Take a photo of a barcode or cover
sarakomo 's review for:
Great Circle
by Maggie Shipstead
2021: A big, sweeping story, epic in scale, but didn't quite have the final emotional punch that I was looking for.
This novel jumps all around to start (and continues to change location and time rather sporadically throughout) and its handing off of the story between generations was very reminiscent of [b:Pachinko|34051011|Pachinko|Min Jin Lee|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1529845599l/34051011._SY75_.jpg|50384116] at the beginning. The novel ends up focusing on two women: Marian Graves, a female pilot who fought in WWII, and Hadley Baxter, the actress who is playing Marian in a 2015 movie about her. The narration switches unevenly between the two, and I really wish we had stayed with Marian the entire time. Hadley is a mess of a person and a mess of a narrator, and her drug induced fantasies were such a distraction from Marian's adventures. #TeamMarian
The only good thing to come from Hadley's narration is the discovery of what happened after Marian's death, and this definitely could have been achieved without Hadley's entire storyline. I also didn't love that we went into Eddie's narration for a bit - he was such a minor character, compared to Caleb or even Ruth! I loved following Jamie around (mostly because he went to Seattle) but it was really Marian who I wanted to hear about. #FlyMarianFly
Thank God Shipstead included very clear "two months since the last time we saw Jamie" in addition to the dates whenever she shifted narrators, because otherwise I would have really struggled listening to this book. Shipstead explains the concept of a "Great Circle" at the very beginning of the book, and it's clear she's trying to make her novel great as well. Ultimately, there were too many distractions for me, too many subplots and side stories, that paled in comparison to whatever Marian was up to. #MarianOrBust
Final note: this was not the best example of how to handle a character in the early 1900's being gay or bi, while looking at it through a modern lens. Sure, there's the defense of "no one talked about things like that in those days", but this book is ONLY going to be read in 2021 and beyond - it should reflect that.
This novel jumps all around to start (and continues to change location and time rather sporadically throughout) and its handing off of the story between generations was very reminiscent of [b:Pachinko|34051011|Pachinko|Min Jin Lee|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1529845599l/34051011._SY75_.jpg|50384116] at the beginning. The novel ends up focusing on two women: Marian Graves, a female pilot who fought in WWII, and Hadley Baxter, the actress who is playing Marian in a 2015 movie about her. The narration switches unevenly between the two, and I really wish we had stayed with Marian the entire time. Hadley is a mess of a person and a mess of a narrator, and her drug induced fantasies were such a distraction from Marian's adventures. #TeamMarian
The only good thing to come from Hadley's narration is the discovery of what happened after Marian's death, and this definitely could have been achieved without Hadley's entire storyline. I also didn't love that we went into Eddie's narration for a bit - he was such a minor character, compared to Caleb or even Ruth! I loved following Jamie around (mostly because he went to Seattle) but it was really Marian who I wanted to hear about. #FlyMarianFly
Thank God Shipstead included very clear "two months since the last time we saw Jamie" in addition to the dates whenever she shifted narrators, because otherwise I would have really struggled listening to this book. Shipstead explains the concept of a "Great Circle" at the very beginning of the book, and it's clear she's trying to make her novel great as well. Ultimately, there were too many distractions for me, too many subplots and side stories, that paled in comparison to whatever Marian was up to. #MarianOrBust
Final note: this was not the best example of how to handle a character in the early 1900's being gay or bi, while looking at it through a modern lens. Sure, there's the defense of "no one talked about things like that in those days", but this book is ONLY going to be read in 2021 and beyond - it should reflect that.