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stuckinthebook 's review for:
Great Circle
by Maggie Shipstead
Spanning Prohibition-era Montana, the Pacific Northwest, Alaska, New Zealand, wartime London, and modern-day Los Angeles, Great Circle tells the unforgettable story of a daredevil female aviator determined to chart her own course in life, at any cost.
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. There—after encountering a pair of barnstorming pilots passing through town in beat-up biplanes—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 fulfil 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 centres on Marian's disappearance in Antarctica. Vibrant, canny, and 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 fates—and their hunger for self-determination in vastly different geographies and times—collide.
This is a long book. At over 600 pages, it’s not only the longest book I’ve read all year, it’s probably the longest book I’ve ever read. And because of its size, I was a little apprehensive about how long it would take me to finish it. Yet I’d say that the length of the chapters were small enough that I could easily read a few chapters every night, and the story was so encapsulating that when I sat down to read it, I would want to keep reading.
I would definitely say though that I found the narrative to be very jumpy and by the end I had got used to the changes in narrative and time period, but to begin with, I was so confused and I think if I hadn’t been so determined to persevere, I would have probably DNF’d. I also didn’t realise that the ‘famous’ pilot Marian Graves is in fact not a real person! It was written so well that I had to actually google ‘Marian Graves’ to double-check. The research that Maggie Shipstead must have done to create the story and all its twists and turns really paid off because the story was so believable and so inspirational, I really badly wanted her to be real.
Even though it is over 600 pages, I think what I love the most about long books like this is that you end up spending so much time getting to know each character, warts and all. Even when you put the book down, you're thinking about them. Marian was completely that for me. Every time I put the book down, I was thinking about her and everything she had to deal with. From a controlling overprotective older husband and an unreliable and gambling addict for an uncle/guardian, to numerous barriers to true happiness because of the sexist social constructs that existed at the time, everything that Marian experienced stayed with me long after putting the book down. And I think that’s the best thing about reading a long book…
Well actually it isn’t just Marian that this book is about. The book actually follows two different characters; Marian and Hadley - a famous actress who has been known for playing the love interest in a popular, cult film! Yet, I found myself much more interested in the Marian Graves story rather than Hadley’s who was playing Marian in a new film about her life. I found Hadley’s narrative quite boring and a bit ‘samey’ but I understood the importance of her narrative in the whole scale of things.
Honestly, I did struggle with the book at times. I did find myself reluctant to pick it up but when I did sit down to read it, I would completely lose myself in the story. I can't even imagine the research and the effort that went into making this book because every single character and element of the story was so well thought out and it all beautifully ended up tying up together in the end like one big great circle. Oh wait…
READ THIS IF:
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. There—after encountering a pair of barnstorming pilots passing through town in beat-up biplanes—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 fulfil 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 centres on Marian's disappearance in Antarctica. Vibrant, canny, and 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 fates—and their hunger for self-determination in vastly different geographies and times—collide.
This is a long book. At over 600 pages, it’s not only the longest book I’ve read all year, it’s probably the longest book I’ve ever read. And because of its size, I was a little apprehensive about how long it would take me to finish it. Yet I’d say that the length of the chapters were small enough that I could easily read a few chapters every night, and the story was so encapsulating that when I sat down to read it, I would want to keep reading.
I would definitely say though that I found the narrative to be very jumpy and by the end I had got used to the changes in narrative and time period, but to begin with, I was so confused and I think if I hadn’t been so determined to persevere, I would have probably DNF’d. I also didn’t realise that the ‘famous’ pilot Marian Graves is in fact not a real person! It was written so well that I had to actually google ‘Marian Graves’ to double-check. The research that Maggie Shipstead must have done to create the story and all its twists and turns really paid off because the story was so believable and so inspirational, I really badly wanted her to be real.
Even though it is over 600 pages, I think what I love the most about long books like this is that you end up spending so much time getting to know each character, warts and all. Even when you put the book down, you're thinking about them. Marian was completely that for me. Every time I put the book down, I was thinking about her and everything she had to deal with. From a controlling overprotective older husband and an unreliable and gambling addict for an uncle/guardian, to numerous barriers to true happiness because of the sexist social constructs that existed at the time, everything that Marian experienced stayed with me long after putting the book down. And I think that’s the best thing about reading a long book…
Well actually it isn’t just Marian that this book is about. The book actually follows two different characters; Marian and Hadley - a famous actress who has been known for playing the love interest in a popular, cult film! Yet, I found myself much more interested in the Marian Graves story rather than Hadley’s who was playing Marian in a new film about her life. I found Hadley’s narrative quite boring and a bit ‘samey’ but I understood the importance of her narrative in the whole scale of things.
Honestly, I did struggle with the book at times. I did find myself reluctant to pick it up but when I did sit down to read it, I would completely lose myself in the story. I can't even imagine the research and the effort that went into making this book because every single character and element of the story was so well thought out and it all beautifully ended up tying up together in the end like one big great circle. Oh wait…
READ THIS IF: