2012 and “Astonish Me” in 2014 — is thrilling and complicated, with many different threads laid out and back stories carefully and richly wrought; for the next 500-odd pages, I felt the fear I feel when a
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student’s work starts strong, when other novels open high — knowing that, more often than not, lofty heights can’t be sustained. But “Great Circle” starts high and maintains altitude. One might say it soars.... This is a book explicitly invested in sweep....this far-ranging breadth is as much the project of this novel as any of these individual lives — including all the ways each life exists within the context of so many others, the way the natural world informs and forms us, all the ways we are still only and particularly ourselves. Show Less
“Great Circle” is a relentlessly exciting story about a woman maneuvering her way between tradition and prejudice to get what she wants. It’s also a culturally rich story that takes full advantage of its extended length to explore the changing landscape of the 20th century.... Shipstead is
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particularly interested in the way attitudes about gender shape women’s expectations, desires and careers. Marian utterly rejects the gallant respect for her femininity, which she knows is just a pretty way of keeping her tethered and hooded like a tame falcon.... Shipstead has boldly complicated this gripping historical novel by weaving in a modern-day story set in Hollywood.... The extraordinary realism of Marian’s chapters can make the broad strokes of Hadley’s sections feel light in comparison....Though separated by decades, the aviator and the actress are both powerful women, rising from devastating tragedies to forge their own way. Show Less
Though the plotlines come second to the character development, “Great Circle” delves into the gamut of human experience, from romance to war to grief. That being said, there are some parts of this book that drag, and it is a novel that will take time and energy to fully delve into. Especially
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towards the beginning, where the reader is introduced to so many perspectives, it can be difficult to fully invest in the narrative without a clear understanding as to why each mini-story is important quite yet. Combined with the fact that the novel has a complex non-linear timeline, this story is not instantaneously engrossing, but it builds until it is difficult to put down....“Great Circle” is a novel about lofty ideals of truth, purpose, and connection across time and space, brought down to earth by a dynamic and complex cast of characters. If a reader is willing to give this novel the time it requires, the story’s universal appeal shines through. Show Less
The intertwined journeys of an aviatrix born in 1914 and an actress cast to play her a century later.... Shipstead reveals breathtaking range and skill, expertly juggling a multigenerational historical epic and a scandal-soaked Hollywood satire, with scenes playing out on land, at sea, and in the
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air....Ingeniously structured and so damn entertaining; this novel is as ambitious as its heroines—but it never falls from the sky. Show Less
User reviews
LibraryThing member Cariola
I expect to be in the minority, since buzz has it that Great Circle is THE book of the summer. I thought it was way too long and really dragged at times. Pages and pages and pages of technical descriptions of the pilot's controls, aviation maps, the mechanics of flying, the weather--all things I
I ended up giving Great Circle a generous 3 stars for the parts that interested me and for some of the side characters--Marian's twin brother Jamie and Caleb--but I feel that I wasted a lot of valuable reading time on this book. And that made me angry, tempting me to downgrade my rating to two stars, which I may still do.
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just didn't care about, and I found myself skipping long sections of the book. The author fell into the same pattern when Marian joined the female "airplane delivery" crew during World War II: too much boring detail. The fact that I found Marian a pretty unlikable character didn't help. Her story as a young girl was interesting, but then she turned into a selfish user. I guess that paralleled with Hadley's story, which was little more than a rehash of the demise of the Kristin Stewart/Robert Pattinson relationship. On the whole, I really didn't care what happened to either one of these women. I was so bored with this book at one point I put it aside and read something else ([The Sweetness of Water,] which was wonderful--and I read it in just a few days while it took me more than a month to plod through this one). When I got back to it, I just wanted [Great Circle] to be over, and I skimmed the last hundred pages or or so. That was enough for me. Zzzzzzzz.I ended up giving Great Circle a generous 3 stars for the parts that interested me and for some of the side characters--Marian's twin brother Jamie and Caleb--but I feel that I wasted a lot of valuable reading time on this book. And that made me angry, tempting me to downgrade my rating to two stars, which I may still do.
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LibraryThing member brenzi
"Our flight is in defiance of the sun and its daily traverse. Come west, the sun says. It tugs at us, runs off like a child trying to entice us to follow. But we must go north, leaving the light behind."
---Marian Graves
If you love a big book you can sink into and seldom come up for air; a book that
The fictional protagonist, Marian Graves, born in 1914 and shipwrecked as an infant along with her twin brother Jamie, longs to fly from her earliest days. Set in Missoula, Montana, Marian and Jamie are living with their uncle, an artist and alcoholic who seldom knows their whereabouts or what they're up to. She gets her start flying across the border into Canada, during Prohibition, for the local bootlegger. But like everything in the lives of women, it comes at a price and she soon finds that the mysterious and handsome man who can give her what she wants most, her own plane to fly, is also her worst enemy.
A century later, Hadley Baxter, a scandal-ridden Hollywood starlet, is picked to play Marian in the biopic of her life. It would seem that the two have little in common, but Hadley also lost her parents not at sea, but in a plane crash, and like Marian was brought up by a wayward uncle, a Hollywood producer, strung out on drugs. And Hadley suffers from some of the same barriers that Marian faced seventy years ago just brought up to date by social media.These two threads continue throughout the book and although I thought Marians story was more compelling the author managed to make the connections between the two characters work as the novel progressed.
The research that went into the novel was extensive as Shipstead combined the intertwining stories of the early female aviatrixes and came up with the idea that Marian would at some point in her life attempt to complete a longitudinal great circle around the planet, that would end tragically. But even at that, the author keeps you guessing.
This is a big, big book in so many ways. You might think 615 pages is too long but Shipstead needed every one of those pages to cover not only Marian's remarkable story, but the history that took place during that time. Not a word is wasted as we travel through Prohibition and the Depression, WWII POW camps and the women pilots gathered by (real life) Jackie Cochran, who were used to transfer planes from one location to another but never to fly planes in battle because, well, just because. It just wasn't done. The male pilots wouldn't like it. And finally the post-WWII years when Marian attempts her last flight. In the meantime, Shipstead covers gender identity, the use of artists to portray military life and battles, barn stormers in the early 20th century and more in order to to create a richly expansive story.
So real was Marian's character that at some point in the book I had to google her because I was sure she was a real character. All the characterizations are deep and rich and lively and felt so real to me they nearly jumped off the page. Top-notch historical fiction.
---Marian Graves
If you love a big book you can sink into and seldom come up for air; a book that
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makes you start rationing your reading time because you just don't want it to end; historical fiction that includes real historical figures by a writer that appears to be at the top of her game...well, this just might be the book for you.The fictional protagonist, Marian Graves, born in 1914 and shipwrecked as an infant along with her twin brother Jamie, longs to fly from her earliest days. Set in Missoula, Montana, Marian and Jamie are living with their uncle, an artist and alcoholic who seldom knows their whereabouts or what they're up to. She gets her start flying across the border into Canada, during Prohibition, for the local bootlegger. But like everything in the lives of women, it comes at a price and she soon finds that the mysterious and handsome man who can give her what she wants most, her own plane to fly, is also her worst enemy.
A century later, Hadley Baxter, a scandal-ridden Hollywood starlet, is picked to play Marian in the biopic of her life. It would seem that the two have little in common, but Hadley also lost her parents not at sea, but in a plane crash, and like Marian was brought up by a wayward uncle, a Hollywood producer, strung out on drugs. And Hadley suffers from some of the same barriers that Marian faced seventy years ago just brought up to date by social media.These two threads continue throughout the book and although I thought Marians story was more compelling the author managed to make the connections between the two characters work as the novel progressed.
The research that went into the novel was extensive as Shipstead combined the intertwining stories of the early female aviatrixes and came up with the idea that Marian would at some point in her life attempt to complete a longitudinal great circle around the planet, that would end tragically. But even at that, the author keeps you guessing.
This is a big, big book in so many ways. You might think 615 pages is too long but Shipstead needed every one of those pages to cover not only Marian's remarkable story, but the history that took place during that time. Not a word is wasted as we travel through Prohibition and the Depression, WWII POW camps and the women pilots gathered by (real life) Jackie Cochran, who were used to transfer planes from one location to another but never to fly planes in battle because, well, just because. It just wasn't done. The male pilots wouldn't like it. And finally the post-WWII years when Marian attempts her last flight. In the meantime, Shipstead covers gender identity, the use of artists to portray military life and battles, barn stormers in the early 20th century and more in order to to create a richly expansive story.
So real was Marian's character that at some point in the book I had to google her because I was sure she was a real character. All the characterizations are deep and rich and lively and felt so real to me they nearly jumped off the page. Top-notch historical fiction.
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LibraryThing member Narshkite
Anyone who reads a lot of my reviews will notice that as a general rule my 5-star reviews are often short. This will be no exception. The book is glorious. I can't see it being beaten for best of 2021. Shipstead takes on the old-fashioned epic novel, respects its boundaries, and still utterly
I don't think there is a question that Marian is the star of this story, but she is a secure enough character to cede a whole lot of time to a whole lot of characters. This generosity extends to characters in a dual and current timeline shared in first person by its leading lady, Hadley Baxter. Hadley is a young actress playing a significantly fictionalized version of Marian in a film. And Marian should be secure because no one, no matter how fully drawn, overshadows her. Not the violent abusive gangster Brady, the rugged nearly feral Caleb, the sensitive longing Jamie, the good and kind and brave and doomed characters that pop up all along the way. Marian is our north star, and we never forget it. I imagine Marian also relates to Hadley who is, 70 years later, also limited by the fact of being a woman. Both are held back by society's fear of being weakened by allure, a fear so strong that men and women turn venereration into a cage and reduce the alluring woman and her lagacy to the sum of her (actual and purported) romantic attachments.
Is the book too ambitious in its sweep? Maybe? But Shipstead makes it al work and the 600+ pages flew by. In fact I stopped about 30 pages before the final page (where Marian's story completes and Hadley's is just about to do so) and started reading something else because I did not want it to end.
One note: I got this in audio and ebook, and really enjoyed both. I got sick in the middle, and was light sensitive so listening worked best for a lot of this, and the reader is really great. When I was able to read though, I went for the text because the writing, at the sentence level, is astonishingly great, and I wanted to roll around and cover myself in that prose over and over again.
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recasts the form. It is masterful, and also just a freaking great story filled with fascinating characters that are so fully drawn it often feels as if they are sitting beside you watching you read.I don't think there is a question that Marian is the star of this story, but she is a secure enough character to cede a whole lot of time to a whole lot of characters. This generosity extends to characters in a dual and current timeline shared in first person by its leading lady, Hadley Baxter. Hadley is a young actress playing a significantly fictionalized version of Marian in a film. And Marian should be secure because no one, no matter how fully drawn, overshadows her. Not the violent abusive gangster Brady, the rugged nearly feral Caleb, the sensitive longing Jamie, the good and kind and brave and doomed characters that pop up all along the way. Marian is our north star, and we never forget it. I imagine Marian also relates to Hadley who is, 70 years later, also limited by the fact of being a woman. Both are held back by society's fear of being weakened by allure, a fear so strong that men and women turn venereration into a cage and reduce the alluring woman and her lagacy to the sum of her (actual and purported) romantic attachments.
Is the book too ambitious in its sweep? Maybe? But Shipstead makes it al work and the 600+ pages flew by. In fact I stopped about 30 pages before the final page (where Marian's story completes and Hadley's is just about to do so) and started reading something else because I did not want it to end.
One note: I got this in audio and ebook, and really enjoyed both. I got sick in the middle, and was light sensitive so listening worked best for a lot of this, and the reader is really great. When I was able to read though, I went for the text because the writing, at the sentence level, is astonishingly great, and I wanted to roll around and cover myself in that prose over and over again.
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LibraryThing member AlisonY
This is a hefty novel (and a heavy one at that in hardback), so I'm physically glad to finish it but very glad I read it.
Despite being a Booker prize short-listed novel, this was never a book that was going to win, but that doesn't mean it's not a hugely rewarding novel to read nonetheless. Its
Centred around the fictional pilot Marian Graves, whilst her flying story is important the real story is one stemming from childhood loss and a difficulty with accepting love and finding a place in the world. The characters are well drawn out, as is the historical, geographical and aviation detail, all of which was well balanced and served to bring the story to life rather than getting bogged down with unnecessary researched detail (I've read too many books where the author can't drop all the research he or she has painstakingly accumulated).
Whilst Marian is the narrator for much of the book, around 20% of it swaps to the perspective of a modern day Hollywood actress playing Marian in a new film. I can see what Shipstead was trying to do with this, using it as a narrative device to include perspectives that would have been impossible through only Marian's perspective, but I'm not entirely sure it was necessary. These sections seemed a distraction from the main narrative and a bit of a cliché storyline (screwed up rich actress, etc.). 150 pages could probably have been saved by getting rid of this, bringing the novel to a more manageable size.
I'm torn on my review for this. By the end I was closer to 4.5 stars, but somewhere in the middle the end seemed exhaustingly far away so I'll be a little mean spirited and give it 4.
4 stars - an enjoyable sweeping epic that just needs a bit of clipping here and there.
Despite being a Booker prize short-listed novel, this was never a book that was going to win, but that doesn't mean it's not a hugely rewarding novel to read nonetheless. Its
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subject matter and style is too pedestrian for what the Booker looks for (rightly or wrongly), but it's an immensely readable epic spanning from 1914 to present day.Centred around the fictional pilot Marian Graves, whilst her flying story is important the real story is one stemming from childhood loss and a difficulty with accepting love and finding a place in the world. The characters are well drawn out, as is the historical, geographical and aviation detail, all of which was well balanced and served to bring the story to life rather than getting bogged down with unnecessary researched detail (I've read too many books where the author can't drop all the research he or she has painstakingly accumulated).
Whilst Marian is the narrator for much of the book, around 20% of it swaps to the perspective of a modern day Hollywood actress playing Marian in a new film. I can see what Shipstead was trying to do with this, using it as a narrative device to include perspectives that would have been impossible through only Marian's perspective, but I'm not entirely sure it was necessary. These sections seemed a distraction from the main narrative and a bit of a cliché storyline (screwed up rich actress, etc.). 150 pages could probably have been saved by getting rid of this, bringing the novel to a more manageable size.
I'm torn on my review for this. By the end I was closer to 4.5 stars, but somewhere in the middle the end seemed exhaustingly far away so I'll be a little mean spirited and give it 4.
4 stars - an enjoyable sweeping epic that just needs a bit of clipping here and there.
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LibraryThing member jetangen4571
If you're into soap operas, you'll ADORE this rather long fiction book. But for me it was a great slog. Could have been two or three good books, but I admit to getting bored with all the extraneous (and meaningless) sleeping around by anybody and everybody. Sometimes it was hard to keep track of
I requested and received a free temporary ebook copy from Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group via NetGalley.
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the plot because of the seesawing between early twentieth and twenty-first centuries. It wasn't my thing, but lots of others really enjoyed it.I requested and received a free temporary ebook copy from Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group via NetGalley.
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LibraryThing member Gwendydd
I got about 20% in and gave up.
The book has two storylines: one follows an early-twentieth century aviatrix, starting from her parents relationship and covering her entire lifetime. The other storyline is about a modern-day actress who plays her in a movie.
I found the historical storyline fairly
I just couldn't get into either storyline enough to continue reading.
The book has two storylines: one follows an early-twentieth century aviatrix, starting from her parents relationship and covering her entire lifetime. The other storyline is about a modern-day actress who plays her in a movie.
I found the historical storyline fairly
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interesting, but also very meandering. I did not like the modern-day storyline - I found the actress very annoying. I just couldn't get into either storyline enough to continue reading.
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LibraryThing member almin
would not recommend....excessively long and alternate story plot didn't work. A lot of rambling narrative, too many characters, back and forth timeline.
LibraryThing member rosalita
In the early part of the 20th century, a pioneering female aviator sets off to circumnavigate the globe along a Great Circle — that is to say, longitudinally over the North and South poles, rather than latitudinally in the way of Amelia Earhart. We follow Marian Graves' story from before her
Meanwhile in present-day Hollywood, a former child actor and star of a fantasy movie franchise that seems like a cross between Twilight and Buffy the Vampire Slayer is looking for a way to resurrect her career after romantic scandal. Hadley Baxter sets her sights on becoming a "serious" actor by starring as Marian in a new biopic. But can Hadley's immersion into the character of Marian — a woman who fought her own self-destructive demons — save her from her own impulsive lurches toward self-sabotage?
I can understand why the author chose a dual timeline format — there needed to be a mechanism to reveal things about Marian's final journey that were not in the public record. But as is too often the case with such narrative structures, one timeline is much more compelling and interesting than the other.
Marian Graves, her family and friends, and the entire setting of her 20th century life felt so much more vivid and real than the familiar contemporary Hollywood narrative full of backbiting, paparazzi and sleazy tabloids. It was disconcerting to leave Marian's world for the occasional breezy foray into Hadley's. I cared about one character very much, and about the other hardly at all. And that was true all the way through the respective endings of each woman's story, as I found Marian's to be surprising but satisfying and Hadley's to be unremarkable and inconclusive.
In the end, this was half of a great book dragged down by unwelcome interludes of tawdry Hollywood gossip. If I had to read it again I'd skip the modern-day segments and just focus on Marian's story. I suspect it would gain at least a star in my rating.
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birth through her unconventional upbringing in Montana, where she first is captivated by the prospect of learning to fly, through a complicated adult life that eventually leads her on her final quest.Meanwhile in present-day Hollywood, a former child actor and star of a fantasy movie franchise that seems like a cross between Twilight and Buffy the Vampire Slayer is looking for a way to resurrect her career after romantic scandal. Hadley Baxter sets her sights on becoming a "serious" actor by starring as Marian in a new biopic. But can Hadley's immersion into the character of Marian — a woman who fought her own self-destructive demons — save her from her own impulsive lurches toward self-sabotage?
I can understand why the author chose a dual timeline format — there needed to be a mechanism to reveal things about Marian's final journey that were not in the public record. But as is too often the case with such narrative structures, one timeline is much more compelling and interesting than the other.
Marian Graves, her family and friends, and the entire setting of her 20th century life felt so much more vivid and real than the familiar contemporary Hollywood narrative full of backbiting, paparazzi and sleazy tabloids. It was disconcerting to leave Marian's world for the occasional breezy foray into Hadley's. I cared about one character very much, and about the other hardly at all. And that was true all the way through the respective endings of each woman's story, as I found Marian's to be surprising but satisfying and Hadley's to be unremarkable and inconclusive.
In the end, this was half of a great book dragged down by unwelcome interludes of tawdry Hollywood gossip. If I had to read it again I'd skip the modern-day segments and just focus on Marian's story. I suspect it would gain at least a star in my rating.
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LibraryThing member Bruyere_C
It got returned to the library about halfway through, and I had been losing patience (the era of Barclay, another selfish, abusive man who claims his cruelty is passion), but I am so glad I returned to it--the end is beautiful and thrilling.
LibraryThing member msf59
This big, sprawling novel, begins on a doomed ocean-liner in 1914 and ends in both Antarctica and New Zealand, sometime in the 1950s. It mainly focuses on Marian Graves and her twin brother Jamie, raised by their bachelor uncle in rural Montana. Marian has an early fascination with flight and
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begins taking lessons as a teenager. She soon becomes an ace pilot, running bootleg liquor. This is just the tiny tip of the iceberg of this story, as it also follows her through WWII, as a member of a female flying brigade and her life beyond, including friendships, romances and lots of adventure. This is a beefy read, but Shipstead is a fine writer and a gifted storyteller, so it pulls the reader along. Her research skills are immense too, which I found impressive. This was my first book by her and now I want to read her earlier work. Show Less
LibraryThing member nivramkoorb
This is the latest book by Maggie Shipstead. I have read and liked her previous 2 novels, but this one is so different and ambitious and that alone impressed me. The book is almost 600 pages and deals with dual main characters. There is Marian Graves who is a pioneer in women's aviation and Hadley
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a present day actress who plays her in the movie. The books shows a tremendous amount of research and deals with so many issues of discrimination of women etc but it is done in a way that keeps the book interesting. Any book that is 600 pages is probaby one that can use some editing. This is no exception but this a worthwhile read. Too many side stories to include in this review but if you have the patience this is an excellent book by a very good writer. Show Less
LibraryThing member rmarcin
Epic novel about aviator Marian Graves and her attempt to circumnavigate the poles. When she and her twin brother, Jamie, are rescued from a sinking ship and sent to live with their uncle in MT, they don’t know what the world holds for them. Told from 1914-2015, the novel follows the Graves twins
Interesting way to tell the novel, with uneven timelines and blurry relationships. Enjoyable. U
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lives, their many relationships, dreams, successes and failures, and also the making of a film about Marian and her failed flight. A young actress, Hadley, with a checkered past is cast as the lead, and strives to find out the real story. Interesting way to tell the novel, with uneven timelines and blurry relationships. Enjoyable. U
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LibraryThing member nancyadair
As a reader I am inspired by stories that set my imagination afire, bring chills to my spine, tears to my eyes, and comfort in this baffling world. Great Circle is that kind of novel.
As a genealogist, I am fascinated by the hidden stories of my ancestors. I can never learn enough to fully flesh
Life throws us into despair--all of us. We give in and give up, or we resist and struggle to the surface of the water, take another breath, and reinvent our life in the after-world. Sometimes there is freedom in reinvention. Sometimes it saves us.
Great Circle is one of those massive reads that sweep us across time and history, a long journey into character's entire lives. They are orphaned or neglected and unprotected by unreliable adults, and make their way as best they can. They lose loves and are loved by monsters. Dreams are fragile and come with a cost. Again and again, they must reinvent a life with a new name or in a new place or with a new love or the end of a love.
First, there is the story of orphans Marian Graves and her brother Jamie who run wild with neighbor boy Caleb, their adult caretakers unreliable. When barnstormers pass through, Marian becomes obsessed with the idea of flying. Caleb cuts her hair so she can pass as a boy to earn money towards flying lessons by secret moonshine deliveries.
Barclay was a criminal, and he was rich, and he was used to getting what he wanted. And he wanted Marian from the first time he saw her as a girl. She entered into a dreadful bargain: he would pay for her flying lessons, and she understood the unspoken agreement that someday she would be his.
Trapped into an abusive and controlling marriage, Marian escapes, disappears into Alaska, reinventing herself as a bush pilot. When WWII broke out, she volunteers for the British Air Transport Auxiliary, ferrying warplanes. She meets Ruth, who becomes her great love, and Ruth's gay husband Eddie. But it is Caleb she still turns to when broken.
After the war with its many losses, Marian is offered financing to fund her dream of flying around the world, pole to pole, she only trusts Eddie to be her navigator. After Antarctica, they are believed to have been lost at sea.
Then there is Hadley, also an orphan and abused by her uncle, who became a beloved child actress, and has a breakdown at age 20. Now, she has a change to reinvent herself in a movie about Marian's life, based on the journal Marian left behind at Antarctica before she disappeared.
Hadley goes on a quest to learn about Marian, discovering the truth of what happened on that great circle trip from pole to pole.
Marian's story gives Hadley a sense of freedom and control. And, and it can free us, too, showing us how to live with courage even in the darkest of times. How we must know what we want, and to always work for our dreams.
This past year has been a horror show of death and fear of death, political clashes and unimaginable chaos, outbreaks of hate and violence. We know full well the disappointments and pain of this world.
A story can help us to heal. To know we are not alone, that there is a way to get through the hell and live into a moment of joy and moments of grace that can be enough to live on. This is the gift of literature.
I received a free ebook from the publisher through NetGalley. My review is fair and unbiased.
As a genealogist, I am fascinated by the hidden stories of my ancestors. I can never learn enough to fully flesh
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out the details of their lives. What it was like to leave their homes and reinvent themselves in a new land? What lead to the seduction that left them unmarried mothers? How did they face the devastation of a child drowning in the canal they had to pass every day? I only know that they survived, for a while, and then they died, taking their secrets with them. As someday, I will, too.Life throws us into despair--all of us. We give in and give up, or we resist and struggle to the surface of the water, take another breath, and reinvent our life in the after-world. Sometimes there is freedom in reinvention. Sometimes it saves us.
Great Circle is one of those massive reads that sweep us across time and history, a long journey into character's entire lives. They are orphaned or neglected and unprotected by unreliable adults, and make their way as best they can. They lose loves and are loved by monsters. Dreams are fragile and come with a cost. Again and again, they must reinvent a life with a new name or in a new place or with a new love or the end of a love.
First, there is the story of orphans Marian Graves and her brother Jamie who run wild with neighbor boy Caleb, their adult caretakers unreliable. When barnstormers pass through, Marian becomes obsessed with the idea of flying. Caleb cuts her hair so she can pass as a boy to earn money towards flying lessons by secret moonshine deliveries.
Barclay was a criminal, and he was rich, and he was used to getting what he wanted. And he wanted Marian from the first time he saw her as a girl. She entered into a dreadful bargain: he would pay for her flying lessons, and she understood the unspoken agreement that someday she would be his.
Trapped into an abusive and controlling marriage, Marian escapes, disappears into Alaska, reinventing herself as a bush pilot. When WWII broke out, she volunteers for the British Air Transport Auxiliary, ferrying warplanes. She meets Ruth, who becomes her great love, and Ruth's gay husband Eddie. But it is Caleb she still turns to when broken.
After the war with its many losses, Marian is offered financing to fund her dream of flying around the world, pole to pole, she only trusts Eddie to be her navigator. After Antarctica, they are believed to have been lost at sea.
Then there is Hadley, also an orphan and abused by her uncle, who became a beloved child actress, and has a breakdown at age 20. Now, she has a change to reinvent herself in a movie about Marian's life, based on the journal Marian left behind at Antarctica before she disappeared.
Hadley goes on a quest to learn about Marian, discovering the truth of what happened on that great circle trip from pole to pole.
Marian's story gives Hadley a sense of freedom and control. And, and it can free us, too, showing us how to live with courage even in the darkest of times. How we must know what we want, and to always work for our dreams.
This past year has been a horror show of death and fear of death, political clashes and unimaginable chaos, outbreaks of hate and violence. We know full well the disappointments and pain of this world.
A story can help us to heal. To know we are not alone, that there is a way to get through the hell and live into a moment of joy and moments of grace that can be enough to live on. This is the gift of literature.
I received a free ebook from the publisher through NetGalley. My review is fair and unbiased.
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LibraryThing member martinhughharvey
Epic and engaging.
LibraryThing member alexrichman
I would be pressing this into everyone's hands if it weren't so damn long. So enjoyable, from the seafaring to the feral childhoods to the Kristen Stewart-style self-destructive starlet sections. I don't doubt that in years to come I'll still think of Marian Graves as a pioneering pilot, even
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though she's not real. Show Less
LibraryThing member Beth.Clarke
I really liked this book, but I probably would have loved it if it were 200 less pages. I wasn't sure which characters I needed to keep track of - there were so many introduced the opening chapters. Turns out, I only needed to really know about 4. Even with all of the extraneous content, I very
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much enjoyed the main story of Marian Graves, a brave female pilot. Much of the story takes place in the Pacific Northwest which I love. I'd like to find out which parts are true. The ending was quite surprising. Show Less
LibraryThing member muddyboy
This is the epic story about a pair of twins and at a later time a woman to portray the female twin in a movie. The movie will be about the female twins life as she attempts to be the first woman pilot to circumnavigate the globe vertically not East to West. The book also tells the tale of her twin
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brother and additionally her many relationships over the years. The book is well over five hundred pages but moves along at a brisk pace and kept my interest. Show Less
LibraryThing member kayanelson
I did like this book, the story of Marian Graves, a fictional woman pilot. But it didn’t need to be 600 pages long. I liked how the story jumped between time periods and how well developed all the characters and plot points were. But some of the minor plot points could have been shortened to
It was a good historical saga, I liked how the author used a more traditional style for the book.
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shorten the book. It was a good historical saga, I liked how the author used a more traditional style for the book.
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LibraryThing member shazjhb
Multiple people, multiple time periods, multiple plots. It is also very long. However, it is an amazing book filled with nuance and drama. Her other books have also been excellent but this was amazing. A good read for a long plane ride.
LibraryThing member meltonmarty
Certainly readable, but also way too long. Beautifully written in places, and then written stifle. like a report in others. The main character, Marian, is well developed and her story of adventure is a good one, but there are far too many other stories to sift through. They don't seem to add to the
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story or help understand Marian's choices. As others have said, there are probably 2-3 other good stories within this book. They just should not have been lumped in with Marian's story. Show Less
LibraryThing member BornAnalog
One of the best books I have read in a good long while. It manages to pull off a really difficult trick for a novel: in every sense of the word this is an epic story that spans a lot of years and some pivotal events in world history, yet at the same time it always feels like a close and intimate
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story. Or rather two stories in because of its focus on two women in different time periods. As some other reviewers have noted, it is very difficult to accept that the central character is completely fictitious, so thoroughly does she seem to embody the life of pioneering women aviators. Yet she is also never reduced to a type, a cobbled together assemblage of pieces of Earhart, Batten, etc. She is a fully realized character with her own demons, failings, strengths, and motivations (many of which are credibly obscure even to herself). There were places where I was all set to nitpick the aviation history, given that I'm a bit of a plane geek, only to learn that I'm probably not as good a geek as Shipstead clearly became in writing this! I can see some people perhaps feeling unsatisfied by the present-day narrative, which seems by comparison to be thin, and purposeless. But that is a big part of the point here: that Marian Graves, with nothing like the feminist advantages of the present day Hadley Baxter, lived a life full of purpose and drive and accomplishment in which she touched other people. And yet this is not a paean to the past, because the cost was considerable. By contrast, all Baxter has for much of the novel are costs, or rather bills coming due. Show Less
LibraryThing member albertgoldfain
Covers many locations and datelines, but fundamentally character-driven, through big backgrounded historical set pieces and foregrounded relationships. Loved the aviation details.
LibraryThing member Penny_L
Do not be daunted by the page count of this book. This phenomenal story needs all of them! Wow!
The timeline alternates between Marian's intriguing and adventurous life, and the actress chosen to portray her in a current day film.
The story flows with a moderate paced ease while the expertly fleshed
The time period, politics and world events are well researched and so wonderfully crafted into Maria's story it's hard to believe this is fiction. I particularly liked the intertwining of the modern day actress uncovering of the missing pieces of Marian's story as she was researching her role. It really pulled the entire plot together making this book a spectacular read. I highly recommend!
*Thank you Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, Maggie Shipstead, and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this fantastic book in exchange for my honest review.
The timeline alternates between Marian's intriguing and adventurous life, and the actress chosen to portray her in a current day film.
The story flows with a moderate paced ease while the expertly fleshed
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out characters and amazing details kept me spellbound for hours. Covering fifty years of changes in history, travel, loss, war, love - this book is a sweeping lifetime adventure. The time period, politics and world events are well researched and so wonderfully crafted into Maria's story it's hard to believe this is fiction. I particularly liked the intertwining of the modern day actress uncovering of the missing pieces of Marian's story as she was researching her role. It really pulled the entire plot together making this book a spectacular read. I highly recommend!
*Thank you Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, Maggie Shipstead, and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this fantastic book in exchange for my honest review.
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LibraryThing member janismack
I could not finish this book. The story was progressing too slowly and the characters not compelling enough.
LibraryThing member suesbooks
I read the hard cover copy of this book and was disappointed by the frequent repetition of the events. Marian Graves was an interesting character, unlike the other main character, Hadley, an actor. There were many characters, and I cared about many, but did not enjoy the frequent presentation of
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the same events. I liked many statements the other made and many of her descriptions. I also appreciated her analogies and metaphors. Marian was not always a reliable narrator, so it was difficult to know what was truly said. Show Less
Awards
Booker Prize (Longlist — 2021)
Women's Prize for Fiction (Longlist — 2022)
Commonwealth Club of California Book Awards (Finalist — Fiction — 2022)
Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence in Fiction and Nonfiction (Longlist — Fiction — 2022)
BookTube Prize (Bronze — Fiction — 2022)
HWA Crown Awards (Longlist — Gold — 2022)
NPR: Books We Love (2021)
Boston Globe Best Book (2021)
Kirkus Reviews Best Book of the Year (Historical Fiction — 2021)
Read with Jenna (2021-05 — 2021)
Indie Next List ([2021])
Time Magazine's Best Books of the Year (Fiction — 2021)
Lariat Adult Fiction Reading List (Selection — 2022)
Chicago Public Library Best of the Best: Adults (Selection — 2021)
ISBN
0525656979 / 9780525656975
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