{"id":139441,"date":"2021-12-08T10:01:34","date_gmt":"2021-12-08T00:01:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theblurb.com.au\/wp\/?p=139441"},"modified":"2025-04-25T14:50:35","modified_gmt":"2025-04-25T04:50:35","slug":"great-circle-mary-shipstead-book-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theblurb.com.au\/wp\/great-circle-mary-shipstead-book-review\/","title":{"rendered":"Great Circle (Mary Shipstead) &#8211; book review"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-139445 alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/theblurb.com.au\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Great-Circle.jpg?resize=293%2C450&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" width=\"293\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/theblurb.com.au\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Great-Circle.jpg?w=293&amp;ssl=1 293w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/theblurb.com.au\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Great-Circle.jpg?resize=195%2C300&amp;ssl=1 195w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 293px) 100vw, 293px\" \/>Maggie Shipstead\u2019s third novel Great Circle was shortlisted for the 2021 Booker Prize. And for good reason. This is a shaggy, great American novel spanning the last century but focussing on the golden age of aviation, stunningly written, full of rich characters and complex themes, fascinating situations, and plenty of resonance.<\/p>\n<p>Great Circle is built around the stories of two very different women. Marian Graves is born from tragedy early in the Twentieth Century, grows up in a hardscrabble backwater and has a laser-like focus on her dream of being a pilot. After an eventful life, this builds up to an attempt to fly around the world via the North and South Poles, a journey that will result in her disappearance in its final leg between Antarctica and New Zealand. Marian\u2019s life is juxtaposed with and explored by Hadley Baxter, a Hollywood starlet who blows up her career and then finds it again by playing Marian in a film based on a biography that itself is partly based on the logbook of Marian\u2019s famous final flight.<\/p>\n<p>But Great Circle is so much more than this brief summary. Marian\u2019s story runs across the Great Depression and the Second World War and is interspersed particularly with that of her twin brother Jamie. But Shipstead also interweaves also stories of the landscape and of the great figures in the history of flight including, Elinore Smith, Jean Batten Charles Kingsford Smith, and of course, Charles Lindberg and Amelia Earheart.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile Hadley\u2019s story, while more contained, considers more modern issues of social media, power, stardom, fandom and the role of art in reflecting real lives. But there is plenty of linkages between them aside from the fact that the two main characters are, as Hadley puts it: \u201cproducts of vanishment and orphanhood and negligence and airplanes and uncles\u201d. While Marian\u2019s story takes the front seat for the bulk of the novel, Hadley\u2019s tale is interesting on its own but also as an important counterpoint, and a modern reflection and interpretation on what actually happened in Marian\u2019s life<\/p>\n<p>While possibly Great Circle might not contain the literary fireworks that would take it over the top for the Booker Prize it is a worthy nominee and, more than that, an immersive, affecting, resonant and relevant novel full of wonder, joy and heartbreak.<\/p>\n<h4>Robert Goodman<br \/>\nFor more of Robert&#8217;s reviews, visit his blog <a href=\"https:\/\/pilebythebed.com\/\">Pile By the Bed<\/a><\/h4>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Maggie Shipstead\u2019s third novel Great Circle was shortlisted for the 2021 Booker Prize. And for good reason. This is a shaggy, great American novel spanning the last century but focussing on the golden age of aviation, stunningly written, full of rich characters and complex themes, fascinating situations, and plenty of resonance. Great Circle is built&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[802],"tags":[117,7048,15,3500,7049,362],"class_list":["post-139441","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books","tag-book-review","tag-booker-prize","tag-books","tag-fiction-review","tag-mary-shipstead","tag-novel"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Great Circle (Mary Shipstead) - book review -<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Mary Shipstead&#039;s Great Circle is an immersive, affecting, resonant and relevant novel full of wonder, joy and heartbreak\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/theblurb.com.au\/wp\/great-circle-mary-shipstead-book-review\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Great Circle (Mary Shipstead) - book review -\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Mary Shipstead&#039;s Great Circle is an immersive, affecting, resonant and relevant novel full of wonder, joy and heartbreak\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/theblurb.com.au\/wp\/great-circle-mary-shipstead-book-review\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-12-08T00:01:34+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-04-25T04:50:35+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/theblurb.com.au\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Great-Circle.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Robert Goodman\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Robert Goodman\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theblurb.com.au\\\/wp\\\/great-circle-mary-shipstead-book-review\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theblurb.com.au\\\/wp\\\/great-circle-mary-shipstead-book-review\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Robert Goodman\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theblurb.com.au\\\/wp\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/a651403de96a044ae21184c826c180d1\"},\"headline\":\"Great Circle (Mary Shipstead) &#8211; 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Not having read all of the shortlisted novels it is hard to determine whether it was the best of the five. But there is no doubt that The Promise is a towering yet often intimate novel combining family drama\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Books&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Books","link":"https:\/\/theblurb.com.au\/wp\/category\/books\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/theblurb.com.au\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Promise.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5624,"url":"https:\/\/theblurb.com.au\/wp\/golden-man-booker-prize-shortlist-books-news\/","url_meta":{"origin":139441,"position":2},"title":"Golden Man Booker Prize shortlist &#8211; books news","author":"Monqiue Mulligan","date":"June 6, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"The Golden Man Booker has revealed the shortlist of five books in contention for the Golden Man Booker Prize. 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Beyond the Door of No Return (translated by Sam Taylor) opens in France in the early 19th Century but the bulk of the novel\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Books&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Books","link":"https:\/\/theblurb.com.au\/wp\/category\/books\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/theblurb.com.au\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/Beyond-Door-No-Return.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":157849,"url":"https:\/\/theblurb.com.au\/wp\/crooked-seeds-karen-jennings-book-review\/","url_meta":{"origin":139441,"position":4},"title":"Crooked Seeds (Karen Jennings) &#8211; book review","author":"Robert Goodman","date":"June 26, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Crooked Seeds by Booker-prize longlisted author Karen Jennings is a dark indictment of white South Africa and the legacy of apartheid. Centred around an irredeemably self-centred character, Jennings takes readers into a possible future South Africa while also interrogating the sins of the past. The opening of Crooked Seeds clearly\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Books&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Books","link":"https:\/\/theblurb.com.au\/wp\/category\/books\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/theblurb.com.au\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Crooked-Seeds.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":153204,"url":"https:\/\/theblurb.com.au\/wp\/prophet-song-paul-lynch-book-review\/","url_meta":{"origin":139441,"position":5},"title":"Prophet Song (Paul Lynch) &#8211; book review","author":"Robert Goodman","date":"January 17, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Paul Lynch\u2019s 2023 Booker Prize winner Prophet Song is a dark descent into a very possible future. Set in Ireland, Lynch chronicles a worsening situation of a country that descends quickly into fascism and then deteriorates into civil war. At the centre of the action is a family tenuously but\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Books&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Books","link":"https:\/\/theblurb.com.au\/wp\/category\/books\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/theblurb.com.au\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/Prophet-Song.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theblurb.com.au\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139441","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theblurb.com.au\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theblurb.com.au\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theblurb.com.au\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theblurb.com.au\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=139441"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/theblurb.com.au\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139441\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theblurb.com.au\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=139441"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theblurb.com.au\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=139441"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theblurb.com.au\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=139441"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}