Great Circle

A high flyer

Few books reach this altitude. I reveled in its characters and drew the warm blanket of its lavish world around me, day after night. Shipstead has written a book whose equal might only be Lonesome Dove. As that classic's love is to men, this one adores its women. Read this and savor the creation of a story that encircles all of our doubts and dreams. Yes, you can do something this grand, if you set a course for majestic points.

This book was good and I enjoyed it, but it also wasn't quite what I was expecting. I went into it expecting a lot of adventure, and the adventure was more in bits and pieces in between more family/friend/relationship content. I also had no idea that there would be so much sex and lust in this book! I don't have a problem with sex and lust, but I just didn't expect it. Lust, though, becomes a theme throughout the entire book: lust both for other humans and for what you really want in life.

Marian's story was very well done. I felt like a really knew her as a character, understood her motives, and rooted for her throughout the book. Her life story was super interesting and fun to read.

Hadley, on the other hand...wasn't my favorite. I've read some other reviews of this book and have seen that there are quite a few others who feel the same. I just didn't think this book needed her side of things to be great. Marian's story was so compelling, so unique, and so exciting, and Hadley's was just not. I mean, it was okay, but it just felt unnecessary. In fact, the further on I got in the book, I felt like I was racing through Hadley's parts to get back to Marian's. At 600+ pages, I think Hadley's part of the story just didn't need to be there.

I also enjoyed the mystery portion of this book. You kind of know how it's going to end, but you're not exactly sure, and then as the book goes on, you get these clues that the end you thought was coming might actually not be coming. I loved the way Shipstead weaved that in there!

Read my full review: https://literaryquicksand.com/2021/11/review-great-circle-by-maggie-shipstead/

Book-club read [UoG]:
Enjoyed Marian and her story, could have done without Hadley. There was a lot going on, lots of side-plots and characters. Sometimes the most interesting things were buried under yet another pairing. Too many coincidences, makes it quite unbelievable fiction despite being based on so much fact.
In the end I'm not sure we needed to know, I'm quite sure Hadley didn't deserve to.

3.5 stars

An unforgettable saga of a story, primarily centered around a female aviator Marian Graves, who we follow from her incredible birth and the loss of her parents aboard a sinking luxury liner during the Great War to a remote Montana ranch where she's raised by her eccentric uncle alongside her twin brother. A chance encounter with barn-storming stunt pilots ignites her life-long passion for flying, and we are off on her grand adventures, following along as she takes chances, married and leaves her abusive husband, and eventually pushes to become the first pilot to circumvent the globe by flying over the North and South Poles.
A story in the present is interspersed with Marian's narrative – a young up-and-coming star (think Kristen Stewart right after the Twilight movies) gets the role of a life-time when she's hired to play Marian in a new film. While her story is less interesting, it provides a context with Marian's and was well-written and insightful.
But it's Marian we want to follow, and follow we do, through a life lived at full throttle, full of triumphs and losses, but always with an eye toward the sky and the freedom it offers.