Because I really enjoyed previous selections of the “Read With Jenna” book club, including White Ivy and The Four Winds,I was inclined to read Maggie Shipstead’s Great Circle, the group’s selection for May 2021. It has received many rave reviews and has one of those plotlines that encompasses two strong female characters in two very different time periods. I was SO ready for a good story after way too many psychological thrillers and what my friend Martha calls “One night stands”– mysteries you begin and complete in a day. Enjoyable, but generally not memorable.
The two women in this book are Marian Graves and Hadley Baxer. In 1914, Marian was rescued from a sinking ocean liner, along with her twin brother Jamie. They lived with their classically dissolute artist uncle in Montana, where they are more or less left to raise themselves. Marian is a classic “plucky heroine” whose lifelong love affair with flying leads her to drop out of school at fourteen and become involved with a wealthy bootlegger who provides her with a plane and flying lessons. Marian’s life is definitely filled with adventure as she pursues her destiny, disappearing as she tries to circumnavigate the globe by flying over both the North and the South Pole.
Hadley Baxter, the second woman, is a famous actress working on resurrecting her career that has been self destructing as a result of her actions. She has outgrown the franchise roles in a series of romantic films and is drawn to the story of Marian Graves’ life and disappearance.
The stories of Marian and Hadley unfold in alternating sections, as each of them struggles against the challenges to their ability to determine their own path in life. The time period and the geography are different, but there are many parallels in their lives.
Did I enjoy it? Yes. Hadley has great stretches of awesome language about the Hollywood environment (particularly when she is stoned on mushrooms), but it is Marian’s comments about marriage and women’s roles that were the most striking for me. For example, her husband Barclay “…was more determined to marry her than she was to avoid marrying him.” And she learns that she “…hadn’t anticipated how much of her behavior after marriage would be motivated by a wish not to argue.” So yes, it is very enjoyable. It definitely didn’t knock my socks off and, TBH, I skimmed a bit during the last few chapters. It needed some editing, and its length (600+ pages) may turn some readers off. But I was eager to learn how it would be resolved for both women (and also eager to get on with my TBR pile). Wavering on star rating. Three seems too low, and four too high…but I can’t do 3.5, so rounded up to 4. Definitely enjoyable, likely memorable. Ask me in a year! Thanks to Knopf Doubleday and NetFalley for a copy in exchange for this honest review.