Great Circle: A Read with Jenna Pick: A Novel (Man Booker Prize Finalist) by Maggie Shipstead (Author)

 

Great Circle is a sweeping, dual-timeline epic that balances historical adventure with a modern-day character study. It’s no surprise it was a Man Booker Prize Finalist and a Read with Jenna pick; it’s ambitious, meticulously researched, and deeply emotional.

The Plot at a Glance

The story weaves together two women born decades apart who are both yearning for a life of their own design:

1. Marian Graves: A female aviator in the early-to-mid 20th century. After surviving a shipwreck as a baby, she becomes obsessed with flying. Her journey takes her from the Prohibition-era Northwest to wartime London, culminating in her 1950 attempt to fly a "great circle" around the globe (north-south over the poles).

2. Hadley Baxter: A scandal-plagued Hollywood actress in 2014. After a career meltdown, she is cast to play Marian Graves in a biopic. As she digs into Marian’s life to prepare for the role, she finds unexpected parallels in their struggles against fame, expectations, and the desire for freedom.

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Why It Stands Out

• Impeccable Research: Shipstead’s descriptions of early flight—the mechanics, the danger, and the sheer visceral thrill—are stunning. You can practically smell the fuel and feel the vibration of the cockpit.

• The "Great Circle" Metaphor: The title refers to the shortest distance between two points on a sphere, but it also reflects the cyclical nature of history, grief, and self-discovery.

• Complex Femininity: Both Marian and Hadley are "difficult" women. They are ambitious, sometimes selfish, and fiercely independent, making them feel refreshingly human.

Reader’s Notes

• Length: This is a "doorstopper" (roughly 600 pages). It requires patience, as the pacing is deliberate, but the payoff of the interconnected endings is worth it.

• Atmosphere: It captures the grit of the early 20th century perfectly—it isn't a sanitized version of history.