Shipstead's Great Circle Takes Readers on a Wondrous Flight

In December 1914, the Josephina Eterna, a ship carrying five hundred and twenty-three passengers and a secret cargo in the hold, burned in the north Atlantic. The captain, Addison Graves, committed an unpardonable sin. He escaped the inevitable fiery death, leaping to a lifeboat with a swaddled infant under each arm. His newborn twins, Marian and Jamie, survived, and a wondrous novel was born.

When asked last night by a friend what “Great Circle” was about I was momentarily stumped. This remarkable novel spans over a hundred years. It explores the history of women in aviation, revealing how they were exploited for their “manly” desires, their wanderlust, their willingness to push boundaries. It touches on Roosevelt’s WPA and the wartime options for conscientious objectors. It examines sexual attractions in all their iterations without judgment or shame, and it even manages to send up the film industry, social media, and the hypocrisy of cancel culture.

I could outline the intricate plot for you but why would I do that and ruin the delight that awaits you as that plot unfolds. Surely, even if you don’t share my life-long fascination with flight, it would be hard to resist a big, fat, six-hundred-page novel that ferries readers from Auckland, New Zealand, in a great circle around the world to Antarctica, in the cockpit with Marian Graves, one of the fiercest, most independent women you’ll meet in fiction this year.

Art, the making of it and the appreciation of it, is another major theme and Maggie Shipstead’s style of writing exudes this artistic bent. She paints pictures with her words, whether she’s writing of the twins’ childhood in Montana, of Marian’s flights into the Canadian and Alaskan wilderness, or Jamie’s stint on the battlefields of Attu in the Aleutian Islands.

Interestingly, it’s the past that comes most alive in this story. My only complaint about this novel is its chapters that deal with current times and the making of the film about aviatrix Marian Graves based upon a fictional, romanticized version of her life. The jaded actress Hadley Baxter who landed the role of Marian is such an unformed and, in my opinion, uninteresting character that her chapters seem to fall flat. I couldn’t wait to leave Hollywood and return to the ‘40’s with Marian, Jamie, their lovers and friends.

Nevertheless, Shipstead’s glorious, descriptive language saves the day and is likely what makes her such a sought after travel journalist – take a look at some of her essays - https://www.maggieshipstead.com/ , and her stints at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and the Stegner fellowship at Stanford must have all led her to this third novel after “Seating Arrangements,” and “Astonish Me,” and the recent honor from the Booker prize committee. I must brag and tell you that I had already added “Great Circle” to this year's top ten list before it was nominated for the Booker long list.

Love is All Around TJ Klune's House in the Cerulean Sea

The cover art was the initial reason I added TJ Klune’s book “The House in the Cerulean Sea” to my endless “to read” list. Then a person dear to me mentioned that he had read this novel and it brought him to tears. I am sorry it took me so long to get to it because, oh my, I too welled up at the predictable but delightful ending. And who doesn’t fall in love with an author who uses the word cerulean?

Our hero, Linus Baker, is particularly good at his soul deadening job as a caseworker with the Department in Charge of Magical Youth (think J. K. Rowling) He lives in a future that lacks color, all beige and brown and gray. His office is a cubicle denizen’s nightmare, a warehouse of people mesmerized by their computer screens, not allowed by their superiors to interact with each other, to have personal items on their desks, or to speak without being spoken to.

Imagine Linus’ fear when he is called, without explanation, to the ominous fifth floor Office of Extreme Upper Management where, rather than being fired, he is assigned to spend a month investigating an orphanage where the children are so magical that they are deemed a menace to society. Because Linus has proved himself to be a bland, strictly by the book caseworker, the powers-that-be have no worries that Linus will quickly recommend the closure of Marsyas and the suspension of the manager, Arthur Parnassus.

Packing up his cat Calliope and his lone suitcase, boarding the train with trepidation, Linus leaves his dreary existence behind. His life will never be the same. Marveling at the smell of the sea, the colors of the flowers, the warmth of the sun, something inside Linus unfurls. His soul ignites. He is unabashed when greeted by Ms. Chapelwhite, the sprite who is the caretaker of the island, and nonplussed when accosted by the first of the six remarkable children he’ll be evaluating, a feisty little bearded girl named Talia who just happens to be a gnome. There’s also Lucy, short for Lucifer, and Sal, a little boy who’s been so abused that he turns himself into a cowering puppy when spoken to harshly.

Here you must suspend disbelief and go with Klune’s marvelous imagination and quirky sense of humor. Fantasy has never been my bailiwick, but this novel won my heart. As Linus gets caught up in the children’s daily routines, comes to recognize Arthur’s love for his charges and skills as their teacher, and overcomes his own innate trepidation of anything new, he too loses his heart.

This David and Goliath story will have you laughing out loud, then dabbing at your eyes with a tissue, as you cheer for this bizarre band of misfits as they learn to navigate the shoals of societal disapprobation, facing the fear and rage that their existence elicits in the townspeople, a theme so apropos for our current times. And you’ll feel joy as you witness the burgeoning relationship between Linus and Arthur, hoping beyond hope that they choose to follow their bliss. A wonderful, uplifting read for those suffering from pandemic emergence syndrome and the rest of you as well!