Great Circle – Maggie Shipstead
100-Word (or Less) Synopsis: [adapted from the dustjacket] 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. After encountering a pair of barnstorming pilots passing through town in beat-up biplanes, Marian commences her lifelong love affair with flight. A century later, Hadley Baxter is cast to play Marian in a film that centers on Marian's disappearance in Antarctica.
Expectation: An historical fiction epic focusing on the early days of aviation.
Reality: Heavy on scope and scale, light on focus. It’s mostly enjoyable but also didn’t need to be 600+ pages.
Recommended For: FOMO readers.
Why I Read It: It came highly recommended from two people whose opinions I value.
My Take:
When I struggle to write a review, it’s because I’m not being authentic to my true feelings on a story. I started writing and re-writing my thoughts on “Great Circle” multiple times, because I kept trying to convince myself I liked this book more than I did.
It has all the hallmarks of an instant classic — cross-generational, interconnected storytelling; multiple well-drawn protagonists; and placing our characters at the center of world-changing events — so I’m disappointed to say that my initial reaction was a solid good, not great.
After processing it for a few days, I’m still leaning more into positive than negative territory, but given the time investment required for longer books, I still can’t say this one is 100 percent worth the effort. While there were elements of the story I liked, specifically the beginning and end, two sections alone cannot sustain a 600-page opus.
Often, I felt Maggie Shipstead seemed more interested in trying to wow the reader with scope rather than deliver a focused, cohesive story — a necessity when you’re spanning a century and dozens of major and minor characters.
She is a talented writer and researcher — there’s no questioning that — and how she weaved fact and fiction together into a quasi-mystery is no small feat. I also appreciated the lengths she went to understand the early days of aviation and insert our characters into well-known historical events.
But she delivered inconsistently.
She gives our main characters — the Graves twins, Marian and Jamie, and Hadley, the actress playing Marian in a Hollywood film — rich and layered internal monologues, yet their dialogue with other characters comes across as perfunctory.
This is a problem when the story is largely driven by events or situations, say World War II or flying a plane, and trying to humanize our leads through their interactions with others.
I didn’t buy Marian’s romantic relationships, and in fact I disliked all her paramours, especially Caleb. The venturing into queer territory also seemed pandering and not authentic. Yes, sexuality is fluid, but Shipstead either needed to go all in or leave this subplot out.
Then there is Hadley who really serves no other purpose than to help uncover the mystery of Marian’s disappearance. The amount of time spent on her own drama effectively killed the plot’s momentum anytime she was featured.
Jamie ended up having one of the most affecting and devastating arcs, but he’s a miserable sod the first half of the novel, and I couldn’t tell for the longest time whether Shipstead was trying to make him a main or ancillary character.
There are several maybe important(?) characters in the “Great Circle,” and it becomes exhausting trying to remember who’s who:
Marian and Jamie’s parents are featured prominently for several chapters – among the strongest in the novel - and then are gone.
Eddie seems completely inconsequential to Marian’s life and then becomes the linchpin to her undoing.
Caleb and Sarah float in and out seemingly to create turmoil so it’s unbelievable Marian and Jamie would love them.
There are bootleggers, prostitutes, flight instructors, boarding house proprietors and assorted benefactors that Shipstead makes you care about before having them ride off into the sunset with nary another word. True to life? Maybe, but still frustrating.
Did we really need to care about anyone in Hadley’s orbit? Again, why was she even in this book?
I’m convinced that if “Great Circle” was about 200-pages shorter, effectively cutting out everything with Hadley, stripping several subplots and focusing solely on Marian, this would’ve been the five-star read that many seem to believe it is.
Epic ideas alone do not make a great novel. The execution needs to be there too, and this is where Shipstead frequently came up short. Still, my attitude toward the novel is positive mainly because I was invested in the characters’ journey and many of the historical elements.
So, if you’re remotely interested in the story, give it a go. But go in knowing that you may become bored and a little frustrated at times, but the payoff is there in the end.
Cassandra Campbell (Marian) and Alex McKenna (Hadley) both do an excellent job with the narration, which helped keep the 25+ hour runtime engaging. Any of my disdain with how Shipstead introduced, and wrote-off, characters has nothing to do with them. For not enjoying Hadley’s plot, I did appreciate McKenna’s devil may care delivery.
Rating (story): 3.5/5 stars
Rating (narration): 4/5
Formats: Audiobook (SIL’s library)
Dates read: July 18 – August 3, 2021
Multi-tasking: Good to go. If you really want to focus on the story, I’d suggest reading instead of listening.
