I never did care much about Hadley.īut there are a few wonderful supporting characters I cared deeply about. All without much emotion or thought to potential consequences. Big egos, alcohol and drugs, and plenty of casual sex used to secure film roles, satisfy lust, even cure boredom. Hadley’s story is more cliched – centered around hedonistic Hollywood. After quitting the film franchise that made her famous, she secures the lead role in a small, independent production about Marian’s life. Marian also illustrates just how difficult it was to be an independent, ambitious, unmarried woman in mid-20th century America.

Raised with a great deal of freedom in the Midwest, alongside her twin brother, Marian explores her surroundings, takes risks, discovers sex, becomes the object of a bootlegger’s obsession, serves during World War II, and finds love - all the while remaining fiercely protective of and connected to her shy brother, Jamie, a sensitive artist. Marian’s is a story of single-minded determination, with a passion of flying as her central life’s drive. So much so that I sometimes got so immersed in her story that I’d forget Hadley even existed (feeling annoyed then at Hadley’s “interruptions”). But this is a book that definitely improves the farther you go because as I progressed, I found Marian’s story more and more compelling.

There are lots of characters introduced and I wasn’t quite sure where the book was headed. While initially I LIKED this book, I also found I wasn’t rushing to get back to it. In general, I find alternating story lines in different time periods an overused writer’s construct, though Maggie Shipstead does it with more finesse than many.

21st century Hadley Baxter - an actress desperate to find a role where she can prove she has talent, rather than just fame.

Think Amelia Earhart without fame or financial support.

1930s Marian Graves (the stronger storyline in my opinion) - defies nearly all of society’s conventions in order to fly planes.Like SO MANY books published these days, this one alternates between the stories of these two women in two different time periods. Author Maggie Shipstead’s considerable research is evident in the detail she includes and, by the end, you will feel like you too have flown primitive aircraft into risky, desolate locales. It tells the stories of a pioneering woman pilot and an actress determined to due her justice in a contemporary biopic. A rich, complex novel with many three-dimensional characters.

Book the great circle