Great Circle – Maggie Shipstead (Random House, $37.00) Review by Louise Ward, Wardini Books
Where to begin with this epic journey of a novel? A 1920s shipwreck, twin babies saved by their father, who also happens to be the captain who really should not have abandoned ship - even to savehis children. They survive, Captain Graves goes to prison, and Marian and Jamie are taken in by their uncle.
Modern day. Hollywood starlet Hadley is cast as Marian Graves, the intrepid aviator whose plane was lost in an attempt to circumnavigate the great circle of the globe. The plane, Marian and her navigator Eddie were never found, echoing the crash that killed Hadley's own parents, leaving her in the care of her uncle. Safe to say, the part resonates with her, as they say.
The novel is mostly third person from Marian's perspective, and her life, from childhood, is spellbinding. Almost knocked from her horse when an airplane spooks it, she becomes obsessed with flying and haunts the airfields of Missoula, begging for flying lessons that no one will give to a little girl, no matter how tough she is, with her short hair and pants, smuggling hooch for bootleggers. Her uncle Wallace is benevolent but benign, a gambler and a drinker, and Marian and Jamie do what they like, she embracing her freedom, he feeding stray dogs and developing his art.
The scope of the novel is huge. Marian will become a man's obsession, enabling her to fly, but grounding her in every other way. She will fly Spitfires in England, love and be loved, escape and disappear. Hadley, a world away in time and space, hurtles through her childhood fame, wreaking havoc and causing scandal. Both women need to be found, and by the end of the novel, somehow or other they will be.
Great Circle is an all-absorbing novel of an irrepressible free spirit, an inspiring adventurer who endures pain and loneliness in fierce pursuit of an authentic life. This is a wonderful book.
